Le Cirque de la Moureze

The Cirque is up in the hills a ways, a bowl of interesting geological formations, mostly towers, and the pretty little town.  I thought the art in the town was worth an extra post.

Click to enlarge; everything you need to know

Mid-October, getting the wood in: I've been
there; miss it, too, though not slinging the axe

The little eglise

There is a driftwood sculptor in town of which
we'll see more

The autumn colors are increible!

Balaruc Les Bains

The Etang du Thau is the largest of the string of lagoons stretching from the Rhone to the Pyrenees. Sete is on its Mediterranean side and the town of Balaruc les Bains is on its interior. Balaruc is noted for its thermal springs; also as a French retiree enclave. There are numerous campgrounds, but we luckily found a spot at one of three aires and enjoyed the place enough to spend an extra night. Mostly we shopped the market, cooked, and ate. The Etang is one huge marine farm and is especially noted for its Bouziques oysters.

Tielles at a pizzeria in Balaruc; I should explain that tielles,
and their red sauce, came to Sete via seafaring Italian immigrants

The market had a rotisserie wagon or two and so we opted for
poulet roti and frites, with an onion/tomato slop, for dinner

In town, a few blocks from the aire, is a hole-in-the-wall
seafood store; I arrive early in the AM just as the oyster truck
is delivering...

Thus

The entire store; you can't get much fresher than this, though; I
bought a dozen #1s and shucked them all later without
wounding myself; great oysters

Beautifully landscaped little town

Thermal foot bath at the TI; the main thermal springs are now a
resort

The aire de camping-cars

In the main square, men doing what men must do

But wait; here, in an adjoining square, mixed doubles...hmmm

Driving on in morning mist, past the lagoon, where the
Bouziques oysters come from, toward our next destination,
the Cirque Moreze

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