Last winter, while poring over maps and websites, the reality of the route is just a dream. The city of Sete, perhaps due to its strategic location on the Mediterranean had an undefinable allure for us. It also represented an achievement of one of our goals of travelling through the length of France from Strasbourg to the Mediterranean. It is the first time for both of us to visit the south of France.
The graceful elegance of Sete with its artistic core, a vibrant fishing port with a canal down the centre of the historic centre and beautiful beaches has more than lived up to our expectations.
The family run. Hotel Le National is situated beside the Opera House and is well run by the father and his son. The rooms are incredibly spacious with a small terrace overlooking the opera house and this solid old building is so quiet, that we even wondered at times if we were the only people staying there.
Personal family touches of the vintage bike and photos and seeing machine added character to this hotel.
The ride along the spit on a dedicated paved bike route is memorable with very little commercialism or condos - just parking, access paths to the beach and dunes. The map shows the first part of our day out of Sete to Adge.
Barry made me laugh when he asked me if I ever get tired of people watching us. I looked up and he was referring to this mannequin, so he went over to introduce himself.
Along the bike route out of Sete we were impressed to see this mirrored art piece of the Mediterranean looking out to sea by the bike path. We took our picture as we rode by and you can see Barry waving. Looking at the photo now, it seems prophetic as it looks to me like he is pointing at the next part of our journey, Sardinia and mainland Italy.
