June 14, 2013
Hairpin curves and a fright

     I am due at the Mèze home of Francine, a friend of Judith and Louis', by one o'clock.  She has invited me for the weekend so that I can famliarize myself with her house before I actually house-sit, about a week from now.  I rise by seven-thirty, organize final preparations for the drive to Mèze, and even have time for a short bicycle ride.

     I set the GPS for Francine's address and start my trip by driving downhill out of Caunes at 9:45 a.m..  The GPS tells me to turn right at the sign for "Citou", which leads me into the hills and up a country road that continues to mount, more precipitously with each kilometer.  I reach Citou, five kilometers away, a hamlet known as 'the sweet onion capital of France".  Citou proper is five houses, past which I drive within a minute.  Continuing to follow the road, it starts to climb at an even steeper grade.  It is at that point that I lose my nerve and my faith in the GPS.

     Below me is the Citou farmers' tillage.  Indeed, on my left I overlook a drop that would seriously compromise my life on earth, sending me right into the fields.  On my right is a stone wall made of small stones.  To turn around and go back the way I came, I must drive downhill in reverse without scratching the Clio chassis against the stone wall, simultaneously avoiding a plunge into the onion fields.

      It must take the longest fifteen minutes of my life to ease the car down the incline inch-by-inch, ever-so-slowly.  Finally, I have moved fifteen feet downhill in reverse to a tiny cut on the right into which I reverse the car slowly until I have enough clearance to be able to go forward then turn back to Caunes.  The distance between Caunes and Citou is 5 kilometers, but it might be as far as Everest for purposes of my mental health.

      I make it back to Caunes, this time leaving the village from the opposite direction.  The GPS now re-set, I drive in the direction of Peyriac alongside the vineyards.  However, this route takes me. far afield as well: I drive through the backroads a considerable while before I pick up the toll road to Narbonne.  Thinking I have now set out on the desired route, I happily note that a sign says I have crossed from the Aude département into L'Herault, where Mèze is located.

      My happiness is short-lived, though. I am near Narbonne before I see an exit marked "Sète", and I have been on the road for two hours without a sign of Mèze.  Once I take the exit for Sète, it takes me another hour to make it to Mèze, which I reach by 12:45 p.m.  Francine, hears my car pull in and comes out to greet me.  She is well-aware that I have been seriously off-route.  When I tell her about the toll road, she explains that the toll road takes longer than driving the local roads.  I am just glad that I have survived the journey.

                                                                           ***

        After lunch, Francine drives me to Sète, and I appreciate why it took so long to get from Sète to Mèze.  On a map, Sète looks like a barrier island: one side of it faces the Mediterranean, the other   Mèze.   In fact Mèze, with 11,000 people; and Sète, with 42,000 are each located on opposite shores of an inland lake, the Bassin de Thau, the second largest in France.  It is also called Étang de Thau.

          This area, like the adjoining Camargue, which forms the delta of the River Rhone, were for many years plagued by malaria-carrying mosquitoes.  In the 1960s the government made a successful effort to eradicate them, and in the following decades sought to develop the area as an alternative to the overcrowded and expensive Provençal and Riviera coasts.  Sète, however, is an old town, after Marseille, France's second-largest port for commercial tuna fishing.

          Sète is known for its canals, which are small and not so different from those of Venice.  The town was built on Mont St. Clair, at whose top there is a chapel dedicated to the Virgin of La Sallette and a giant cross.  On the 19th of each month there is a pilgrimage from Sète harbor to the chapel.  Adjoining the chapel is an overlook that offers breathtaking views of the Bassin de Thau, Mèze, Sète, Marseillan and Bouzigues.  The three towns are centers of oyster production in France, with Bouziques being particularly renowned for its shellfish.   In the Bassin de Thau the oyster beds -hundreds of squares of wood lying in the inland lake of Thau, can be easily seen from Mont St. Clair's heights.  Ninety minutes from Caunes by car, the area's climate is Mediterranean, with winter temperatures during the day averaging between 37 and 44 degrees Farenheit in the coldest months, December and January, explaining why it has become a preferred retirement destination.