Sete to La Grande Motte

May 5, 2023

We had an impressive 8am departure from the campground this morning at Balaruc-les-Bains so we could enjoy our breakfast and expressos at the water's edge in the sunshine. Fortified we circumvented the Étage de Thau once more and arrived in Sete at 9:30.

It was a very different scene then last evening with delivery trucks blocking streets and cars swerving around them trying to get to work. Even though the patio crowd had moved to the morning sunny side of the canals and the barristas were bustling serving cafes et croissants, after taking a few pictures, we decided to wait a while for our second coffees a little later down the road.

Today was an ideal cycle day, once we left Sete the rest of the day was on dedicated bike paths that are part of the official EuroVelo 8. Besides meeting the wind full on for most of the ride, we met many cycle tourers. Perhaps they know the better direction to have the wind as your friend. The bike path mostly was beside the road, but we got caught a few times missing an unlikely turn down a side street or lane that wasn't obvious. However, it was easy to get back on track and we made good time.

Although we are beside the Mediterranean, we spent the day riding beside and around canals, inlets, ponds, drainage ditches with only a few glimpses of the sea. The sun was hot and Steve was keen to get into camp in time to go for a swim.

At last we pulled into La Grande Motte, an eye-popping, different, beach resort. Built from scratch in the late 1960s, the entire town was designed as a model beach community with well laid out parks, service and shopping districts back from the waterfront, but most impressive is that all the buildings on the beach look like a mix of Aztec pyramids and Le Corbusier sculptures. As is common in France, the buildings have names, but rather than "Le Soleil" here one finds "Teotihucan" and "Kheops". And, most interesting, there is no signage indicating which, if any, are hotels, just the similar, subtle signage with the building name. We cycled back from the beach about 5 minutes to the camping zone and chose the zen campground, which is one of the best we have seen in France, and only 13.80€ for cyclists!

And yes, Steve made it down for his first swim of the year in the Mediterranean. Refreshing after a long day on the bikes.