The Camargue salt flats at Salin-de-Giraud

Salin-de-Giraud sits at the southern end of the Camargue where the Grand Rhône reaches the sea, and the landscape there is nothing but horizontal: salt pans in rectangles to the horizon, white salt hills at the works, low dykes, shallow water and enormous sky. In the second half of summer the brine goes pink from the algae in it, which is where the postcard colour comes from — it is real, but it is seasonal and it is not pink all year.

The viewpoint on the road above the pans gives the wide shot. Along the Route de la Digue à la Mer and the tracks through the Étang de Vaccarès you get the rest of the Camargue: white horses grazing in the marsh, black bulls behind fences, and flamingos in the shallow lagoons — genuinely there, in real numbers, not a tourism invention.

The light is the reason to come late. Flat midday sun on flat water is nothing; the last hour turns the whole plain gold and pink and puts long shadows across the dykes. Sunrise does the same from the other side.

This is a real drive — around forty-five minutes each way from Arles — so it is a half day, not a stop. Mosquitoes from May to September are serious at dusk and repellent is not optional. Many tracks cross private ranch land: stay on public roads and marked paths, and never approach the horses or bulls.