The Camargue Museum has been open since 1979 in the former sheep-pen of the Mas du Pont de Rousty, a building comparable to the sheep-pens built in Camargue at the beginning of the 19th century. Its architecture is inspired by that of traditional reed-roof cabins. The museum's vocation is to acquaint visitors with the Rhone delta and foster a better understanding of it in order to improve its preservation. Typical materials such as sand and stones are placed in relation to reduced-scale models of the landscape. It is within this environment that human know-how develops during the prehistoric periods: a cast of hands working stones, bones, a hole-puncher, or still, fragments of pottery, suggest this distant past. Antiquity is illustrated through coins, shards, and roman sculptures accompanied by maps of Camargue showing the evolution of the humid zones and the displacement of the Rhone's arm. A good part of the exhibit is dedicated to life in the nineteenth century. Two reduced-scale models, one of the buildings and the other of the property on which they lie, allows one to understand how a traditional mas home was organized with the partial reconstitution of the sheep-pen. Tools are placed in situation in order to valorize the agricultural and associated activities. The 20th century is represented through hydraulic installations, viticulture and rice-plantations, the production of sea salt, and the Camargue bull race.

New exhibition ! : Objectifs Camargue The common ground between Gaston Bouzanquet (1866-1937) and Carle Naudot (1880-1948) on the Camargue between 1900 and 1948 is rich in teachings on the definition of the cultural identity of the region, on the management of natural spaces, on its urbanisation, on its populating, on the way of life of its inhabitants and on the evolution of the countryside during the 20^th century.
Since 1900 when these photographers began their work, the region and its people have modernised. This evolution awakens a feeling of nostalgia that runs throughout the 20^th century, making the Rhône delta a place of choice and its traditional activities a culture. This early concern for conservation in the Camargue would result in a media coverage that the photography accompanies. The two photographers who looked upon the region from the outside had the intelligence to present that which made it original, both conscious of the risk of the disappearance of a way of life that they were a part of and that with modernity seemed to be almost forgotten. Their common objectives brought them together and it is wonderful that they were reunited in 2007 thanks to their descendants around the heritage collections preserved by the Camargue Museum. Put together these collections complete each other, enrich each other and find a relevance through a dialogue that is only just beginning.