Sell the silence I urged Laurent Pelissier, the man who sees Le Grau du Roi as the gateway to the Camargue.

Immortalised in British minds by its famous white horses the Camargue is a world heritage site and a place of beautiful silence.

And Laurent Pelissier is the director of Le Grau du Roi Port Camargue Tourist Office.

As Egypt is the "gift of the Nile" so the Camargue is the gift of the France's greatest river, the Rhone.

The near 1,000 sq km delta on the Mediterranean coast is also the jewel in the crown of the Languedoc and Rousillon region.

Away from the millionaire's playgrounds of Monaco and St Tropez the area is offering itself to British tourists as undiscovered, affordable South of France.

On the coast the region's main town is Montpellier and a well preserved Roman aqueduct, easily seen from incoming planes, tells travellers the town is older than Basildon.

And Southend gets some stiff competition from a range of beaches with a foreshore barely inches, not hundreds of yards long.

Guided tours, buses, hired cars and even bicycles get you to the Camargue and once there - stop - and wallow in the quiet.

Away from computers and cars, motors and machines, phones and even fellow humans the only noise comes from the odd passing dragonfly.

Nearby flamingos, grazing in the salty lagoons, are seemingly silent and the famous horses loiter in the sun.

"To stop erosion we also grow crops like vines and asparagus," said our guide, a former member of a French pop group.

But the Camargue has a secret - many kilometres of unmetalled road perfect for intrepid explorers on mountain bikes.

Call the package "Cycle in silence" and offer mountain biking holidays to Brits I told Laurent Pelissier at lunch in Le Grau de Roi.

And while he and his boss argued over the idea I looked around the town, the second largest French fishing port in the Mediterranean.

Ernest Hemingway was once a guest at the Hotel Bellevue et d' Angleterre, the only building in the main street not a bar or cafe - but the same street is also a waterway.

When the fishing fleet is not using it is blocked by a swing bridge, a critical part of Abrivado.

An old Provencal word meaning "arrival" it describes riders on white horses running bulls through the streets.

"It is our identity," said Laurent Pelissier as I watched young men chase the riders and try to stop the bulls.

All the bars and cafes alongside the waterway are also packed when the 300 year old traditional sport of water jousting is staged.

The town band plays when young stand on platforms at the end of rowing boats and try to push their opponent into the water.

Nearby Port Camargue is one of the recently developed yachting ports in the South of France.

But probably the most surprising local attraction is Aigues Mortes.

Attractively translated as 'dead water' it is a complete, old French town within the partially restored walls of a 13th century castle.

French roads will always be a challenge to inexperienced Brits but they too have charming surprises such as the roundabout in Port Camargue which has a vineyard, olive trees and lavender all flourishing amidst the traffic.

Away from the better known tourist areas Languedoc and Rousillon is very French, very friendly and a "get stuck in" place to enjoy a French experience.