Tag: France

Sète canals

What to see in Sète: where the Canal du Midi meets the Mediterranean

On By Michelle LawsonIn European travel6 Comments

The two boats moved towards one another, one blue, one red. From each boat rose a ladder, with a boy perched on a platform at the end, high above the water. As the boats became parallel, each boy raised a 2.8 metre wooden pole and I watched, perplexed, as they tried their best to dislodge each other, until the boy from the red boat lost his balance. Cheers and jubilant music drowned out the noise of the splash.

Sète – marine jousting

This is marine jousting, a tradition that began in Sète in 1666 to celebrate the opening of the town’s port, and which continues today with its own training school. That night I must have been watching the juniors, but it’s also an adult sport, where bachelors (blue boats) fight the married jousters of the red boats. Traditions aside, it felt weird watching the town’s people egging on their children to poke each other into the canal.

At least the water looked clean.

The layout of Sète was shaped by Louis XIV’s decision to end the Canal du Midi here; streets face each other across the canal grid lines, with the tables of fish restaurants close to the water’s edge. The odour of fresh bream, salmon, oysters and mussels follows you as you walk down one waterfront, cross a bridge and then walk up the other side. Moored boats line the frontages, and at one point were broken up by the looming bulk of a visiting tall ship.

Sète canals
Sète canals
Sète canals tall ship

The town is overshadowed by the slopes of Mont Saint-Clair. Above the narrow terraced streets of the upper town are hundreds of steps that lead to the summit, where you gain a view that encompasses not only the port of Sète behind you but also the Thau Lagoon that stretches 20 km inland. You’ll see the 800 or so shellfish farms in neat grids across the inland sea, but not the other thing for which the lagoon is renowned – its seahorses.

Walking westwards down the Mont Saint-Clair, the palm-lined roads contrast with the cramped terraces of the eastern side; houses remain concealed behind long driveways and broad gates. Back down on the main corniche coastal road we followed a parallel path above small coves, where succulents cling to cliffs that are themselves overshadowed by holiday apartment blocks.

Sète is an open air museum of street art, with artists encouraged to cover the town’s walls. Murals range from an impressive one covering the wall of the Lycee de Paul Valery, to a slightly unnerving mural on the outer walls of a primary school with strange marine creatures celebrating tielles, the spiced octopus pies that are a speciality of Sète.

I don’t know what it is about tables set out along a waterfront, but they often generate an urge to just sit down and spend the rest of my life there, reading, writing, painting and gazing out at the water and the fishing activities. The Pointe Courte peninsula has more streets of coloured terraces than you’d think was possible on such a tiny spit of land, and I was drawn to a string of metal tables and chairs on the narrow waterfront. It wasn’t a café, as I’d first thought, but an outside living space for the houses on this side. Fishing nets were hanging everywhere, and an elderly man sat fixing one in a lean-to. More nets were piled up in a type of sentry box, where a sleek black cat watched the antics of the peninsula’s cats with disdain.

Sete, Pointe Courte
Pointe Courte, Sete

La Pointe Courte is also the name of the unofficial first French New Wave film: the self-funded 1956 debut of Agnès Varda. The film documents the hardships of the fishing community, and when a young man wants to romance a neighbour’s daughter, how must he prove his worth?

By none other than showing his prowess in a marine jousting tournament.

Carcassonne citadel

A stopover in Carcassonne: oui ou non?

On By Michelle LawsonIn European travel3 Comments

Need to buy a replica medieval helmet and sword? Fancy flouncing around in costume like a Kate Mosse character?  All this can be done whilst visiting the fortified city of Carcassonne, a UNESCO World Heritage site that’s up there at number 20 of France’s most visited sites.

In summer, the main town has a vibrant feel, with plenty of outdoor cafes and a stream of tourists eating ice cream as they wander to and from the fortifications of la cité. Boats will cruise you along the Canal du Midi and I once spent a couple of wonderful days cycling in both directions along the towpath – very bruised from bumping over the tree roots, but happy.

  • Canal du Midi Carcassonne

Now, on a Sunday in April, I zigzagged to avoid the dogsh*t as I walked through the shuttered town, and wondered why I’d come back. The town was dead, but did I really want to join the throngs of visitors up in the fortress?

