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Le Grau-du-Roi |
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Le Grau-du-Roi
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| Country | France |
| Region | Languedoc-Roussillon |
| Department | Gard |
| Arrondissement | Nîmes |
| Canton | Aigues-Mortes |
| Intercommunality | Terre de Camargue |
| Mayor | Etienne Mourrut (2001–2008) |
| Statistics | |
| Elevation | 0–5 m (0–16 ft) (avg. 1 m/3.3 ft) |
| Land area1 | 54.73 km2 (21.13 sq mi) |
| Population2 | 8,110 (2005) |
| - Density | 148 /km2 (380 /sq mi) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 30133/ 30240 |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
| 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. | |
Le Grau-du-Roi is a commune in the Gard department in southern France. It is the sole commume in Gard to have a frontage on the Mediterranean. To the west is Herault and La Grande-Motte, and to the east is the department of Bouches-du-Rhone. Looking from the sea, the commune may be divided into the Plage de Dive droite, the Village, the Plage de Rive Gauche, Port Camargue and L'Espiguette. Immediately landwards are the large shallow étangs, which separate it from Aigues Mortes, the mediaeval walled city that used to be a port. The étangs are home to numerous flamingoes.
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Le Grau-du-Roi comes from the occitan word grau (latin gradus), which refers to the opening of an étang (shallow saline lake), or the watercourse from an etang into the sea. Roi is the French word for King. Aigues-Mortes means literally 'dead water'.
Le Grau-du-Roi to the south of Aigues-Mortes, in the department of Gard. It is in the canton d'Aigues-Mortes which was originally in Herault, but it was exchanged for the canton de Ganges. It separated from Aigues-Mortes, by a series of saline lakes or étangs, and a bend in the river Vidourle. The etangs are named les étang du Ponant, étang du Médard, étang du Repausset Levant), and lake de Salonique. To the west of the town, the coastal strip is breached where the Vidourle empties into the Mediterranean, and to the east is that of the Petit Rhone. The course of these two rivers had been subject to change and reversal.The Rhone had flowed into the etangs further to the west and at one point, the Vidourle flowed into it rather than the sea,[1] The route in the 12th Century was through the Grau Louis and the Old Channel. In 1570, a new breach occurred at point called Gagne-Petit and it is around this grau that the settlement was formed. The area of the town, between the étangs and the sea, was settled by Italian immigrants at the end of the 19th century. From then till the 1920s the economy was based entirely on fishing, but then tourism became important, culminating in the construction of Port-Camargue. The resort is proud of its 18 km of fine sand. The sand dunes on the Pointe de Éspiguette make an important wild life habitat, and the étangs are noted for their birdlife which includes flamingoes.
The city of Aigues-Mortes gained importance during the crusades when it was a royal port.[2] King Louis IX of France had no other port available to him on the Mediterranean. The ships docked alongside the ramparts of the city and passed through a circuitous channel, (the Old Channel) through the Étang de Repausset to the sea at Grau Louis (La Grande Motte).[3] In 1570, a storm surge from the Rhone entered the etang and breached the costal strip forming a new grau. A six kilometre channel was created from the city directly to the sea. In 1640 this was named the Grau du Roi, and although the name changes several times, it revert to this name. In 1772 two moles were constructed out of stone. There was continual work to maintain this channel. It was formalised into a canal in 1845.[4]
There was an old lighthouse in the village which got a new copper lantern in 1828, and a second was constructed at l´Espiguette in 1867. The village, based round fishermans cottages gained some administrative buildings and was recognised as a section of Aigues-Mortes in 1867 and it became a separate communes in 1879. The village of fisherman and workers on the land turned to tourism at the end of the century. It was the extension of the Nîmes Aigues-Mortes railway line in 1909 [5] that boosted this industry, bathers arrived on mass, and on the 26 April 1924 the President of the Republic decreed that Le Grau-du-Roi was a "station climatique et balnéaire ". The rail line enabled local producers to market nationally their white grapes and fish.
The second world war affected the village profoundly. Axis troops were stationed in the village, and the local council dissolved. By 1942, many of the inhabitants had fled, the coast was the front line and bristled with tank traps and minefields. The village was controlled by blockhouses, the canal was blocked. Wood from houses was used in the defences. Grau du Roi was liberated in August 1944, and the coast started to rebuild itself focussing on tourism. The effort was co-ordinated by the plan Racine. in charge, the architect, Jean Balladur designed structures capables of support a mass influx of toutists while supporting the local way of life and the environment. Part of the plan was the new marina at Port Camargue.[2] This was launched in 1968 and finished in 1985
| Year | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2008 |
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| Population | 2363 | 3354 | 3963 | 4152 | 5253 | 5875 | 8110 |
The first part of Ernest Hemingway's Garden of Eden is set in Le Grau-du-Roi. He writes of Le Grau-du-Roi: