A village in the commune of Arles, almost 40 km from the centre, in the south-east of the delta on the right bank of the Grand Rhône. A ferry crosses the river to Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône.
History
The village was born in 1856 with the Henry Merle company, which supplied salt to the Salindres chemical works. In 1895 Ernest Solvay founded a second site here to make sodium carbonate. The town grew as two grid-plan workers’ districts, Péchiney and Solvay; the long brick buildings of the Solvay district earned it the nickname ’miners’ terraces of the Camargue’. The salt marshes produce about one million tonnes of salt a year.
To see
- Solvay and Péchiney workers’ districts
- Salt works viewpoint
- Domaine de la Palissade
- Piémanson beach
- Ferry to Port-Saint-Louis
Practical
Access by the D36 from Arles (D36b variant along the Vaccarès).
Places
- Domaine de la PalissadeNature sites
- Salins de Giraud (point de vue)Nature sites
- Plage de PiémansonBeaches