We arrived in Sete from Pezenas by train on 16th May 2017 for a three night stay. We arrived early afternoon and the Irish owner kindly picked us up at the station and delivered us to his bijou but pleasant apartment in an old but renovated building conveniently adjacent to the town’s Tourism Office.
View from our Sete apartment
Sète, a small town on the French Mediterranean coast is a proper working port with a busy harbour landing serious amounts of fish. It is virtually an island with a hill, Mont St Clair, standing in the middle. The town stands on the sea but there is a big body of water, the Thai Lagoon, behind it and a network of canals between the two thus its often referred to as the Venice of the Llanguedoc.
We thought it a lovely town. There is water everywhere and boats moving back and forth constantly and so there’s always plenty of activity and opportunities to people watch. Many of the locals apparently have their own boats which they use to get about for shopping and the like as traffic in town can be heavy.
For us Sete was simply another stop over point en our route to Provence and then the Cote D’Azure. We had only 2 days here and wished we had longer but we enjoyed lovely weather walking up and around the Mont St Clair and some nice fishy meals. A highlight for us here as elsewhere in France was the fabulous market hall with its amazing fish and produce stalls and tapas bars and restaurants.
Great views all round from the to of Mont St Clair
Some more photos of the town
This is a serious working port with proper fishing boats !
Sete’s central market hall. A highlight for us as always so plenty of photos…
One of the things we love in french markets – there’s always bars and restaurants selling food made with the local produce and wine.
We had never heard of Pezenas until we started putting together our itinerary for this little trip from Spain to the Cote D’Azure of France. Actually Pezenas wasn’t on our original itinerary from Beziers to Sete but we became aware of it as we were reading up on the area. Regarded as the most beautiful town in Languedoc if not the whole of the South of France, it seemed worth making a small detour.
We arrived by bus from Beziers on 14th May and stayed for 2 nights in a comfortable studio apartment in the Old Town.
The town is an absolute medieval beauty with a maze of narrow streets and alleys opening onto some lovely squares. There are plenty of one-off shops with some great boulangeries, patisseries and some excellent bars and restaurants. It’s famous for its connection to Moliere (France’s equivalent to Shakespeare) who resided here for a few years in the 1600’s – you’re hardly like to miss this fact as there’s a Moliere Hotel and at least one restaurant bearing his name with lots of other reminders of the fact all over town – including a Moliere Trail for those so inclined.
The town’s history goes back to Roman times given it was on the Roman route East to West but its history peaked in the 17th century when it was the capital of the region. Come the 19th century the developing railways passed by Pezenas and its influence waned. With the size of the town fairly static in terms of its growth since the 19th century, the architecture in the old town is very well preserved – and very attractive.
This is very small town and 2 nights was ideal giving us a full day to see everything and still leave time for a leisurely lunch and a glass of wine or two sat in the early summer sun outside one of the brasseries in Place Gambetta.
A few photos
Following two nights in Pezenas we left for Sete, a Mediterranean port known as the Venice of Languedoc.
Beziers is a small town in the Herault Department of Languedoc sitting on a hill above the river Orb about 10k from the Mediterranean. It’s one of the oldest towns in France dating back earlier than 500BC and it is famous for its annual bull fighting festival when over one million tourists visit the town over a five day period.
We were in two minds as to whether we should visit Beziers or not. We had read some reviews saying the place was small but certainly worthy of a visit whilst others said that the town was poor and run down with many streets full of empty shops and houses with very little of attraction to tourists. Given we didn’t need to stray much from our route over to Provence, it seemed a natural place to stop for a couple of days and we were glad we did. We stayed in a family owned super modern apartment in a very old building which itself is not yet fully renovated. A very smart and well equipped flat.
Place Gabriel Peri – perhaps the biggest square in the Old Town .Contains the Hotel de Ville , some nice shops ,bars and restaurants in some nice old buildings.
Hotel de Ville in Place Gabriel Peri
We arrived by train from Narbonne and had to navigate our way to the top of the hill on which the town stands through an area of not too smart artisan dwellings up to the mediaeval town centre, a warren of narrow streets lined with som excellent shops, cafes and restaurants. Contrary to our fears, this is a fairly upmarket town centre with a lot of money being spent on infrastructure and refurbishment of old buildings. The town’s Halles is in this area as is the Cathedral.
