April 19, 2022
On my last full day on the Giens peninsula I was looking forward to taking a passenger ferry to visit the Île de Pourquerolles where I would rent a bicycle and visit the island’s fort, windmill, and four southern beaches, two of which have earned the designation of ”Europe’s most beautiful beach.” I travelled by bus and arrived at the ferry terminal just before the eight a.m. sailing but this is what greeted me!
The line was horrendously long! (The line in the photo on the left heading towards the end of the terminal building hides several more rows of line!) And it was not moving. How many people could fit on the boat? Was this a one sailing wait? A two sailing wait? More? There was no one around to ask and I lasted less than ten minutes before deciding to abandon ship (even though I never got on the ship). Visions of a carefree day cycling the beautiful island had been replaced by visions of a crowded boat, line ups and waits at the cycle rental shops, and then crowded roads and beaches. No thanks. There was a perfectly good beach very near to my apartment (perhaps not one of “the most beautiful beaches of Europe”, but certainly a beautiful beach!), and suddenly the thought of an unplanned day was very appealing indeed.
I left the line and started walking towards the town of Giens as the next bus was not scheduled to arrive for another hour. I was happy to be moving rather than standing in that line, and as I walked cars continued to stream past me, headed towards the large and very full parking lots at the terminal. If I had known that Spring Break would be so incredibly busy I would definitely have altered my dates for this destination. I think that the pent-up demand for travel because of the last two years of Covid was definitely contributing to the numbers of people I was seeing. Never mind all that, I saw a lizard on my walk! And, more happy news, there just happens to be a guided walk of the lagoons tomorrow morning and I definitely saw flamingos today as the bus travelled south to the ferry. Here is a very lame photo from near my apartment looking over the canal and towards one of the lagoons where the teeny tiny white specks are flamingos with their heads down, feeding.
Tomorrow, thankfully, there will be binoculars to use and I will be lucky enough to have the opportunity to walk out on those dike trails surrounded by water and sky. I just hope that I will be able to understand at least half of what the naturalist guide says!
Now, I’m off to buy a ”consolation croissant” and then I have no plans after that other than to perhaps leave you with one last photo later today from my time on the Giens peninsula. Thank you for reading.
April 20, 2022
Here is a last photo from yesterday, as promised – an afternoon shot of a sailboat on the Mediterranean Sea, taken from the beach at La Capte. (By the way, I enjoyed my ”consolation croissant” and the rest of my unplanned day.) 🙂
I am currently at the Toulon/Hyères airport, waiting for my afternoon flight to Paris where I will spend two nights, with one full day in between to explore Montmartre. Then, I’m off to Brittany for several weeks of coastal walking. I have time now to share a few photos from my lovely walk this morning on a guided bird watching tour of the salt marshes of the Giens Peninsula.
Tour of Le Salin des Pesquiers
It was a beautiful morning!
Our guide was an ornithologist with the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux and I was very happy that I could understood almost all of what he shared with us about these salt marshes and the birds who visit here. Some birds are resident year-round and others make a stop here on their migration route north or south. They might stop over for several days, weeks, months, or maybe even just for an hour or two.
The water in the basins and larger lagoons between the two tombolos of the peninsula are at an elevation of 50 metres below sea level. Sea water from the canal at La Capte continuously enters the system and there are 15 kilometres of channels that circulate water throughout the basins. The circulation and constant refreshing of the water help keep it oxygenated which is vital to maintain the abundance and health of the aquatic plants, crustaceans, mollusks, insect larvae and plankton that the various species of birds feed on.
Our guide had good binoculars for everyone and a powerful spotting scope and it was wonderful to see the birds with such clarity. The flamingos were beautiful and it was definitely very special to see them in the wild. We also saw elegant avocets (it’s in their name), egrets, a curlew, tadornes de balon (France’s largest duck and very beautiful), and a graceful white stilt as well as gulls and several small songbirds that take advantage of the shrubs, grasses and wildflowers on the verges of the dikes.
Now, I did take photos out towards the flamingos and avocets but without a decent zoom lens they are just little tiny spots on the photo. For what it’s worth, here are some ”avocets elégantes”.
There are several bird blinds on the dikes and the ornithologists who care for this wildlife refuge do a bird count every ten days and keep meticulous track of all the birds that visit here. They are also responsible for adjusting the water levels in the different basins to suit the specific needs of the various birds for their feeding and nesting requirements.
In the photo above, our group is heading west across the peninsula on one of the main dikes. We stopped about half way across and I took these three pictures.
It was a cool, fresh, and blustery morning, and the scenery all around was uplifting. I was so happy to have had the opportunity to walk the dikes and see the birds and learn many new things. It was an excellent way to spend my last morning on the Giens Peninsula and in the beautiful south of France. See you in Paris!
Love the expansive feel of your walk there. Hugs.