Of course I did. From the Pont Vieux over the River Aude, the outer ring of the concentric fortifications looms up ahead on the opposite bank. There’s little indication that a portion of the 360,000 or so annual tourists are swarming around inside.

Carcassonne town
Carcassonne citadel

As I ducked past the costumed soldier at the Porte Narbonnaise,  the atmosphere became transformed from dead Sunday to Disney wonderland. Here almost everything was open, with shops selling souvenirs, jewellery, Marseille soap, furs, and more jewellery. Like many must-sees, Carcassonne is a casualty of what it offers in terms of impressive heritage. These fortifications date right back to the Roman occupation, and fans of Kate Mosse novels will know that the cité has an ominous history as a home of the persecuted Cathars, who were nevertheless expelled from there in the early 13th century. Perhaps some visitors are particularly drawn by whatever lies at the end of the ominous signs that point the way to les tortures.

Of more interest to me was a poster proclaiming that Carcassonne is the only town in Languedoc-Rousillon where Occitan is taught from Primary right through to High School. The term Occitan, or the langue d’oc, came into being in the 14th century to differentiate between the languages spoken in the south and the north of France. The langue d’oc, spoken where oc was the word for yes, is a legacy of the region’s proximity to Spain and Italy.

As a linguist, I view Occitan as an umbrella term, rather than a clearly defined, individual language. There are a number of related varieties within southern France, such as Languedocien and Gascon, all with the same Latin root, and all with few contemporary speakers. As I noted in my book, over 90% of the Ariège population in 1864 were speakers of Gascon, rather than French, yet hardly anyone can speak it there now.

But here in Carcassonne, pupils can choose from an entire curriculum in Occitan. And it’s about more than just maintaining the language of their ancestors. The similarities of Occitan to Catalan, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese mean that it’s a bridge to learning those other languages.

Carcassonne ramparts

So, with all the crowds and consumerism, is Carcassonne worth a visit? It’s true that the narrow inner streets are crammed with people, but few seem to venture the short distance to the outer ramparts, where you gain a true perspective of the size of these fortifications.  From here there’s also a view that stretches across the terracotta rooftops of Carcassonne, and, if you’re lucky, a close-up of a banking Ryanair plane as it prepares to land.

Similarly, if you can pull yourself away from the busy Place Marcon, there are quiet squares where few venture, such as the Place St Jean, with its view across the ramparts. And as the darkness descends, so does the magic; the floodlit ramparts have an eerie quality, and there are restaurants on the side streets that’ll transport you from Disneyland back into gourmet France.

Best of all, responsible dog owners are greeted with free bags on arrival at the fortress. That means clean pavements.

In search of Dordogneshire: Bergerac in the time of Brexit

On By Michelle LawsonIn British migration to France, European travelLeave a comment

Back when I was researching English incomers in the Ariège Pyrenees, many people cited Dordogne as a kind of benchmark. It was a way to disassociate themselves from that stereotype of Little England:

‘I think people come here because they don’t want that Dordogne thing. They want to take part in the French culture. They don’t want the English on the doorstep all the time.’

So if Dordogne didn’t exist, perhaps it would be necessary for the English to invent it, to have something to identify against. We also appear to have invented an odd pronunciation – Dordoyn – that rhymes with groin rather than Sonya. I wonder where that came from?

Anyway, my pursuit of Dordogneshire began with just 32 euros for a five hour journey from Carcassonne to Bergerac. After a heart-sinkingly dull approach to the famed wine town, my spirits picked up as soon as I wandered around the half-timbered buildings that line the narrow alleys of Bergerac’s medieval centre.

  • Rue des Rois de France, Bergerac
    Rue des Rois de France, Bergerac
  • Cyrano de Bergerac
    Cyrano de Bergerac

The Musée de la Ville tells how the Brits were once the principal buyers of the area’s wine, with a preference for a rather weak rosé. That was until the 18th century, when the Dutch market replaced the British and led the vintners to produce stronger reds.

