Provence and Camargue – France

Global circumstance has made international travel too tricky to contemplate in 2020. So could a Crossbill Guide – guidebooks for the discerning naturalist to some of Europe’s most exciting regions – be a good read in such a year? Thankfully, yes. Within a few pages, I was yearning to return to Provence and the Camargue, a region I’ve only once explored. But I happily spent the rest of the book doing some armchair travel, thanks to the usual holistic mixture of well researched descriptions of the history, wildlife, landscape and geology of the area, accompanied by great photos of typical species and habitats.

I’m a fan of the Crossbill format, and it works well here. The landscape/habitat cross sections help you understand the diversity of the area, from high mountain oak woods, through lavender fields, dry steppe-like Crau, to Mediterranean maquis shrubland and rice paddies. The book uses commonly used English names where these exist and invents them when they don’t which, for me, helps readability (the equally important scientific names are given at the back, together with German and Dutch names). It’s good to see accessibility is important in the routes section, with a mixture of short walks, long hikes, cycle rides and drives, that mean no matter what your mobility, there will be places to visit. The suggested routes all looked like enticing ways to explore the region, and I hope to get the chance to try them out some time. There is practical information for the journeying naturalist too, such as “the lake is distant and a telescope not a luxury”.

Interesting facts are dispersed throughout. The spread of Black-winged Stilt and Glossy Ibis “owes much to rice cultivation” in the Camargue and other Mediterranean wetlands. Anti-plane landing stone piles on the Crau from the Second World War are now breeding sites for Little Owls and Lesser Kestrels. The Beech trees in Provence grow on limestone, neutralising the leaf acidity that in most areas stop other plants growing, increasing the ground flora compared to Beech forests elsewhere. Sometimes the facts aren’t even about nature – like the anecdote about when Provence became accidentally at war due to geographic vagueness, and that is from Provence we get the disdainful term for a rural backwater, provincial.

The information is also up-to-date. Glossy Ibis increased from 16 pairs in 2006 to an incredible 2,000 pairs in 2017, but Lesser Grey Shrike, and other edge of range birds are doing less well, with 2019 thought to be the first year this species failed to breed in France. However, we are cautioned not to spend too much time fretting about ID and counts whilst on holiday – after all, even though you won’t be able identify the 25 species of bat without a detector, “observing the erratic flight of the bats when they hunt is itself a feast for the eye”.

Naturalists from northern Europe used to be astounded by Camargue and Provence, “an exotic flora and fauna that was an unfamiliar as it was enchanting”, but when flying to Spain, Greece and further afield became possible, “Southern France’s status as an exotic destination was usurped” despite its impressive biodiversity. With many people now looking for destinations they can drive to, in social isolation, and plenty to see in Provence and the Camargue throughout the year, this timely book could become one of Crossbill’s most popular titles.

Book reviewed by Teresa Frost