From Lattes to Aigues-Mortes - From Aigues-Mortes to Palavas - From Palavas to Sète - Sète -
Etang de Thau - From les Onglous to Béziers - From Béziers to Argens

The next morning, we head back along the canal between the ponds. There’s an offshore wind, dark grey clouds hedgehop above the waves and we advance carefully. A few seagulls hang in the air, screeching in an atmosphere of an approaching storm, and a flock of pink flamingos pretend not to be there with their heads between their feathers.

Three drops fall, but that’s all. So many special effects for so little, it’s enough to put you right off disaster films…

We leave Maguelonne Abbey among the vines and jet up towards Frontignan, where a bridge lifts just three times a day to let boats pass: we aim to be there for the 1.30pm passage, the morning one is much too early and the later one (at 4pm) would make us late for Sète.

We arrive a good 20 minutes before schedule and see that the famous bridge, undergoing some work, is in the high position, and that a simple red and white chain bars the way. No question of missing the ceremony, so we wander a mere dozen metres or so into town, almost never letting the boat out of our sight.
Without any fuss, a worker lowers the chain right on time and we pass under the obstacle without meeting any opposition. To reward us for this feat, we treat ourselves to a Pantagruelian lunch, and set off with full stomachs for the Etang de Thau, just a few kilometres away.
It must be said that the region offers a variety of unforgettable delights for food lovers! Bouzigues oysters with stuffed squid, fruit and vegetables from the land of sunshine, little pâtés, fine pork meats and goat’s cheese, not forgetting the local wines… it would seem that everything is done deliberately to keep you at the table! If you haven’t tried a Zézette de Sète (biscuit made from rosé wine) with a glass of muscat, you haven’t experienced real life in the South!

With a few turns of the propeller, we arrive at the entrance to Etang de Thau. Sète looms up in front of us on the hill, but to get there we have to sail past the oyster farms and the boat rolls a bit. In just twenty minutes, we pass between the two red and green markers at the entrance of the town, and moor in front of the two mobile bridges that prevent boats with draughts over 2.5m from entering.