Visiting Sete – outing with Evasion

As every Sunday morning we met Evasion group at the coffee shop on Esplanade d’Europe. This Sunday we are only 7, I guess because it is a rainy and windy day. People here are used to sunshine and warm weather, today is considered cold for them. For us it is nothing unusual except the wind. I have to admit that the wind in Montpellier bother me because it comes in gusts. For example we are walking on the street, it is a bit windy and all of the sudden there is a gust of wind that almost “flips” me over – that is scary!

Anyway back to our outing; despite the weather (and hoping for the best) plan remains in place and we are heading to Sete.

Sete is a port city at 40 km from Montpellier; it is a fishery and a commercial port; it is the second port on the Mediteraeen Sea (Marseille is first) and the ninth port in France.

Our first visit was the old fishing village which is the same as many, many years ago.


It is interesting to see the old houses and the new cars parked in front of the houses, a mixture of very old and new, maintain the old but adapting and taking advantages and to the new. (I feel that everywhere is France, there is desire to keep the old , but yet to embrace the new).


After we visited the old village it is almost noon, the French really have to eat at noon. We had lunch at one of the local, non touristy restaurants. We are in a port city, then for sure we are going to eat fish and seafood. I had a fish soup which was very good and Mark ordered menu de jour with oyster, calamari and dessert “tart a pomme avec de chantilly ”. He let me taste some of his food, everything was delicious! We shared a bottle of the local French wine that I really like it as well.

After lunch we vistied George Brassens museum. George Brassens as presented by our French friends is the Bob Dylan of France. I listen to same of the songs and I liked them a lot. You have to listen to the music and understands the words to really his music. He is still very well known and loved by the French.

Second museum was Paul Valery. The exhibition was interesting, local and contemporary art, the only names I knew was Raoul Dufy.


In the meantime the weather improved quite a bit, no rain and some blue skies. We drove up the highest point in the city to visit a small church and see the city from up top; but city view wasn’t the best as still the sky wasn’t very clear.

I definitely want to come back to Sete, be a tourist for the day, visit the port, narrow streets, have a coffee et de patisserie du jour dans le centre de la ville, browse the stores…
I also want to walk up (there is a stair case )to the view point and admire the port on a sunny day. I would like to come here by bike, hope to find someone to come with, Mark is not into biking 40 km to Sete :(