Along the sea: Montpelier to Pezenas - Spring in Languedoc - CycleBlaze

March 28, 2017

Along the sea: Montpelier to Pezenas

I get lost in cities. The maps I use are usually too large of scale to be useful on city streets, and the GPS on my phone uses its batteries up too fast to be practical for more than a couple of hours. Since I would be going through three largish cities and a couple of smaller ones, I would have to resort to dead-reckoning for finding my way. No problem, its a sunny day and there is nowhere I have to be.

Getting from Avignon to Montpellier is easy. My hotel was two blocks from the gare and there is a train every two hours. I got on the 9:30 and was in Montpelier by 11:00. I've been to Montpellier before, but I had never tried to cycle out of the city. After a couple of false starts on busy roads, and a roundabout route made more difficult by road construction, I found my way to Maurin. There is a bike path that leads to Mireval, where I got a sandwich and water. After a quick lunch, I was on the road toward the sea,picking up the coastal bike path to Frontignan.

Between Maurin and Mireval.
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The old town gate in Mireval.
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The lagoon by the shore as I approached the Med.
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I passed over the bridge across the canal that runs from Sete to the Rhone.
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From the top of the bridge I got my first glimpse of the Mediterranean. The bike path runs along the coast from here to Frontignan, but it is behind the dunes, so the sea is mostly out of sight.
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There is still plenty to see, though, as the lagoons are home to many species of shore birds. Here is an Egret I spotted by the side of the trail.
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The bike path ends near Frontignan and I was dumped out on a very busy road for a couple of kilometers. Fortunately, The path reappeared as I neared Sete, but that too ended near the city center and once again I was lost. Eventually I found this path which seemed to go in the right direction. I'm looking back at Sete in this view.
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Looking forward in the direction of Agde. The buildings in the distance are still in Sete.
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The path in Sete is decorated with these mosaics. Kinda cool, I thought.
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After more behind-the-dunes riding, I got to Agde, and surprisingly enough I didn't get lost. I found the road north easily enough and was soon on a straight, tree-lined route along the river Herault.

Near St. Thibault I saw a sign for the Pont Romain. I'm a fan of all things Roman, so I had to take a look. This is NOT a Roman bridge, but a bridge built in the 12th century to replace the Roman bridge which had washed out in a spring flood. Looks like the replacement hasn't fared much better.
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From St. Thibault, I rode to Pézenas and after scouting around, I booked myself into the Hotel St. Germain. A shower and then dinner in the hotel restaurant were the prelude to an early night.

Today's ride: 97 km (60 miles)
Total: 116 km (72 miles)

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