Maritime paradise

If you’re looking for sea views away from the Côte d’Azur, Sète in Hérault offers excellent coastal living, finds Carolyn Reynier

- Carolyn Reynier

French writer Sylvain Tesson said that “France is a paradise inhabited by people who think they’re in hell.” Well, all I can say is that most of those inhabitants haven’t yet discovered Sète in Hérault, Occitanie. This is coastal living par excellence, with vibrant préfecture Montpellier nearby.

Located in the Golfe du Lion, it offers 12 kilometres of beaches backed by the Bassin de Thau (also known as an étang, a small lagoon) running west to the Cap-d’Agde. To the east is Frontignan, its vineyards and delicious muscat, a vin doux naturel, and the Massif de la Gardiole.

Sète, a cité culturelle de caractère, is a fishing port; trawlers trailed by gulls return from sea with their haul, and the Bassin de Thau provides mussels and oysters – conchyliculture is the word for shellfish farming. You can buy all this and much more in the covered market, les Halles, and sit in the sun outside cafés and restaurants which surround it.

CITY OF CULTURE

Since 1666 nautical summer jousting has been held in the Cadre Royal – the equivalent to a watery public square – along the section of canal between the Civette and Savonnerie bridges. There is a lot of water here – Sète is known as the Venice of Languedoc).