On hearing I was from England, the museum officer immediately asked if I was one of the 8,000 Brits who lived in the Périgord region. Apparently they mostly live in the hilltop bastide towns rather than Bergerac itself. Predictably, the second question was about Brexit – pff! – which gave me an opportunity to use all six of the words for crazy I’ve learned.

Being early April, many restaurants remained closed, but I found one that was sufficiently intimate to strike up a conversation with the woman at the next table: a Dutch woman who’d just begun a 10-week hike to Santiago de Compostela. She was walking the pilgrim’s Way of St James.

“And you, you’re fleeing Brexit?” I ignored the snorts of laughter from the other tables and asked her about The Way. She described it as a metaphor for living: how you cope with the walk can reflect how you live your life.

According to her, Le Brexit is also metaphorical; we can’t physically leave Europe, as Britain shares the same tectonic plate as the continent.

The next day I joined the Pilgrim for a Dordogne river cruise on one of the old gabarres boats. Sadly, we waited in vain for enough people to turn up to make the required number. But the guide entertained us for a whole hour with a commentary on just about everything, such as the lift in the river to help the salmon get upstream, and les Anglais, of whom he seemed fond. Mais le Brexit, pff!

  • Wisteria on the banks of the Dordogne
    Wisteria on the banks of the Dordogne
  • Half-timbered buildings, Bergerac
    Half-timbered buildings

The next day, standing in the airport queue, I wondered if he’d come across the English man in front of me. Mr No Deal smiled vacantly while another, very patient, English man tried to explain what ‘trade’ is, and why the local police force not being any good isn’t a reason to leave the EU. I had an urge to tell Mr No Deal about the tectonic plate, as I had an idea he’d turn up with his tools to dig us to victory, I mean freedom. Let us take back control of our tectonic plate, so we can float away into a sovereign sunset!

In summer Bergerac must feel very different when the narrow cobbles ring to the footsteps of the visitors, but it’s not Dordogneshire. Almost all of the very detailed heritage information signs were in French only, and so were those in the museum. There wasn’t an English menu to be seen either. The only English I heard was in response to the Pilgrim asking for tea in a wine bar: Madame, you’ve come to the wrong place!

  • Bergerac street

On the last night I hugged the Pilgrim goodbye and wished her luck, feeling envious. I liked Bergerac and I didn’t really want to leave, and that was probably because I hadn’t found Dordogneshire.

But there, at the tiny airport, were the clues. A large estate agency instead of a duty free shop, and posters advertising relocation services and English renovation architects. The English are all upstream, like the salmon. That gives me a reason to come back. Pff!  

Jardins de la Fontaine, Nîmes

A stopover in Nîmes: slow travel in the South of France.

On By Michelle LawsonIn European travel1 Comment

It’s the first day of spring, although the Jardins de la Fontaine smell more like early summer. Half the population of Nîmes is sitting on the lawns of the 17th century park, like the Uber Eats cyclist taking a break, and the other half are in the outdoor cafes of the old town. I walk up the balustraded stairways and look down at the fat orange fish in the ornamental ponds until my eyes are drawn to vivid purple amongst the green.

Jardins de la Fontaine, Nîmes
Jardins de la Fontaine, Nîmes

A path leads up through the pine woods to the highest point in Nîmes and the oldest of the Roman sites, the Tour Magne. From the top of the tower the line of the Via Domitia, built by the Romans to link the Alps with the Pyrenees, still carves through the city.

From up here you gain a true perspective of the Arènes de Nîmes – a gigantic bowl of a Roman amphitheatre with 34 rows of seats that rise up and outwards.

Arènes de Nimes amphitheatre

As I leave the Tour Magne, four police officers amble up to it. France is on alert with the Gilets Jaunes demos, but these four act more like curious tourists than law enforcers. I see them again and again that afternoon, wandering round and smiling, looking at things rather than people.

Tour Magne, Nimes
Maison Carré

Crossing the road back into the pedestrianised old town, it’s a surprise to come face to face with one of the best preserved temples from the Roman world, right here in the middle of Nîmes.  The Maison Carrée has been a centrepoint of the city for almost 2,000 years.

