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The plain of Crau: mythological legends and a canal

Crau landscape | Anevrisme / CC-BY-SA
Legend Plain Plain of Crau

Legends

Hercules, Strabo...

Accumulation of pebbles in the plain of Crau was explained by a legend: Hercules, on his way to Spain, came across Ligurian people in middle of the plain.

The hero had no weapon, so he could not fight with them…

He started to pray Zeus, who immediately sent a big pebbles rain! All the area was covered with those stones…

Aristotle, for his part, said that those pebbles were here because of a big earthquake!

Posidonius said at this place used to be a big lake, who froze one day: and because of the earth’s movements, the ice finally broke and made pebbles!

And according to Strabo, those pebbles were pieces of big rocks which crumbled with the passage of time… Hey, Strabo was right!

The Giants

Another legend (from Provence) says Giants (Cain’s sons) lived here.

One day, they decided to dethrone God! So, they started to pile up mountains and hills… to reach God! But this one saw their little game.

In order to punish them, he created the Hurricane, the Thunder and the Mistral (a cold Provencal wind), which destroyed everything on earth…

They only left a vast plain full of pebbles. Our Giants, of course, died!

You know what? The legend says they are still here, buried somewhere in the plain!

Pebbles

Well, enough of these legends! Where do those pebbles come from?

From river Durance, an affluent of river Rhône. Because, before being an affluent, Durance used to run into the sea, passing by channel of Lamanon, 4 millions years ago.

The river accumulated pebbles coming from the mountains (Strabo was right): and when the river changed his bed, they were exposed… and created the plain of Crau!

This vast area is known as coussoul, cursorium in Latin (″course″).

Farmers put their sheeps here, from March to May: they raise ovine here since the Gallo-Roman era!

The canal

They raised the canal of Craponne in 1554, to bring water of river Durance to its former delta.

A canal named after Adam de Craponne, an Italian engineer settled in Salon-de-Provence: he made here the first diversion canal towards the Crau!

Craponne’s work was a huge creation! Started in 1550, it was 25 kilometres long.

Mister de Craponne spent a fortune for this canal.

He paid everything: he even had to ask money to another famous chap from Salon… Nostradamus!

A plain between desert and farming

Since those days, and thanks to several irrigation canals, the plain was transformed into a real arable area!

We have meadows, fruit trees, vegetables… They even produce fodder, the famous ″Crau’s hay″.

But after this greenery set, we find a real pretty arid desert: a desert, trust me! The precipitations only reach 500 mm per year!

We can see this desert from the road N568, linking Saint-Martin-du-Crau to Fos-sur-Mer.

About the the author

Vinaigrette
I'm fond of strolls and History, with juicy and spicy details!