The Camargue in 4 days

Sixty hectares of marshland trails 4 km from Saintes-Maries, where flamingos let you come within a few metres, alongside herons, storks and avocets.

Ride the small, grey, hardy Camargue horse through salt marsh and lagoons where the water reaches its belly, watched by grazing bulls.

A white village around a fortified 12th-century church, whose crypt holds the statue of Saint Sarah, carried to the sea by pilgrims every May.

A car-free 19th-century dyke running about 20 km between Saintes-Maries and Salin-de-Giraud, cycled past lagoons and dunes to the lighthouse halfway.

At the end of a rough track from Salin-de-Giraud, kilometres of undeveloped sand with a shallow lagoon for kitesurfers and flamingos fishing nearby.

The inland sea at the heart of the national reserve; at La Capelière, a 1.5 km trail through reed beds leads to birdwatching hides.

Salt pans that turn pink in summer thanks to a micro-alga, toured by a little train that stops on top of a mountain of salt.

Saint Louis founded this port to sail for the Crusades; walk the full 1,640-metre circuit of walls above a grid of lanes and the marshes.