It’s 6pm and still hot so I go into the Amorino ice cream shop where they carve my scoops into flower petals and politely check that I understand that lime basilic comes with basil as well as lime. As I step out of the shop I almost collide with a very elderly man in violently patterned shorts. He barks at me in a strangulated voice, in a language that could be English.

Darkness falls and it’s time to join everyone else eating outdoors. I choose a table opposite a narrow alley with a view through to the massive grey stones of the amphitheatre.  16 euros to sit here under the still-swollen moon, with a duck burger du Perigord and a small pichet of white wine; a bargain.

Taking the Eurostar from London to Avignon? Nîmes is just an hour or so by frequent train service from Avignon central. See Loco2 for times and tickets.

All of the Roman sites can be visited. Read more about visiting Nîmes here.

    Technicolour Dreams: a day at the France Show 2019

    On By Michelle LawsonIn British migration to FranceLeave a comment

    “I wonder if punters don’t just want to read about the romantic Peter Mayle/Place in the Sun fantasy?” remarked a literary agent to me when I was writing A House at the End of the Track. I’m happy to say I’m proving him wrong. Apparently the book is sparking people’s dreams to move to France as well as giving a new perspective on the dream’s reality.

    That word ‘dream’ crops up all the time, not least in the property websites and the big shows that sell France. I’d talked to people in the Ariège who’d ‘discovered’ the region whilst talking to an estate agent at one of the France Shows at Olympia. With a free day in London that coincided with the France Show 2019, I went along to see how ‘the dream’ is presented vis à vis practical considerations.

    From the magazine racks stacked with French Property News that proclaim Technicolour DREAMS, to the giant images of lavender among the stalls of French properties, food and wine, you step straight into an environment of the dream as pull factor for both holidaymakers and prospective migrants.

    At least the FNP magazine balances the dream with reality, as this month’s practical articles deal with issues such as destructive termites and English cowboy builders. And plenty of assistance was on offer at the show, from English-speaking bank accounts in France to insurance and language learning, including an enjoyable session from Arnaud’s Language Kitchen.

    So perhaps we should think less in terms of a dream, with its connotations of fantasy, and more about, well, an aspiration or ambition, perhaps. And what’s wrong with calling it a plan? When researching A House at the End of the Track I’d been surprised by those who’d bought a house in the Ariège on a whim. Sometimes they’d gone into an estate agents’ on holiday and come out with a house. Others simply wanted more space than they could afford in the UK and had looked to France, despite having never visited the country.

    The whole idea of “moving to France for a better life” was a generic phenomenon that sometimes blurred the distinctiveness of place. To some incomers, Ariège could have been anywhere in France, as long as it had the right house. The country itself was sometimes an amorphous backdrop, affordable “France”, a commodity that people didn’t always examine beyond its ability to offer the right house at the right price. It seemed too easy to come to the Ariège inhabiting an idea rather than a place, and when the idea became the place, it was not always what people had imagined or intended.


    A House at the End of the Track.

    So it was good to see plenty of services to help people make a more informed decision, like the ‘hands-on orientation of life’ offered by re-nesting experts Renestance – you get yourself to somewhere like Montpellier or Beziers and they’ll show you the ropes as well as the properties. That word ‘dream’ is right there in their branding of a French Lifestyle Dream, but at least they’re looking beyond the house to the life that comes with it.

    The demographic wandering around the France Show was surprisingly varied, and not a majority white, middle class, thinking-about-retirement slice of middle England that some have declared it to be. Plenty of people were approaching retirement though, perhaps looking for a challenge or wanting to avoid that ‘digging in to die’ feeling that one of my interviewees described to me.

    I steered clear of the food and drink stalls, shocking one stallholder when I told her I’m not a foodie. “Why not?” she shrieked. I avoided the can-can dancers too, and instead listened to writer Anthony Peregrine contrasting Lancashire with the Languedoc. I don’t suppose anyone was surprised to hear about Montpellier’s lack of drunks on a Saturday night compared with Morecambe. The audience of dreamers would undoubtedly have found his humorous and affectionate view of life in France quite encouraging, although Peregrine has also written ambivalently about The English re-colonisation of south-west France for the Daily Telegraph .

