AMB Cote d'Azur

Pouzolles is worth a visit – due to its testimony of Roman occupation. As of the 11th century Pouzolles is mentioned in a number of charters and would mean “oil well”, probably because of the presence of sources of oil in the area. A chateau dominates the village with its two turrets and by a church built at the site of the ramparts. One of the vestiges, the gate St Martin, is still visible. Vineyards and wine growing are now the town’s main activity. The wine growers reorganised the vineyards and through the contribution of new types of vines/grapes the cooperative Cellar, “Les Vignerons de Pouzolles-Margon, produces local wines of excellent quality (“Pays des Côtes de Thongue").

Pouzolles was followed by Roujon, Neffiès (half new-build, half older homes) but neither with a real heart to its villages; and subsequently Cabrières, which is very attractively positioned at the foot of the Massif.

We thus approached Clermont l’Herault from a more northern angle, coming into its suburbs first, which gave us a much better impression of how indeed this town was becoming a commuter town to Montpellier. The outlying housing estates, all newly built, once again with limited garden space, and very much one on top of the other, did not inspire us to consider the area. Canet on the outskirts of Clermont l’Herault, however, proved a complete contrast and the surrounding country roads are easily navigable. The same holds for Ceyras and St André-de-Sangonis, although we fear that in the future the space between Clermont l’H. and Pézenas will become increasingly built up.

One cannot but help fall in love with Pézenas! A very busy, quintessentially French town, full of curio and antique shops along myriad narrow streets, friendly towns folk, an attractive town centre and lots of ‘cafe-terrasses’. A veritable tourist attraction, yet not intrusively so. We were told Pézenas attracts quite a number of expats from different corners of Europe and its moderate winter climate is certainly one of the reasons for this, as well as its proximity to Montpellier (cp Clermont l’Herault). We enjoyed our visit immensely.

In order to scout the area better and have another respite from the car we opted to stay two nights in Béziers. Thus we headed for Serignan Plage, which represents a fairly tacky collection of snack-huts on the road leading to the beach. The beach is a long arcing bay of unspoilt, magnificent sand dunes providing an ideal resort for swimming and sun-bathing. But for the time of year it was quite desolate and we decided to go to Valras Plage instead. Valras Plage resembles Narbonne Plage a lot, although more ‘green’ in that it has shut off its beach showers due to water wastage when too many children use them to play games under. The weather continued cool and windy but we enjoyed our time basking in the sun. However, in the afternoon we returned to our hotel and made use of the pool there.

Sadly, our holiday was coming to its end. We treated ourselves to the best meal yet at La Potinière in Béziers (rue Alfred de Musset) and the following day meandered along the coast, admiring the beauty of Sete along the way, to return our rental car in Montpellier and make our journey back by train to the UK.

This trip has whetted a deeper interest in the area around Castres as well as west of Castres, towards Toulouse, for a next exploratory trip towards finding the right town and house for our retirement.

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Photo Credits : Ineke van Mackelenbergh