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SETE is the most important harbor of Languedoc and the
most important fishing harbor of the
Mediterranean. It has no real reason to be visited by tourists but the unity of
harbor, ditches and the MONT SAINT CLAIR are pretty convivial. The great event
of the year is the TOURNOI DES JOUTES, sort of tournament, not between knights
on a horse but between seamen standing on the stern of some ship. The idea is to
push the other seaman in the water with a long pole. The French know Sete as the
birthplace of singer Georges Brassens and writer Paul Valery. The city developed
after the Canal du Midi was completed.
If you want absolutely see something and not only stroll along the harbor, you
can go to the CIMETIERE MARIN, the seamen cemetery on the Mont Saint Clair.
Because the mountain is quite elevated, you have a wide view of the
surroundings, even up to the Pyrenées on a clear day. The MUSEE PAUL VALERY
keeps souvenirs from the poet of the same name, and of Georges Brassens, the
joutes nautiques and has also a collection of antiquities with Gallo Roman
findings.
BANYULS-SUR-MER is a bath resort and fisher harbor on the Cote Vermeille. A lot
of wine is grown in the neighborhood. Long-distance hikers know the place as
ending point of LA GRANDE RANDONNEE 10, the hiking route running along the
Pyrenées. In the aquarium (open every day) of the LABORATOIRE ARAGO you can sea
rare fish sorts from the Mediterranean. The laboratory is a dependence of the
Sorbonne in Paris.
A small monument reminds a high fact of local history: in 1793 the citizens
stopped a Spanish
army, which gave the French forces the opportunity to organize a hasty tactical
withdraw. Asked by the Spanish general, the wounded mayor of Banyuls told him
that revolutionaries knew how to die. And the fight raged into the streets of
the city. The government in Paris decided that a monument had to be erected
immediately, what indeed happened in…1893
You can make a pretty promenade from Banyuls to the farm LA BAILLAURIE, the
house where sculptor MAILLOL died and where he is buried. The farm is not far
from the river whose name it bears. The last part of the stroll is marked with
inscriptions “Tombeau de Maillol”. You need something more than an hour to
arrive.
CAP D’ABEILLE, 2 km south of Banyuls, and CAP REDERIS, 2 km east, are two pretty
sea capes. In last case you have a beautiful view. It is even stronger at the
TOUR DE MADELOC, a 14th century, signaling tower at 12 km from
Banyuls, put there by king Jaime I from Mallorca. |
