Friday the 13th of October. We would try our luck in the Camargue, along the Mediterranean coast, at the mouth of the Rhone. It is actually the Rhone River's delta. It is known for three subjects of interest to photographers: flamingos, bulls and yippie!!, Horses! Beautiful white horses!

This was the off season for the flamingos. Most of them winter over in North Africa and come to the Rhone delta in spring to mate and raise their young. After the chicks fledge in Aug/Sept most of them go back south. 10-15,000 birds is typical. But about 5,000 stay all winter so finding some to photograph is easy. But getting them doing something interesting is hard. The best time to photograph most birds is when they are courting, nesting, feeding, or fighting. That mostly happens in the spring. But you can see below that we did find some flamingos. 

_8507847 _8507885-Edit This little house/shack is one of many scattered around the Camargue. The French cowboys would bunk in them when they were out overnight.

_8507839-Edit Shortly after leaving the flamingos we came upon this herd of bulls. These bulls are bred for fighting, just like their Spanish cousins, but they are not killed in the ring. In fact, whereas in Spain the matador is the main celebrity, in France it is the bulls themselves. The more aggressive they are the higher the demand for their services. The best ones have careers in the ring lasting ten years or more, and the champions, when they die, are buried standing up, facing the sea, and get their own tombstone.

_8507953 _8508047 And just around the corner from this farm we found a lovely country farmhouse cafe for lunch. Was it ever good!

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The symbol below is the Camargue trademark. We saw it displayed everywhere. It stands for the three cardinal virtues: the cross for faith, the anchor for hope, the heart for love.

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After lunch we still needed to find some horses. The white horses of the Camargue are one of the oldest distinct breeds in existence. They were living there wild before they were ever domesticated by man and they are sometimes described as wild but that is an overstatement. They do live in the marshes year round, many of them are unbroken and unshod, but they actually do belong to somebody. We soon happened upon a couple of mares with their foals. Those are always good for a picture.

_8508499 _8508504 And then we hit a little paydirt with some horses grazing near the road with the cattle egrets hanging out on their backs.

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We will have a more interesting encounter with the Camargue bulls and horses at the end of the trip so stay tuned. But this wrapped up Friday the 13th. Pretty lucky day!