Sète: The Venice of Languedoc

Being labelled the ‘Venice of…’ must be a mixed blessing, for how can anywhere truly compare to the original beauty of Venezia? However, I later discover that Sète has at least two Italian connections. Firstly, like Venice, its network of canals is at the heart of the city. During the reign of Louis XIV, the fabled ‘Sun King’, Sète became the Mediterranean home of the royal fleet. Work started on Sète’s jetty and Canal Royale in 1666, and in 1673 the town was blessed with a royal decree.

Then, seeking to establish a safer route for his ships, Louis revived the ancient dream of having a canal that would link the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. The Romans had first conceived of this idea but it took the ingenuity of Pierre Paul-Riquet, a wealthy tax collector in the employ of King Louis, to overcome the substantial engineering obstacles. In 1680, the Royal Languedoc Canal (now the Canal du Midi) opened, linking Toulouse and Sète, effectively enabling safe harbour for the intra-France transport of Louis XIV’s royal barges and other vessels carrying important cargoes, such as wheat, wine and textiles. No longer would vessels have to sail through the pirate-infested Straits of Gibraltar and up the coast of Spain, to reach the wine dealers of Bordeaux and the traders of western France.

The second Italian connection becomes apparent even as you stroll through the old streets of the Quartier Haut. Listen to the locals and you hear a strange accent which is halfway between the dialect ot the Langue d’Oc and Italian. Some of the local food specialties – such as tielle, a pastry pie stuffed with squid in a spicy tomato sauce – do not seem very French either. Arnaud, my endlessly cheerful guide, swears that his grandmother makes the best tielles in Sète. Later on, having tasted one, I am less surprised that this dish has not yet achieved culinary fame on the French mainland, let alone overseas. But then, to be fair, the tielle I tasted wasn’t his grandmother’s.

During the 18th century, Italian fishermen from the impoverished Neapolitan coast came to Sète en masse – they fished, weighed anchor, put down family roots and prospered. Many of the ancestors of these Italian families are buried in the Cimetière Marin, a tranquil place shaded by cypresses which is situated on a sheltered, South-facing hillside overlooking the Mediterranean. It resonates with the history of Sète and the individual memories of its former inhabitants – many of the sailors’ names are of Italian origin. Most of the tombs are well-preserved and clearly still oft-visited – the custom is to place a pebble on the tomb as a token of remembrance.