It has been all quiet on the posting front as we have done the unimaginable for us and taken a holiday. Our excuse was that we needed to buy southern French wine and good quality olive oil - something we achieved, but in reality, having not had a holiday for two years, we needed time out.
We got in the car and headed south and indulged ourselves at our favourite restaurant - at Brive la Gaillarde down in the Correze, and called La Cremaillere. It is actually a hotel as well, but as we hadn't booked we couldn't get a room, but we could get a table for dinner. The chef there is a master and our meals were sumptuous but well judged so that we could actually move afterwards and didn't feel at all bloated or uncomfortable. We asked them to recommend a wine and it went with the meal fabulously without being the most expensive on the menu. The amuses bouche of pumpkin veloute, toast with tapenade and the most amazing mushroom fondant (or cappuchino as they called it) were perfection and live in the memory.
So if you are in the area - perhaps for a rugby match - this is the place to look for!
From there we went over the Millau viaduct and headed for the Med. There is now a service station by the bridge so you can stop and wonder at this edifice before driving over it and heading on your way.
We headed for Sete - a fairly substantial port near Montpellier, with a fishing fleet, a regular ferry service to Morocco and an active port that had the Arianne collector ship and loads of bits of wind turbines in when we were there. We were lucky to get a fine room at the Grand Hotel overlooking the canal junction. The canals join the Mediterranean with a lagoon behind Sete and its spit of beach that leads to Agde and Cap d'Agde to the east, so are salt water. The water is so clear you can admire dog fish drifting in the current and the oysters and sea urchins that have populated the sides of the canals. Another place we recommend! Here is the hotel -
And here is the excellent view of the canals at dusk from our third floor room balcony. About a kilometre along the canal straight ahead is the local MacDonalds that was pelted with octopi by Jose Bove and his chums in protest at Americanisation and fast food.
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