Salt Flats in Provence – a Paintbox from the Air


Rote, goldgelbe und weiße Salzbecken mit rissiger Kruste, unten schmale orange Kanäle, Provence

September 2026, Provence. From the ground, salt flats are shallow basins full of water, nothing more. From above they turn into a paintbox: deep blue next to pink, ochre next to white, and between them embankments so straight that someone might have drawn them with a ruler.

Every pan has its own colour. Deep blue, pink, ochre, a red that hardly looks real. And where the salt is ready, a white crust lies on top, cracked like old varnish.

That morning haze hangs over the pans, and in one place a whole bank of mist lies on top of them.

Below, salt. Above, colour.

Dark blue and pink salt pans stretching to a hazy horizon, salt flats in Provence from the air
Nothing but pans, embankments and clouds all the way to the horizon.
Blue, olive-green and sand-coloured salt pans with white embankments and an orange channel, Provence
A narrow orange channel splits the grid in two.
Mottled greenish and dark blue salt pans separated by a pale embankment, seen from directly above
On the left, blotches like an old map; on the right, deep blue.
Pink, grey and dark blue salt pans with white salt islands, salt flats in Provence
Pink, grey and blue, neatly divided like the compartments of a type case.
Pink and peach-coloured salt pans, with grey pans streaked with white salt in front, Provence
In the grey pan the salt draws white streaks.
Orange salt pan with fine white veins of salt and a narrow embankment above, seen from above
Fine white veins in the orange, like cracks in a glaze.
Red, coral and pink salt pans in a grid, fading into haze at the back, salt flats in Provence
Red in every shade, and at the back the haze swallows the colours.
Red salt pans in a strict grid with a dark canal and green shrubs on the left, seen from directly above
Red rectangles, with a dark canal on the left as a dividing line.
Red and orange salt pans disappearing into white mist, salt flats in Provence
The red pans run into the mist and simply stop.
Grey salt pan with white salt swirls, a peach-coloured pan on the left and blue water behind, Provence
White swirls in the grey, and further back the sky is reflected.
Two embankments crossing between a peach-coloured pan and white salt crusts, Provence
Smooth water above, crinkled salt below – and the cross of embankments in between.
Peach-coloured pan with a thick white salt rim beside a grey pan and a channel with small sluices, seen from above
Small sluices in the channel decide where the water goes.

Why the pans are pink

The colours have a simple cause: salt. Seawater flows from pan to pan, sun and wind evaporate it, and with every pan it gets saltier. Only when the water cannot hold any more salt does the salt settle on the bottom – those are the white crusts you see from above.

Very few living things can cope with water this salty. The alga Dunaliella salina stores orange-red beta-carotene, but above all salt-loving microbes known as archaea tint the water pink to red with their pigment. Brine shrimp eat the algae and flamingos eat the brine shrimp – which is why they are pink too.

Pink, here, means: salt soon.

Pale grey pan, white strips of salt, a straight track and an ochre-yellow pan, seen from directly above
Grey, white and ochre in stripes – almost like a plastered wall.
White salt crust next to a rust-brown pan, thin embankments with sluices and tyre tracks, seen from directly above
Below, tyre tracks curve through the salt.
Pan with white salt patches and orange deposits at a junction of embankments, clouds reflected in blue water on the left, Provence
In the water on the left, the clouds drift by.
Three white salt pans with cracked crust, yellow pans below and red ones above, seen from directly above
White crust in three fields, with cracks like paving stones in the middle one.
Pale pink pan with a white salt rim, rows of green shrubs and dark red channels, salt flats in Provence
Between the pink and the red, hedges run like contour lines.
Narrow embankment with a channel and shrubs running diagonally between two salmon-red salt pans, from above
An embankment drawn diagonally across the frame like a brushstroke.
Red pans in front, white and olive-green pans in the middle and lagoons to the horizon, Provence from the air
Red in front, then white and olive, and water all the way to the horizon.
White, mustard-yellow and red salt pans with orange channels and green scrubland, Provence
Red on the right, white on the left, an orange thread in between.
Grid of red, orange, yellow and white salt pans with lagoons in the haze behind, Provence from the air
A different colour in every compartment, and at the back everything blurs into the haze.
Red, golden-yellow and white salt pans with cracked crust and narrow orange channels below, Provence
Golden yellow beside red – and below, an orange strip that almost glows.
White, yellow and red salt pans, blue pans at the top and the red roofs of a village on the right, Provence from the air
At the edge of the pans, a village with red roofs begins.
White salt pans with cracked crust between mustard-yellow and red pans, Provence
Dark embankments frame every field like the lead in a stained-glass window.
Single white salt pan with a thick, finely cracked crust and a brown rim, seen from directly above
A single pan full of salt, marked with fine lines.
Golden-yellow salt pans between white crusts, with a red channel and pink pans behind, Provence
Golden yellow in the foreground, and above, a red channel cuts across the frame.

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