Canal in Sète, France, lined with boats and waterfront buildings at sunset.
Canals, Coastal Flavors, and the Heritage of Southern France
Sète grew around the water, and its canals still run through the heart of the town. The Grand Canal passes colorful waterfront buildings, fishing boats, and busy quaysides, while historic drawbridges link the streets on either side. It’s easy to see why Sète is often called the “Venice of Languedoc.” Above the waterfront, Mont Saint-Clair looks across the town and Mediterranean coast, while the broad Thau Lagoon stretches away on the other side.
The port also puts some very different corners of southern France within reach. Montpellier brings medieval streets and grand squares together in one of the region’s historic university cities. Farther inland, the fortified citadel of Carcassonne is enclosed by double walls and drawbridges, while Nîmes preserves some of Roman Gaul’s most impressive monuments, including its Arena and the Maison Carrée. The Pont du Gard carries that Roman story into the countryside in a vast aqueduct of stone. Back near Sète, the Thau Lagoon has its own traditions, from oyster farming to the vermouth made at Noilly Prat in nearby Marseillan.
Cruises to Sète
Sète cruise port highlights
Porte du Peyrou triumphal arch in Montpellier, France.
Historic Montpellier and its Medieval Old Town
Montpellier has been a center of trade and learning since the Middle Ages, and much of that history survives in its pedestrian Old Town. Medieval alleyways lead into broad public spaces such as Place de la Comédie, while the Porte du Peyrou and Saint-Pierre Cathedral give the city center some of its most recognizable landmarks.
The university tradition gives Montpellier another dimension. This is not a museum city preserved behind old façades, but a busy southern French center where medieval streets remain part of everyday urban life.
Rows of large wooden barrels in the historic Noilly Prat cellars in Marseillan, France.
Thau Lagoon Oysters and Noilly Prat
The Thau Lagoon is a working center for shellfish farming, with oyster farms spread around its shores and fresh oysters served with local white wine. In nearby Marseillan, the historic Noilly Prat distillery continues another regional specialty, producing the French vermouth that has made the town known far beyond the coast.
Medieval fortified city of Carcassonne, France, with stone walls and towers overlooking the Aude River.
Medieval Carcassonne and Roman Nîmes
Carcassonne makes its impression before you even enter it. Double fortified walls, towers and drawbridges surround the UNESCO-listed citadel, while the Château Comtal stands at its heart. Inside the defenses, cobbled streets and old buildings preserve the atmosphere of a medieval fortified town on an extraordinary scale.
Nîmes belongs to a much earlier chapter of southern France. Its Roman Arena and the Maison Carrée survive at the center of the modern city, while outside Nîmes the Pont du Gard spans the Gardon River in tiers of stone arches. Built as part of the aqueduct system that carried water toward the Roman city, it remains one of the clearest examples of Roman engineering in the region.