    Montpellier at night

    A Saturday night in Montpellier…

    Back into Dream territory and the audience sat up alert for Janine Marsh’s description of her life as an expat in rural northern France. Forget the lack of weekend drunks in Montpellier compared with Morecambe – we know that! – people want to hear about how easily they can make the dream come true. According to Janine, as long as you’re prepared to work hard and watch a lot of YouTube tutorials, you can transform a French wreck into a house. I guess that was what some people had come to hear, but I hope they realise that French Building Regulations are not the same as ours.

    Like any dream, it’s vulnerable: to the economy, to exchange rates, to illness, to unexpected termite infestations, to lower-than-expected bookings for your gîte and to the uncertainty of political developments such as Brexit. But despite these factors, in that grim cavern of Olympia, in a city that’s trying to keep its doors open while all around they’re slamming shut, the dream to escape to sunflowers and lavender is very much alive. If the idea of rosé on the patio is your dream, then good luck, and I don’t blame you one bit.

    • French sunflowers


    My favourite summit: Climbing Pic Rouge de Bassiès 2676m

    On By Michelle LawsonIn Illustrated Ariege walksLeave a comment

    I don’t know why the golden half-dome of this summit has taunted me ever since I spotted it on the horizon of Pyrenean peaks in the Ariège. Its distinctive profile seemed to pop up everywhere I went.  Rising up smoothly on one side, the dome breaks off abruptly where its eastern side has been chiselled away, no doubt by long-ago ice action.

    DSCF3141

    Walking through the woods in winter, I’d spotted it rearing up in white like a petrified breaking wave, the only hint that there was a mountain chain there at all.  At 2676m it was higher than anything else I’d reached apart from Mont Valier, but it isn’t a technical climb, just a rollercoaster of a long, long ridge that rises and falls as it switches through changing terrain.

    Pic Rouge de Bassies
    Pic Rouge de Bassies summit, far left
    Dent de Mede through the cloud
    Etangs de Bassies, Ariege
    Etangs de Bassies

    I’ve wanted to stand on that summit for years, although I’d turned back twice; once because the jagged teeth of the approach ridge looked too scary, and the second time when a large bank of cloud suddenly engulfed the summit dome, just as I was at its foot.

    This October, seeing a window of clear, cool days, I was going to do it.

    Parking at Coumebière (1400m), the round walk is about 15-16 miles with a height gain of 1276m, so it’s a very long day, with some tiring scrambling across a boulder field of pink-tinged rocks that give the peak its name.

    The pink boulders below Pic Rouge
    Watching vultures at the foot of the summit dome

    From Coumebière follow signs to the étang de Labant, then climb up through the beech woods behind it to gain a small col on the ridge. Take a moment to enjoy the stupendous view over the Garbet Valley and the glacial cirques to the south, before turning left onto the uppermost path. Follow this path above the Garbet and eventually it turns left to rise steeply up to the main ridge that overlooks the Bassiès lakes. The destination summit is now visible in the far distance.

    Follow the ridge path as it takes you over Pic des Planes and Cot de Morech, and then as the ridge becomes spiky with towering rocks, the path turns to the left of that crest, keeping below it. After an hour of scrambling over boulders – keep an eye open for the cairns and yellow markers – you’re at the foot of the summit dome. The path zig zags up steeply until suddenly, there’s the tall summit cairn ahead, and you’re looking across the other side to the Montcalm massif. If you’ve ever walked to the etang du Garbet, you’ll recognise the craggy ridge of the surrounding cirque (with the distinctive notch of the couillade de Puntussan) down to the west, along with Puntussan itself and a glimpse of  étang Bleu.

    IMG_3040
    Looking down at the ridge behind etang du Garbet and Puntussan

    It was 5 hours up and 4 down for me, but I’m slow.

    Summit of Pic Rouge de Bassies
    Enfin le sommet!

    If you have the energy, some make it a round walk by diverting south beneath the ridge of Cabanatous with a stop at étang d’Alate. And for further inspiration, I highly recommend this Youtube video of the route, set to Xavier Rudd’s fabulous Spirit Bird. It certainly inspired me to persevere (although I passed on doing a summit handstand…)

    For more details of the route and a map, try the Lone Peak Bagger‘s site.

