After two strenuous days this was an easy ride to finish, first on back roads through the Languedoc vineyards, over a short hill and then to Loupian on the edge of the huge lagoon of the Etang
de Thau. As I rolled down towards the end of the journey I was thinking of my friend Ron who died earlier this year, as he was always encouraging his mates to do little challenges like this. I hope he would have approved.
From Loupian a cycle track
led round the edge of the lagoon towards Sète. I had been hoping to see
flamingoes or stilts but the wildlife was limited to a few gulls. Nearing
Sète the cycle track deteriorated and became hard to
follow, requiring a kindly local to show me the way, and then the last
stretch into town was a rather inadequate strip on the side of a busy
road.
Sète markets itself as the 'Venice of the Languedoc' - there are certainly lots of canals but the buildings are more modern, the church is not quite in the same league as San Marco and the only gondolier is the statue in the photo.
Still, it was a pleasant enough place to finish - I sat by the water eating the lunch that I had bought at a sandwicherie on the way into town before heading to the AirBnB apartment that I had booked. It was up a steep hill! This baseball cap was hanging on the door, and seemed very appropriate.
Later I rode out along the corniche cycle path to the west of town in search of a beach for a ceremonial swim in the Med. I found a small cove (in the next photo) that involved a rocky scramble to get down, but was still quite busy in spite of various notices warning that descent was interdit. I swam for a while before pottering back to the apartment for tea and cake.
Unlike the previous Sunday evening in Rochechouart, the town was still busy with no shortage of restaurants by the harbour for a very nice seafood meal and half a bottle of the local Picpoul to celebrate the end of the trip.
Distance today - 52 km. Distance from St Malo - 1120 km
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