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La Crau, Subtle Mixture of Desert Plains and Lush Green Meadows
The Crau, the desert plain 
At the heart of Provence, La Crau, an alluvial plain covering 57,000 hectares, offers a prodigious variety of landscapes and striking contrasts.
In the south, the "dry Crau" and the unique landscape of the "Coussoul" plains. This is the "large Crau", a desert of rocks that were deposited by the Durance river in its former delta. Its wild and fragile environment reveals its secrets only to those that know how to observe and respect it. It has been blessed with a unique fauna and flora: pin-tailed sandgrouse, little bustards, lesser kestrels, herons, egrets, asphodels, false bromegrass, and many other remarkable species.
In the centre, the "wet" Crau and its typical hedged fields.The "little Crau" is a lush and fertile meadow irrigated by the Craponne canal. Built in the sixteenth century, the canal turned the desert Crau into an oasis of greenery.
La Crau, Green Paradise
La Crau: a land of sheep. For thousands of years, shepherds and their flocks have roamed the Crau plain during winter and spring. A large number of sheepfolds can be seen, some of them historical relics dating back to Gallo-Roman times. They are testimonies of the antiquity and importance of sheep-breeding in our region for thousands of years.
La Crau, Nature Reserve
In 2001, seven thousand acres of La Crau threatened by intensive industrial or agricultural development were classified as a nature reserve. The "Draille des Coussouls" nature discovery trail gives you the opportunity to become better acquainted with La Crau.
