Tags
France, french, French village, Herault, Languedoc, marseillan, Mediteranean, oyster
We are well and truly ensconced in our little French village. We have been here for almost 3 months and are loving it. Marseillan is supposedly the third oldest village in France. Only Agde (about 5km away) and Marseille are older. It is located on the shore of the Etang de Thau, a large estuary right on the Mediterranean.
The Etang du Thau is home to a huge shellfish cultivation industry and Marseillan is reliant on that for a large part of its existence. Plump fresh oysters and mussels can be purchased from street vendors along with a bottle of Picpoul de Pinet, the locally produced white wine in the region, for a delightful cheap and tasty indulgence.
Tourism is also very important to the town and region. The beaches of the Mediterranean are only 5 km away. The beaches are nice, but like many parts of this region a rather tacky beachside development of cheap bars, cheap restaurants and cheap theme parks has sprung up. Unfortunately, cheap means cheap and nasty, not cheap and cheery.
Marseillan has a beautiful little port and it is the epicentre of life in the town. There are numerous restaurants, bars, oyster vendors and a vermouth distillery, Noilly Prat along the port.
Marseillan also has 300 sunny days a year. One of them was today, so I took the opportunity to get a few snaps before sunset.
