20 miles
Matthew confirmed that he would be joining us for four nights next week.That's great news - we packed a two person tent specially to be able to accommodate visitors, so we're delighted that it's going to get used. He's flying into Carcassonne on Sunday, so we're planning to make our way south using aires over the next few days. Our first stop is at Marseillan Plage, a small seaside resort at the southern end of the Bassin de Thau. The town of Marseillian itself is on the lagoon. It's claim to fame is that it's the home of the famous French vermouth, Noilly Prat. Like Meze, it has a pretty harbour. Because it is quite close to where the Canal du Midi joins the Med at Agde, there were quite a few British owned canal boats moored up, and their owners occupying the cafe tables browsing Telegraphs for news from home.
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| Marseillan |
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| Neither the handleless glass cup, quality of coffee nor inflated price meet with Gill's approval |
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| Marseillan Harbour |
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| Pete, outside the Noilly Prat works (one prat next to another?) |
We had a coffees, then drove on to Marseillan Plage for lunch. The aire accommodates thirty or so vans: it is brand new with marked bays separated by flower beds.The whole town is a purpose built resort. Built later than the 60s high rise mass resorts like Le Grande Roi, nevertheless it has the uniform planned look of the over- designed.
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| Marseillan Plage, charmless with palm trees |
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| Gill declines the opportunity to try the concrete recliners... |
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| The oyster fountain - pretty bad... |
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| but not so bad as the fish roe fountain illuminayed in neon... |
I have a theory that France is the only place in Europe where communism might have actually worked. The republican values and commitment to social ritual and fixed institutions - lunch at noon on the dot, queues in the patisserie Dimanche matin - so long as these remained, then the dictatorship of the proletariat would not have seemed so bad. What I wonder predominates in the French psyche - Liberté, Egalité ou Fraternité? Liberté may prevail in Parisian cultural life, or St Tropez' beach culture, but the latter two predominate somewhere like Marseillian Plage. Is it not the case that in an egalitarian society people would have to be content with their given lot? What you get here is designer concrete under a bright blue sky. Or, as Gill put it,"street furniture the colour of Eyore.
All that being said, I did get to jump in the Med, it is still 23 degrees at 5.30 on an October afternoon, and good wine is ridiculously affordable.....bring on the revolution!
Beach Life....
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