It is perfectly situated to visit

Marseillan plage (13km)

The nearest beach to you which has golden sand and safe bathing and stretches all rhe way from Sete in one direction and Agde in the other, a distance of  over 25 kilometres! There is also a big flea market on the car park of the wine cooperative each Sunday and a fun fair ‘Luna Parc’. Watch out for the special offer nights when the rides are half price.

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Marseillan Village (7,5km)

; this village has a port onto the Etang de Thau where there is a good choice of restaurants and bars. The best restaurant is ………….. which has 15 points in ‘La guide Millau’ It is also the home of the aperitif ‘Noilly Prat’ which is a French version of ‘Martini’. There are tours of the factory which include a tasting session.

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Agde (15km) / Cap d’Agde (20km) :

There has been a city at Agde for 2500 years. It was originally a Greek port ‘Agathe Tyche which means ‘Good luck’ and is on the River Herault. There are 2 museums, Le musee Agathois and le musee d’Art et de Traditions Populaires.
There is also an extremely fine art noveau house which you can visit
Cap d’Agde has the largest nudist beach in Europe and is a typical and popular seaside resort. There is an ‘Aqualand’  (same as water world – lots of water slides). Also a fort and jetty designed by Louis 14th  famous military architect ‘Vauban’.

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Beziers (30km) :

Famous for having its whole population slaughtered on the orders of the bishop Arnaud-Amaury who was religious controller of the army in the Albigencian crusade against the Cathars in 1209. After the town was taken, the soldiers asked him how they could tell who were Cathars and who were Catholics. He replied with these immortal words, ‘Kill them all’ God will know his own!   The cathedral of Saint Nazaire dominates the sky line. There are some roman ruins and three museums to visit; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Musee du Biterrois, Musee Saint-Jaques. It is also famous for being the birth place of  Paul Riquet who was responsible for building the canal de Midi and the famous member of the French Resistance Jean Moulin.

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Bouzigues (16km):

The most beautiful of the villages on the Etang de Thau. There are lots of fish and fruit de mers restaurants here and also a museum which explains the history of rearing oysters and mussels in the etang. The oysters of Bouziques are renown through out France and you will see plenty of producers in the area who sell them by the side of the roads.

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Loupian (11km):

This village has a gallo-roman villa which has been excavated. (The village is situated on an old Roman road – the Via Domitia. The old part of the town dates back to the middle ages and is a typical circular town designed a bit like a snail shell. The Languedoc Rousillon is famous for these villages – there are over 1000. The church of Saint-Hippolyte which dates from the 12th century looks more like a castle than a church!

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Maguelone (42km):

Originally Visisgoth, then Muslin, a Christian Cathedral was constructed here in 1054. This was replaced by a fortified one in the 12th century which was abandoned 200 years later until in 1536 it was taken over by the Protestants and used as a stronghold in the Protestant/Catholic war. Finally in 1632 it was knocked down by the orders of Cardinal Richelieu. .

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Meze (10km):

Another pleasant town on the Etang de Thau. On the road from Meze to Pezanas there is Dinosaur Museum/ park  In 1997, Alain Cabot found a fossilized dinosaur nest and since then he has opened up the park which has life sized displays of dinosaurs plus fosilised remains.

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Montpellier (43km):

This city is the powerhouse of the Languedoc, the local center of government with medical universities dating back to the Middle Ages. The town centre is pedestrianised and if you don’t fancy driving in the middle of a city, you can always park in a suburb and take the tram. There is lots to see, 4 museums, (La musee Fabre, la Musee du Vieux Montpellier, la Musee Sabatier d’Espeyran and la musee Atger, an impressive aqueduct, the Cathedral Saint-Pierre plus a good shopping centre,’the Polygon’ which has a large selection of shops including a branch of la Galerie de Lafayette and 2 excellent book shops. The French author Francois Rabelais was a medical student here in 1530.

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Palavas les Flots (50km):

One of the original seaside resorts of the area – where the Montpelians go if they want an afternoon on the beach. It has a great firework display on 14th July but get there early or you won’t be able to park the car.

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Pezenas (11km):

A lovely town to visit, particularly on Saturday which is market day. Pezenas was known as the Versaille of the south as the Dukes of Montmonrency who were the governers of the Languedoc in the 16th century chose to live here. The old town centre is lovely to wander through imagining what has gone on inside the ancient doors which look out onto the narrow streets. There is Templar chapel which was enlarged and dedicated to Saint John in 1314.

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St- Guilhem- le- Desert:

A beautiful village in magnificent countryside well worth the drive to visit it.

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St-Thibery:

From the main road, you wouldn’t give this place a second glance but between here and Flonrensac on the banks of the river Herault there is a 13th century water mill beside the remains of a medieval bridge built on the remains of the roman bridge on the Via Domitia. . In 303 the emperor Diocletien organized the persecution of Christians, St. Thibery was the 10 year old son of the Roman governor at Agde and he refused to give up Christinity so his Dad had his head chopped off. He was immediately venerated and his body was originally interned in a Gallo Roman villa before it was moved to a sanctuary in the 5th century. In the 8th century the Benedictine monastery was founded here.

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Sete (30km):

Originally called Seta in the Middle Ages,  this port was built for Henry 4 by Riquet, the first stone was laid in 1666. The town is split by wide canals and there are plenty of restaurants serving the local specialities, mussels and cuttlefish stuffed with a meat stuffing, (may sound weird but I like it!). There is a museum to the poet, song writer Georges Brassens. Mathew Arnold wrote a poem about Sete and the Etang de Thau which I will quote; (I think he had been over imbibing on the Picpoul!

The sandy spits, the shore-lock’d lakes,
Melt into open, moonlit sea;
The soft Mediterranean breaks
At my feet, free.

Dotting the fields of corn and wine,
Like ghosts, the huge gnarl’d olives stand.
Behind, that lovely mountain-line!
While, by the strand,

Cette, with its glistening houses white,
Curves with the curving beach away
To where the lighthouse beacons bright
Far in the bay.’

I like Sete, it is still a fishing port, has no pretensions and is home to the sport of ‘Les Joutes Nautiques, (Jousting on boats). You have 2 rowing boats which have a platform at the back on which a person stands with a wooden lance and shield. The boats row towards each other as fast as possible and the winner is the person who tilts his opponent in to the water! There are inter town tournaments and most of the towns on the Etang de Thau have a team. At some of the evening markets which take place in the area you can even have a go yourself.

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