Ready, Sète, Go!
Our next stop on our mini vacation was Sète, a little coastal town with beaches, port and canals. Parfait!
So this is one of the canals that makes this place la Venise de Languedoc. It seems like the whole city is on the waterfront, and even the homeless locals are relaxed enough to give us advice about beating sunburn.














And this is the port, which is the second largest on the Mediterranean, and shelters one of its largest fishing flotillas. The fishing behemoths are almost the same height as the apartments, and are pulled up on either side of the port, the canal, and each other, resulting in some pretty dubious double parks.














It’s almost inevitable that les specialités Setois include crevettes, moules, loup, racasses, st. pierres, galinettes, sarans, tete de baudroies, girelles, congres, and other assorted crustaces, coquillages and poissons. So, Mayan and I went for a (long) stroll down the quay to pick our favourite seafood restaurant…
We settled on the one with the biggest menu at about 8.30 (just before sunset), and sat down to a gargantuan set menu that included (only the hilights) escargots de la mer,…














…soupe de poissons,…














…paella avec fruits de la mer et poulet,…














… and the traditional sardines grillées.


















Having stuffed ourselves well into the 11th hour, we wandered off, thinking we’d have to leave the other speciality of Sète to the next day. Having so much waterfront, the Setois seem to have hit upon a great tradition: to celebrate every sunset at one of the café/bar/glacier/cocktail/tea houses on the canals.














Now life wasn’t all sunsets and tequila sunrises. There was a certain amount of recovery to be had every next day.




























The plages at Sète are well-equipped and well-attended, and really cold. It’s all well and good for the poms and the Germans, but for the French and us it seemed a bit more relaxing to work on our sunburns instead.
Other interesting facts about Sete include their popular tradition of boat jousting. We didn’t get to witness an actual joust, but we did see all the boats lined up, a few of them practicing, working on their acceleration so that one of the crew, standing on a platform extended out from the stern of the boat and holding a lance, can knock off his counterpart going the other way. It’s not something you’d start a feud over, but definitely something you’d construct huge stands to watch from for.
















TO BE CONTINUED