    A hike to Étang de Guzet and Cascade d’Ars in the French Pyrenees

    On By Michelle LawsonIn Illustrated Ariege walksLeave a comment

    Escape the crowds and discover a secluded mountain lake in the unspoiled Ariège region of the French Pyrenees

    The triple waterfalls of Cascade d’Ars are deservedly well known, but it’s possible to make a longer round walk that takes in the étang de Guzet. Or, if you’ve already walked to the falls, a hike up to this beautiful hidden lake itself is well worth it, and it avoids the crowds that tend to stick to the falls.

    Etang de Guzet
    Etang de Guzet

    I started from the car park in Aulus les Bains and walked a short way up the D8F towards the Col de Latrape.  Ignore the left turn to the Cascade and soon afterwards you take a path up to the left, heading steeply up through the forest and crossing the forest track at one point. 

    Eventually you come out into the open Plateau de Souliou with a view of the cirque of Pic de Mont Rouge ahead (image 1 below). Look over to your right and you’ll see the lifts of the Guzet ski resort, as well as Pics de Cerda and Freychet (image 2).

    Then continue to follow signs for the étang de Guzet, climbing up through the woods until you see a marked path down on the right to the lake shore.  It’s a tranquil spot.  Look out for the twin ‘claw’ summit of Pic de Crabe (image 3) reflected in the water.

    Continue reading “A hike to Étang de Guzet and Cascade d’Ars in the French Pyrenees” →

    How to climb Tuc de la Coume, Le Port, Ariège French Pyrenees

    On By Michelle LawsonIn Illustrated Ariege walks1 Comment

    A long ridge with a stunning panorama. But it’s not easy to find a route on the map.

    For years I’ve gazed at this summit (image 1), wondering how to get there as there’s no direct path marked on the maps. It’s a relatively easy summit on a long ridge that lies between the valley of the Garbet (the section running from Ercé to Aulus) and the Courtignou valley (the D18) from Massat up to the étang de Lers.

    At 1745m it’s not especially high but you get a 360 degree panorama of both the summit chain and the surrounding valleys. The final bit is steep and the tiny summit feels somewhat exposed, especially when peering down the scarp of the eastern flank.

    The route I’ve given starts at the étang de Lers (between Le Port and Aulus).

    Tuc de la Coume in winter
    Climbing the ridge
    Summit of Tuc de la Coume

    Continue reading “How to climb Tuc de la Coume, Le Port, Ariège French Pyrenees” →

    Étang d’Areau from Col de Pause

    On By Michelle LawsonIn Illustrated Ariege walksLeave a comment

    The Col de Pause is a starting point for some wonderful walks, as well as an up-close view of Mont Valier.

    This describes a walk up to the pastures known by various spellings: Areau, Arreau, Arréou and Areou, and its emerald green lake.

    Some brave souls drive up to the parking area at the Col, but the road gets rougher and narrower beyond Laserre, so I park at Laserre and then walk along the GR10.  That takes me around 40 mins to get to the Col de Pause.  I never fail to be amazed by the view of Mont Valier up close:

    Mont Valier from the Col de Pause – summer
    The same view in autumn

    Continue reading “Étang d’Areau from Col de Pause” →

    A 360˚ Panorama from Pic de Girantès / Mont Ceint, and an absent reminder of the French Résistance

    On By Michelle LawsonIn Illustrated Ariege walksLeave a comment

    At 2088m, Mont Ceint (also known as Pic de Girantès) gives a superb 360° panorama over the surrounding ridges and valleys. It’s also a fairly accessible and straightforward hike, although steep on the upper section.

    The most straightforward route is from the parking at Coumebière.  The first stage follows the GR10 zig zags (les lacets) that bring you up to the Port de Saleix in around an hour and a half.

    Spring gentian above Port de Saleix
    Spring gentian above Port de Saleix

    Continue reading “A 360˚ Panorama from Pic de Girantès / Mont Ceint, and an absent reminder of the French Résistance” →