Saturday in Sete (Reprise)

This was a GREAT day. It was Marianne and me as Tony left for Paris on Friday.

We started the day by going to Market Day in Pezenas – always a great thing to do. It is a very good one - combination Flea and Farmers Market. We didn’t buy a lot – tomatoes, peaches, avocadoes, olive tampenade, and lettuce but the best purchase was a bottle of ginger juice. The British woman selling it described its health benefits (sounded kind of like snake oil). She claimed it treats indigestion, stomach ache, migraine, liver problems, and goodness knows what else. She encouraged adding it to tea, soda, food, or just about anything. I liked the way it tasted so I bought some and you know what? I think it works! At least it tastes great in Perrier.

After shopping we headed to Bouzigues, a little town on the Etang d’ Thau which is a huge inlet near Sete and Agde. This body of water is where huge volumes of mussels and oysters are farmed. Our destination was the Shellfish Museum. When we got there it was 2 pm and we thought we could better appreciate the museum more if we ate some oysters first. There were many restaurants on the water. After we went in to four of them, and we told by all that they were no longer serving and to come back at 7 pm, we gave up and went to the Museum. It was very interesting – covering all the various farming and harvesting techniques, mollusk reproduction (oysters are hermaphrodites, clams are male and female), lives of the fishermen, and history of the area. By the time we were done with the Museum we really wanted some oysters. We mentioned this to the woman staffing the Museum and she directed us to a restaurant that is open all day. There we feasted on a dozen shrimp, 3 dozen oysters, bread, and espresso for 32 Euros! The oysters were the without a doubt the best I have ever tasted – so fresh and sweet. I will be forever spoiled.

After this very late lunch we went for a swim in the Mediterranean – ahhhhh.

At the museum we had learned that this night was the finals, the Gold Cup of the Sete annual water jousting tournament. We were told to be there by 7 pm to get a good seat even though the event didn’t start until 8:30. We got there and it already mobbed but there were plenty of seats. It felt a little like a soccer cup – much excitement, wild costumes, balloons, and of course a lot of drinking at bars that were set up in front of the regular cafes. We had seen the staging area for what looked like all the police cars and ambulances in Sete.

Unfortunately I had forgotten my camera but Marianne got some excellent video of the event with her IPhone. To see what jousting looks like you can check out my previous post “Sete on Saturday” in July. It was very exciting – two teams – red and blue. Lots of cheering from the spectators. Music is played frequently – by musicians on the boats who play a clarinet kind of instrument and drums and by an brass band. All the music is pretty horrible sounding but it definitely adds to the festivities. We left before the end as it looked like it was going to be pretty rowdy.