Just recently we had to make a trip to Bezieres & Cap d’Agde Airport close to the Mediterranean coastline. It was a return trip to deliver daughter and grandchildren back to catch their seriously delayed flight to Germany; courtesy of the volcano eruption in Iceland.
To be honest they weren’t too upset about it, because during the the extra week they spent with us the weather here was absolutely gorgeous and we were able to open the pool for the kids to have a swim. That’s the earliest we have ever managed to do that and it is our first ever April opening.
What we love about using the airport down there is that we get a chance to explore the coastline and this trip was no exception. The last time we went down it was Cap d’Agde we went to see, but this time having had a look at the map we decided that going to Sete might be useful, both because it looked completely surrounded by water, which made it a very interesting prospect, and it was a chance to gather a little tourist information for Sete and the surrounding area.
We tried driving right into Cap d’Agde to begin with, thinking we would be able to find a coastal road out from there. But it doesn’t actually work like that, you have to bypass the town and follow the main road signs for Sete. It’s not long though before you find yourself alongside one of the longest and sandiest beaches I have seen on the Mediterranean coastline. I have to say, beautiful as the Mediterranean is, there are stretches along this coast road that are a bit industrial looking, not helped by the fact they had some huge diggers there doing major landscaping works. We decided to persevere however and found that as we got closer to Sete that the scenery improved and there were lots of facilities for visiting the beach. It was also camper van paradise, loads of self drive caravans virtually parked on the beach all along the road.
We started to head into town and then we saw a sign saying ‘Panoramique’, we did have a few other things to do that day, so we had to make a decision; town centre or go for the views.
We decided on the views and set off up the hill to the viewpoint. I think it was a good decision because from the viewpoint you get to find out that Sete is almost an island, there literally is water all around the town. The ‘table de orientation’ gives you the best idea of where everywhere is from the very top of the hill and you can literally see for miles, even though the day we were there it was a little bit hazy. You can click on the photographs to see them full size, which helps with the detail a little bit.
Sete is a fairly significant port, for obvious reasons, and as such sees a fairly rich mix of different cultures from all the sea faring visitors it gets. You don’t need to think too hard about what the specialties of many of the restaurants are here either as it is known as the 2nd biggest fishing port in France. The town boasts an old sector, a prominent lighthouse, a lovely canal and the royal harbour which was built in the 18th century.
You can visit the Office De Tourisme to find out more about the ‘Little Venice of Languedoc’ as it is fondly descibed.
I have a feeling that we will be visiting Sete again in the not too distant future, and this time we will turn right towards the town centre and go see exactly what else it has to offer, the views were magnificent but we couldn’t help thinking that there was still so much more to see. Still when all is said and done I think the trip went from a shaky start to a reasonably satisfactory conclusion, but definitely a bit more investigation required.