Marseillan Ville

Marseillan is a most attractive small port on the inland side of the lagoon of the Étang de Thau, behind the 10-mile sand beach between Sète and Cap d'Agde.

It is one of the few unspoilt harbour towns in the western Mediterranean, featured on the BBC Travel programme both in 2002 and 2004, as a stopover for canal cruising, as an ideal base for exploring the Languedoc - and, in Autumn 2005, on Rick Stein's odyssey along the Canal du Midi.

Left. Marseillan from the air. Arrow points to Les Florentines.

Originally colonised by the Phoenicians in 535 BC, it grew to prosperity in the nineteenth century, the heyday of the Canal du Midi and of wine production for the industrial north. Its many small squares, public gardens, elegant buildings and tree-lined boulevards show the civic pride of the time.

The old town is a maze of narrow twisting streets that cheat the sun, lined with impressive doorways, dark passages, the arched doors of vignerons' caves, and overhanging gargoyles and carvings.

Left. The town church

The main port, in contrast, is busy and wide open to the sun, a fine place to meet friends for a drink or a meal.

There you may be drawn by the sound of a raucous peña band celebrating the victor of the water-jousts, les Joutes, or a flying leap to catch the  hat at the end of the Bigue, the greasy pole.

The Port des Pêcheurs is by the house, and just beyond that a newly-opened family park and children's play area.

Left. The capelet or the course à la bigue.