One of the town’s main streets is the impressive Allee Paul Riquet, slightly away from the medievil centre, although connected to it. A tree lined boulevard with a very grand theatre at one end and a nice municipal park at the other.
Beziers Municipal Theatre on Allee Paul Riquet. Stands at the end of a broad tree-lined promenade with a Municipal Park at the other end. There was a market on when we visited. See next picture
Narbonne has a Roman history, of course, but the most significant event in the town’s history was the Massacre of Beziers. The town was a Cathar stronghold and the first to be attacked in 1209 by Catholic forces intent on destroying the Cathars. 20,000 people were butchered and burned to death and the town badly burned including all those who had taken shelter in the cathedral which itself was burnt to the ground. Restoration of the town began some years later and was finished in the 1500s!
Beziers Cathedral – some great views to be had from here.
We spent only 2 nights in Bezier, essentially one full day. In truth a couple more days would have been good for us but it was enough to get a good feel for the place, visit the cathedral and les Halles and enjoy a couple of nice meals including an excellent Indian, our first for quite some time. Unfortunately it didn’t give us enough time to wander too far from the centre of town and along the river which would have made for a good walk.We were a tad concerned about how we would get to our next destination, Pezenas. We would leave for Pezenas on Sunday but there is no train line to Pezenas and buses are few and far between in rural France on Sundays. The bus station office was closed when we visited on Saturday to get a timetable and the Tourist Information Office was next to useless. Worst case scenario was that we would have to stay another night in Beziers but in the end we put our trust in an out of date on-line timetable that proved to be still relevant and we left Bezier mid morning on 14th May.
Following 3 nights in Carcassonne, next stop was Narbonne, about 15km from the Mediterranean sea. Narbonne has a canal, the Canal Robin, which connects to the Canal Midi and together with other canals forms a network which reaches from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Canal holidays are a popular holiday activity here.
The canal runs through the town centre
We spent 3 nights here in an Airbnb rental which was less than great, although it did have wifi. So far we really haven’t done too well with accommodation in France but happily the weather was good and we didn’t need to loiter in the digs too much.
Narbonnes’ impressive Palazzo dei Archives in the main square
This is a small town of about 50,000 with a nice town centre with the flower lined canal running through it. There is a cathedral, of course, a basilica, the usual local museums and an underground network of ancient warehouses dating back to Roman Times. We thought it would be a nice town to spend a couple of days in and so it was although in truth none of the attractions were compelling and otherwise there isn’t a great deal to see and do. The fact that the town’s Halles (covered market) and the Tourist Office are 2nd and 4th in the top 10 things to do on tripadvisor probably says it all.
Narbonne Cathedral
The Halles of Narbonne, the daily covered market, is one of the most famous markets in France and for us the highlight of our visit. The building itself is attractive and all manner of fresh foods, meat, fish, seafood, fruit and vegetables and a lot more besides can be had. It’s a big market with stalls galore and in addition there are several bars and restaurants and an area of tables and chairs where you can take you own purchases, maybe some cheese and bread and enjoy your own picnic lunch with a glass of wine or a beer brought to you by a waiter from one of the bars. It’s great fun and a very pleasant way to spend an hour or two people watching.
Les Halles , for us the highlight of Narbonne
The pictures of the Halles below show the Chez Chabelle restaurant. Owned and run by a well known local former rugby player he serves mainly steaks and grills from the adjacent family beef and horse meat stall or duck or chicken which he orders from neighbouring stalls. As he takes an order from a customer he bellows the order through a megaphone and within a minute a parcel of beef, chicken or whatever wrapped in paper is thrown to him as he stands with the serving staff and Chef behind the counter. It’s all very theatrical and great fun and although it’s basic fare – everything comes with chips – the steak was a generous size and some of the best we have eaten.
We spent 3 nights in Narbonne enjoying some good food and wine and doing not very much at all other than a little walking and sitting on the “promenade” by the canal watching the world go by. On May 12th we left on a train to Beziers.
