Sète sits on a narrow band of land between the open Mediterranean and the wide Étang de Thau, laced through with canals where the fishing boats come and go. It calls itself the singular island, and it more or less is — a working port with its own accent, its own kitchen and a hill in the middle to climb for the view.
I. The canals and the jousts
The Canal Royal runs through the heart of town, lined with seafood restaurants and the trawlers tying up between trips. On summer feast days the canal hosts the joutes nautiques — water-jousting, two men on rival boats trying to knock each other into the water with lances, a Sète tradition three centuries old and taken entirely seriously.
“A port between two waters, with its own accent and a hill to see them both.”
II. The hill and the poets
Above the town the Mont Saint-Clair gives the great view over the sea, the lagoon and the rooftops. On its slope the Cimetière marin, the sea cemetery, looks out over the water — the poet Paul Valéry, who named it in his most famous poem, lies here, and so, in another corner of town, does the singer Georges Brassens. Sète keeps its own.
III. The lagoon and the table
Behind the town the Étang de Thau grows the famous oysters and mussels, raised on ropes from wooden tables and opened a few metres from where they grew, at Bouzigues and Marseillan on the far shore. In town, try the tielle, the spiced octopus pie that is pure Sète — and very little eaten anywhere else.
