France Trip: La Plage de Sète

Saturday, May 16, 2026

Most of my days in Sète would involve taking the bus to the plage, and walking a ways down the agave-lined paved path to grab a beach umbrella at various little beach cafés. Sète is where I descovered limoncello spritzes, which is a lovely way to enjoy a spritz, if I do say so myself.

Some days, I'd buy a sandwich at the boulangerie on my way to the beach, and shoobie my day away.

Sète is on the Meditterranean, so the beaches are just delightful.

France Trip: Around Sête

Friday, May 15, 2026

Five night in Sète, France to recover from my travel ailments...and enjoy the beach! Sète is a lovely little fishing town on the Mediterranean Sea (as well as the Étang de Thau). My boulangerie tour guide recommended Sète (as well as Antibes) to me, and his recommendation was spot on, which we'll see in future posts.

In the meantime, here's a bunch of photos from walking around this quaint little town. Such as the Place du Pouffre above, with its aquatic statues, as well as the view from right outside my AirBnB (above-right). That hike up the hillside, all stairs was...quite the workout. There's a reason why my suitcase had to be small!

Lovely scenes along the Canal Royal (Canal Midi? Canal du Rhône?). Lined with lovely little cafés, and fancy boats. The streets that branch off from the main canal-streets are full of great little shops, boulangeries, more cafés, etc. Just a wonderful place to amble around.

France Trip: Narbonne

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

There is absolutely no reason for tourists to visit the small town of Narbonne. Unless, of course, you're following a personal rule of not transferring at train stations. So I spent one night in this delightful little town, absolutely and utterly charmed by how pleasant it is. There's a lovely canal to walk around. Little shops tucked into small roads around le Place de l'Hôtel de Ville.

Dinner was duck confit pizza from Restaurant L'Ave, with a view of the Roman Road (la Via Domitia). Not much else was open, 'think I must've arrived on a Sunday (an hebdomodaire-ly issue for us travelers). Breakfast before heading back to the train station was an over-the-top strawberry pâte à choux from Monsieur Pâte à Choux.

There was a free shuttle that dropped me off near my AirBnB and the train station. Once I found the stop near the train station (took a bit of effort), it was smooth sailing! However, my AirBnB in Narbonne had the smallest spiral staircase of my entire trip...and then the host had given me the wrong code for the door. Nothing says fun like sitting at the top of an un-air-conditioned "European death stairs" siphoning wifi from underneath the door of your AirBnB while waiting for a response from your host! But all travel is expected to have moments like these. After 15 minutes, it was resolved and everything was great.

France Trip: Carcassone

Sunday, May 10, 2026

Carcassonne was delightful. Surprisingly delightful. Europeans are not the greatest fans as it was basically reconstructed by an architect in the 1800s, and it's not 100% historically accurate, but the restorations have resulted in an absolutely enjoyable, beautiful little tourist trap.

I walked around the ramparts for hours. And then greatly enjoyed wandering the tangle of little historic streets lined with shops and restaurants. Had some regionally-appropriate cassoulé for lunch, ended up at a café in a dusty courtyard for Aperol Spritzes. Just a wonderful way to spend the day.

The only place where you see reference to The Carcassonne Board Game is in the Tourist Fffice, where you can purchase various versions of the game...as well as some over-sized wooden meeples pieces.

I took a full-day bus tour from Toulouse, and rather than return on the tour back to the Pink City...I hitched a ride on Le Petit Train Touristique Carcassonne back to the SNCF train station to head to my next stop!

France Trip: Toulouse

Friday, May 8, 2026

Not gonna lie, by the time I got to Toulouse, I was a bit dead. My feet had blisters that wouldn't heal, there were chafing issues, and I'd basically been in a perpetual heat wave since I left Sancerre. The heat only got worse for my 2-night stop in Toulouse. So I spent my 1 full day there doing a little walking, but mostly sitting on Le Petit Train Touristique Toulouse and doing both routes, to avoid having to hike about too much in the heat.

Toulouse is known as the 'Pink City' / 'Ville Rose', and you can see why - all those buildings, all pink!

France Trip: Bayonne

Thursday, May 7, 2026

A day trip by bus (from Biarritz) to see the historic Basque city of Bayonne! Such lovely architecture! So very different from Biarritz!

Did quite a bit of walking around, admiring the town, but eventually made it to the Musée Basque et l'Histoire du Bayonne, which was very interesting. Bordeaux was part of ancient Aquitaine, Bayonne part of Basque country, which really gives the two regions very different cultures and feels.