We had decided to would break up the journey between Perpignan to Carcassonne by stopping off for a few nights in rural France proper. We chose Quillan in the Aude district of South Central France which is also referred to by the Tourism Department as Cathar Country.
Quillan is situated in the foothills of the Pyrenees on the banks of the River Aude on the road from Perpignan to Carcassonne. With a mountainous backdrop it’s a small town of about 3,000 folk. Much of the flatter area round about is devoted to wine growing.
Tourism here is all about the outdoors, hiking, cycling, fishing, white water rafting and winter sports – in winter – but another “attraction,” is the history of the area with a collection of castles and strongholds built on the Black Mountains to the west of Quillan. The mountains formed a natural defence against the Spanish and these castles provided fortications against the enemy. Some also served as refuges for Cathars back in the 12th and 13th centuries when the Popes sent Crusaders to eradicate the Cathar heathens during the Medieval Inquisition. Thus these are known as the Cathar Castles and thus the strap line of Cathar Country now applied to the region by the Tourism Department. More recently, in the Second World War, the area was a centre for the resistance movement with many local heroes also adding to the historical interest.
We thought we would get some decent walking done here but it rained for much of our stay and the town had little to amuse us. It’s regarded as a good place to retire but we found little to commend it. Its true there are decent transport links but frankly the town has clearly seen better days. There is a sufficiency of bars and restaurants but there are also plenty of closed down shops and restaurants giving the air of a place needing something serious to kick start it back to life.
So Quillan was a disappointment probably in no small measure exacerbated by the grey drizzly weather that prevailed but we just couldn’t see its attraction as a place to retire. We thought it a rather sad place really so much so we took only a handful of snaps which were taken in gloomy conditions and not worth showing. An excursion to the neighbouring town of Limoux which is a tad bigger than Quillan was equally uninspiring. We stayed little more than an hour in Limoux and left on the next train!
Next stop Carcassonne hoping for better things. Our first 10 days or so in France had been disappointing but we thought that Carcassonne would have much more going for it – and the weather was improving.
Wiki describes Carcassonne as a hilltop town in southern France’s Languedoc area in the valley of the River Aude and is famous for its medieval citadel, La Cité, with numerous watchtowers and double-walled fortifications. The first walls were built in Gallo-Roman times, with major additions made in the 13th and 14th centuries. Château Comtal, a 12th-century castle within the Cité, offers archaeological exhibits and a tour of the inner ramparts.T he walls surrounding the Cite are 3 miles long. About 2 kilometres from the Citadel there is a more modern city.
Approaching La Ice from the “new” town
On this occasion we joined a tour of La Cite and also a separate tour of the chateau. The history is fascinating and especially the 12th and 13th centuries when the city was a Cathar stronghold. This is one of France’s top tourist resorts and the narrow streets through the city are lined with shops restaurants etc. It is rather Disney-esq with the shops selling all manner of tourist tat and we were happy to get out of it following our tour
Inside la Cite. Crowded streets lined with cafes, restaurants and shop after shop selling tourist tat. Go early or late to avoid the crowds!
Great views to be had from the top of the city walls
Still inside la Cite there is a 13th basilica, the Basilica of Saint-Nazaire, worth a visit to see its impressive stained glass and gargoyles.
Away from the ancient city, across the river Aude, the lower city is more modern than the ancient city but certainly not modern as most of it dates back to the Middle Ages.
We stayed in a very nice apartment very handily placed for the main squares and shopping areas of the lower city. All was good except that for a second time we found ourselves without wifi at a time when we wanted to watch the last few matches of the Premier League season. Happily, once again we found a local bar with an owner who obliged us on a couple of occasions by devoting one of their screens to footy instead of the usual rugby which is the main local interest.
Our apartment in Carcassonne – very comfortable indeed but sadly wifi-free!
Our apartment in Carcassonne – very comfortable but wifi -free!
We enjoyed our Carcassonne visit and would recommend it as a nice place to visit for a long weekend. We thought it a lovely town with some nice squares, a proper market and the Canal du Midi running through it providing some nice walking and cycling. After our disappointing start to our journey in France, things were looking up!
Our next stop is Narbonne, further east along the Canal du Midi. Unfortunately we couldn’t find a way to get there by boat with our luggage and so it was back on the train.
