Seafood Delight – Meze, France

We moved on from Palavas-les-Flot this morning, without disappointment though with a certain amount of manoeuvring, to get out around the other crammed in motorhomes. Only a short trip down the road this morning, to give the South of France coast line another shot. We had read about the Oyster beds in the Étang de Thau inland sea just along the coast and decided to try a new Aire in Meze. After a not ideal route from Google maps through town. We arrived safely enough in the Aire and managed to get a slot, it was fairly empty by lunchtime. Although by nightfall the Aire was full again, I can only imagine how busy it must be round here in the summer, though I guess there are also a lot of campsites open at that time of year too.

Literally all the campers seem to have bikes and were cycling into town, but it was only a 30 minute walk so we thought we would stretch ours and the dogs’ legs. It was interesting to walk in through the suburbs and see the local houses, with high walls, it reminded us a little of Spain. The newer houses were smaller villas but looked really cosy and had everything you would need. A nice outdoor lifestyle with verandas but small windows on the house, presumably to keep out the summer heat. Into old town, which had wonderful small alleyways and tall houses with ornate verandas and made a lovely shaded walk down to the waterfront. However there was also some nice town squares, surrounded, not by tat shops, but bakers and butchers etc. There was a large harbour at the front which looked to be local boats. Round the corner was a beachfront and garden area with local children playing. Although there were quite a few restaurants it just did not feel touristy lots of local people too having a coffee and lunch.

There were signs for seafood everywhere, so Kevin was super excited to have lunch and we toured the seafront for our preferred option. He managed to have local oysters and mussels washed down with a local Picpoul de Pinet which made him very happy. After unaccustomed lunchtime drinking we were pleased of a walk back and a siesta before a quiet evening with a bit of tv streaming which is working really well, everywhere we go we have had all we wanted with our NowTV stick.