It simply doesn’t get any better than this:
I’m not a seaside person; it’s not my go-to, usually. But I think that has changed. There is a kind of peace that comes over me when I’m by the seaside, especially in a beautiful place like Sète in southern France.
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Before I left Paris in May 2023 to spend the summer in the US, I decided to ask a friend of mine about her pied à terre - her apartment - in the town of Sète. It turned out it was available, so I decided to rent it out in the fall.
Sète is about a 20-minute train ride from Montpellier, right along the Mediterranean Sea. It has a population of about 44,500, so you can imagine how different this coastal town is from landlocked Paris.
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It was Louis XIV who helped put Sète on the map during the 17th century. Of course, it was on the map long before him, but he helped bring attention to the port town. In the early 20th century, immigrants from Italy and Spain arrived, bringing with them an understanding of coastal life and how to take advantage of it.
Sète sits right on the coast of the Mediterranean, making it naturally ideal for fishing. Fishing or la pêche is a huge industry here, especially tuna fishing. On any given day, I can see fishermen on the docks or out to sea searching for the catch of the day.
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The center of town features canals filled with boats. Every year at the end of July, there’s a jousting competition on the canal near the city center. It’s a popular event that brings droves of tourists in to see it.
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Now to the food.
Obviously, as a fishing town there is a lot of great seafood. I really had to flex my French seafood vocabulary here, like seiche (cuttlefish), daurade (sea bream) and coquillages (shellfish) and countless other words I had never heard of.
If you look at the map above, you’ll see part of Sète is a long strip of land with water on both sides. The Med is on one side and the Étang de Thau (Thau basin) is on the other. The Thau is where the shellfish are harvested, including oysters and mussels that go straight on to the restaurant menus.
But perhaps what it’s most famous for is the tielle. It’s a sort of seafood pie. It can have octopus (polpe in French) or other seafood inside of it.
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I did a little research and discovered that the tielle is less than a century old, come to life by an Italian immigrant family in Sète. This is interesting, because when I tasted my first tielle, it did remind me of a pizza. Now, if you’re an ‘ew, seafood’ type of person, believe me, I would never have guessed I was eating fruits de mer. The seafood filling is very finely chopped and blended with a mix of Mediterranean spices. It is absolutely delicious.
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Finally, there are a number of markets that operate all year round. You can find delights from fresh fruit and veggies to meat and lavender, coffee and local pastries and other foods.
Sète is truly magical and worth a visit. To get there, the easiest thing is to fly or take the train to Montpellier, then take a short train ride (12-20 minutes) on one of the regional TER trains. Whether it’s sunny or rainy, you will certainly find it a charming town.
Sources/references:
More about the tielle history (in French)
All the things you can do in Sète (pdf, in French)