Faced with success, on 24 June 1904 at the mas de l'Amarèu, the Marquis and some of his friends founded the Coumitat Virginien.
[1] The tourist office of Provence, having organized a special trip from Marseille to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer for some two hundred tourists on 17 May 1908, the Marquis de Baroncelli took the initiative to welcome them at the station, on horseback with his guardians, then accompanied them to the village.
This caused a lot of noise and therefore “tradition” became one of the major assets of Saintain tourism.
The association was declared in the official journal on 16 September 1909 under its name Nacioun Gardiano and its registered office in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.
They chose a banner on which appears on one side the barque des Saintes, surmounted by the star with the seven rays of Félibrige, on the other side the blood and gold cross of Languedoc flanked by the war cry of the Albigensians "Toulouso, ( Prouvenço) e Avignoun ”.