Aigues-Mortes, France, on August 04, 2020. Aigues-Mortes, Unesco classified medieval city.The cultivation of salt by man dates back to Antiquity. In Aigues-Mortes Jules Cesar, the first, organized the production of sea salt on a large scale. Over the centuries, monarchs and religious shared the profits from this exploitation. With King Saint Louis in 1856 the company was created. of the salines of the South. Today the salt works spread over 8900 hectares and employ 150 people. Before the salt harvest, for only 3 weeks per year, at dawn the fleur de sel is carefully collected by the salt workers. Fleur de sel crystals only form on the surface of the water due to precipitation created by the change in temperature between night and day. The fleur de sel is collected manually with a shovel, in the past it was reserved only for the king. Photo by Patrick Aventurier/ABACAPRESS.COM