Camargue

The mistral reputation is a spring-and-autumn reputation. In July and August it often steps aside for weak afternoon thermals, so the months that look best on a holiday calendar are the weakest on the water.

majority2 riders

Access is treated as fragile rather than permanent. There is a local kite club whose main job is keeping riders allowed on the site, and the annual management plan was written with kite schools and the free-flight federation at the table.

majority2 riders

The bay's shape means almost every wind direction is rideable somewhere along it - only due East is true offshore/unsafe

mixed1 rider

There is a physical width gauge on the way in, and the number people quote for it does not agree: somewhere between 2.05 and 2.10 metres depending on who you ask. Either way vans have their mirrors taken off, and camping-cars, wide 4x4s, quads and cross bikes do not get in at all.

contested4 riders

Whether you can still drive and park where you like on the sand is disputed. The site's own rules say every vehicle stops at the compulsory natural car park at the entrance and you cross the dune on boardwalks, with motorised traffic on the beach reserved for authorised professionals; rider write-ups still describe several informal parking areas and getting closer to the lagoon by driving toward the lighthouse.

contested3 riders

Which wind direction is actually the dangerous one is not agreed: the older reading is that only a due easterly is truly offshore here, while more recent write-ups single out the south-east as the direction to stay home for, with riders having needed helicopter pickups.

contested2 riders