The Marseille Caper

The only two things Sam knew about the Camargue were that it was flat and that it was inhabited for part of the year by flamingos along with a particularly large and ferocious member of the mosquito family. While he waited on the terrace for Olivier he glanced through a guidebook he’d picked up from the house library and was immediately intrigued.

The Camargue had supplied some of the first cowboys in America-men who had left the flamingos for a new life in the bayous of Louisiana and East Texas. Those who had stayed behind became known as gardians. They looked after the native black longhorn cattle which, unlike normal cattle, could not only survive but flourish on the Camargue’s salt grass. For transport, the gardians used another native of the Camargue-the elegant descendants of the white horse introduced by the Arabs many centuries before.

Today, the guide continued, the Camargue is probably best known for its salt, and is sometimes described as the salt cellar of France. And it is no ordinary salt. The fleur de sel-the jewel of the salt pans, still gathered in the traditional way by man and his wooden shovel-is regarded as a supreme delicacy. Sam had always thought of salt as little more than white dust, and he shook his head as he read on, the prose waxing more and more ecstatic about the effects of fleur de sel applied to a raw radish. Only in France.

The big car came to a stop below the terrace, and Sam settled into the passenger seat for the journey to Arles and then down into the Camargue. Olivier, delighted to practice his English on a captive audience, explained how Reboul had come to be the owner of a ranch.

It had started off pleasantly enough when Reboul had invited a few acquaintances over for a poker game. Luck was running for Reboul that night, and he was collecting his winnings at the end of the evening when one of the others, a Marseille property dealer named Leconte, announced that he wasn’t ready to stop. He had lost consistently during the evening, and had consoled himself a little too generously with Reboul’s single malt Scotch. He also suffered from the conviction that he was a better poker player than Reboul, and wanted to prove it. Leconte had always been inclined to arrogance and boastfulness, and whisky made him worse. He proposed a two-handed game, just him and Reboul, for what he called serious stakes-not the small change they had been playing for so far.

Reboul tried to persuade Leconte to drop the idea: it was late, and they all had to work the next day. But Leconte made the great mistake of inferring that Reboul was scared to play for big stakes, and persisted in his demand to keep playing, so Reboul humored him and let Leconte propose the stakes. Each player put up one euro. If Leconte won, he could buy Reboul’s yacht for his euro; if Reboul won, he could buy Leconte’s property in the Camargue for the same price.

“I was there, serving the drinks,” said Olivier. “It was very dramatique, like a movie. And when Monsieur Reboul won, he tried to make a joke of it, and gave Leconte back his euro to cancel the debt. But Leconte refused. It was a matter of honor, he said. Et voila.”

“Where is Leconte now?”

“Oh, he said Marseille was becoming too provincial for him. He sold his business and moved to Morocco.”

By now, they had left the autoroute linking Marseille and Arles and had turned south on one of the minor roads leading down to the coast. The landscape had changed; it was flat, vast, and empty. The sky, with no silhouettes of buildings, trees, or hills to interrupt it, seemed suddenly bigger. If the sun hadn’t been shining, Sam thought, it would all seem quite sinister.

“Does Monsieur Reboul come here often?”

“Once or twice in the spring. Sometimes at Christmas-and usually when one of the mares has little ones. He loves to see his horses when they’re babies.”

The road was getting narrower, the surface cracked and crumbling. It seemed to be leading directly into the depths of the Camargue swamp when the car swung sharply to the right, past a wooden sign marked PRIVE, and down a graveled track. On they drove for perhaps half a mile before they came to a post-and-rail paddock with a range of stabling at one end. A dozen handsome horses, all of them white, gave the car a cursory glance and a flick of the tail as it passed. Another hundred yards and they had reached the ranch.

It was an example of the haphazard school of architecture-a low, sprawling, L- shaped building made principally of wood, with windows of assorted sizes and a covered veranda running along the southern side. Three dogs interrupted their siestas to come over and sniff the car before returning to loll on the veranda. When Olivier turned off the engine, the silence was almost overwhelming. Sam got out and stretched as he looked around. He could imagine that nothing much had changed in the past hundred years. The only concession to the twenty-first century was the helicopter parked behind the house.

“Monsieur Reboul must be here already,” said Olivier. “That’s what he calls his Camargue taxi.”

They were halfway toward the massive front door when it opened and a small figure came out to greet them. He was dressed in black trousers, a black waistcoat, and a white shirt, with a face the color of old mahogany, and slightly bandy legs. Olivier introduced him as Luc.

“He lives on the property as a guardian, and he’s a genius with horses.” Olivier turned to Luc and clapped him on the shoulder. “Les chevaux sont vos enfants, eh?”

The little man nodded and smiled, adding yet more wrinkles to a face already pickled and rutted by the sun. He raised a hand to his ear, thumb and little finger extended. “Monsieur Francis parle sur son portable. Venez!” He led the way into the house and what was obviously the main room, dominated by an enormous fireplace. Lining the walls were paintings and black-and-white photographs of horses and flamingos, and overflowing bookshelves. The horns of a huge black bull’s head served as a hat rack. The furniture was wood and rough leather, primitive but comfortable.

Reboul finished his call and beckoned Sam over. “My dear Sam, welcome to the Camargue. What can I offer you? Coffee? A beer? Something stronger to keep the mosquitoes away? Come and sit down.”

The two men settled in front of a window overlooking the long, flat view. “Interesting place you’ve got here,” said Sam. “Do you have much land?”

Reboul shook his head. “Not a lot-about a hundred acres. We grow a little rice, but the land is mainly for the horses, and it keeps Luc happy. You know, his father was one of the old-style gardians, and he taught Luc to ride when he was four. By the time he was ten, he was working.” Reboul took a look at his watch. “Now then. We’d better start.”

Sam took a sheaf of papers from a folder and passed them over to Reboul. “There’s some helicopter reading for you. It’s the script. Perhaps you could take a look at it as soon as you can and see if there’s anything you think should be changed. I’m told that the committee speaks English, but to be safe I want to have this translated into French and put in a document that we can give to each of the members to take away. My friend Philippe can help me with that.”

Reboul gave a nod of approval. “Good idea. Perhaps with a photograph of the project model? Or an artist’s impression? What do you think?”

It was Sam’s turn to nod. “An artist’s impression would be best. It would allow us to cheat a bit, and put in some background touches.” He scribbled a note on his folder. “Right. Now we come to the big decision.” He reached for his beer and took a long swallow. “Where should we hold the presentation? The chapel of La Charite has already been used. A standard office in a standard office building or a conference room in a big hotel won’t work; they’re exactly what we’re competing against. Also, they’re anonymous and boring, and what I’d like to do is to give the committee something different, something that they won’t forget in a hurry. I’d like to do it on the beach.”

Reboul’s eyebrows shot up, and then he smiled. “Of course. Let me guess. The Anse des Pecheurs?”

“Exactly. It’s perfect. I want to get a tent-a big tent, a marquee-put up. We’ll make it into a kind of informal conference room, with a long table and chairs for the committee, maybe a bar-”

“Definitely a bar.”

“… and we’ll make the presentation at the end of the working day, in the early evening, just as the sun’s beginning to go down. I’ve been down there to check out the sunset. It’s spectacular.” Sam paused, and waited for Reboul’s reaction.

Reboul shook his head. “Sam, what can I say except bravo? As you say, it’s perfect, a real coup de theatre. But you’re going to need help, and it can’t be seen to come from me.” He stared out of the window, then nodded to himself before turning back to Sam. “Luckily, I have one or two contacts. I will ask one of