Important Note: We look forward to birding with you! To see the most recent update of our pre-tour and on-tour protocols and our requirements for travel, please visit our tour protocols page.
The south of France is acclaimed for its sunny Mediterranean beaches, ancient Roman ruins, fine Provencal cuisine, and internationally famous movie festival. But birders know of other reasons to visit this lovely area--the Camargue, a 210,000-acre national park situated in the very heart of the vast Rhone delta, and the Pyrenees, brooding mountains that form a towering wall between France and Spain.
Teeming with shorebirds, herons, and gulls, the Camargue is not only a major breeding area for Greater Flamingo but also a vital rest and refueling stop for millions of migrating birds. From our convenient base at a small, family-run hotel on the outskirts of Arles, we'll have plenty of time to explore this wonderful wetland; marshes and lagoons should yield Little and Great Crested grebes, Gray and Purple herons, Slender-billed and Mediterranean gulls, and a variety of shorebirds, and the cross section of landbirds should be equally diverse.
For the second part of the tour, we'll move west to the High Pyrenees. Here, with the picturesque village of Gedre as our base, we'll combine first-rate birding with a series of walks amid stunning mountain scenery, watching for the endangered Bearded Vulture (Lammergeier), the stunning but elusive Wallcreeper, Short-toed Snake-Eagle, European Honey-Buzzard, Yellow-billed Chough, Alpine Accentor, Rock Bunting, and Citril Finch, among others. Come and see what awaits us this year!
Select the KEY INFO tab or click here for our itinerary plus space requests, status, fees, limits, and guides for any departure.
Client comment
"I loved the tour. Best features were the small group size, a terrific leader (Jay VanderGaast) with amazing ears, eyes and knowledge--a plus was him being able to speak French, which helped those of us who did not or barely spoke the language. I enjoyed staying in two small lovely hotels for 4 nights each. The food was delicious and varied and our field lunches/picnic dinner were fun and maximized our time in the field. Office service was excellent. Best company I've used." L.M., FRANCE: CAMARGUE & PYRENEES 2019