Sete

We had driven through Sete on several occasions since 1989, always admiring the place, but never able to find a parking place. On a couple occasions we camped on the beach south (west?) of Sete , an area now well developed, with a popular aire. But in 2017, I was determined, and with Le Duc, better described as Le Petit Duc, only 5.4 meters long, we indeed found a place and enjoyed a day exploring this large Mediterranean fishing town.

Yes!

It's not an old town but it has its charm

Especially if you like scenes like this

A town of canals, quais

Monument to the unknown octopus; see below

The local dish is Tielle Setoise; that is, a pastry
(like a pasty, to Montanans) filled with minced
octopus in a red sauce

Street scene

Ditto

The TI as well as the guide books said the best place for tielle, and oysters, was
the market, so there we went, and above is my tielle; I like octopus as long as it
does not look like octopus

And the remains of half a dozen oysters (the shrimp already gone); I was in heaven

Not exactly a restaurant, but popular

Later, we took in the brocantes market in the big square

And walked around

Mediterranean color

Interesting decor on the parking garage above the market

Outside the stripey shoppe

Street scene

Grand Canal

Photo of the town's annual boat jousting tournament

Street sweeper

Not a whole lot of interesting architecture

But some; so glad we finally got to see, do, eat Sete

Gruissan

Our second day in Narbonne was mostly administrative, but included two extended visits to the giant Carrefour across the street. Among the marvels there was the automatic crepe-making machine, which, I know, Vicki posted earlier on Facebook. It was a marvel, and warrants posting here too. As we wandered up and down the aisles, gawking at all the food and drink and other stuff we have missed since summer of 2016, we kept asking ourselves "So why is it we are planning to leave France?!" We did not answer the question but did decide to move on, 8 whole kilometers down the road, back toward the sea, to Gruissan, with its Medieval tower and radial old town. And possibly free aire.

In all its glory

The tower and fortress ruins at Gruissan, our goal

We parked in the old town and began threading
our way through the alleys to the foot of the
hill

Thus

There was more signage and explanation about
the "castle" and keep at Gruissan than
practically anything we have seen, ever, but I'll
spare you, and myself, from more than this

Chapel just below the tower

Flying model boat, as is common in port towns

Usual religious mannequins

Price list, although the explanation at the bottom
is convincing; I left a small offering

Back to the tower

And there it is; total wowsers

View back to Narbonne and the canal that links it to the sea
(through the lagoon, which is what you're looking at)

The tower

View over the town to the salt pans, which is the major
industry here

Mountains of recently harvested salt

Boats on the lagoon

Part of what attracted us to Gruissan, apart from the tower, is
that it is a radial town; this is hard to appreciate from the tower
itself, so we rented the Michelin blimp to get this better view;
note the canal

We spent some talking walking and shopping through the pretty
old town

The elementary school

Other tourists up on the tower

To our astonishment, flamingos in the lagoon, doing their
usual contortions; so we have see flamingos on three continents
recently...

We watched this guy chain-sawing these huge timbers, still not
understanding exactly how they are going into the small house
he is building

Little lending libraries very big in Gruissan

We ended up at the plage at Gruissan, at an aire that had closed
for the season but whose gate someone had kindly left open

We were not alone

Sunset