The Trip Back to France

Monday morning we left Barcelona and headed back to France with Amy and Trey. Our first stop was Sete, about 3 hours north of Barcelona. Sete is nicknamed "Little Venice". It has the feel of being on an island, since on one side is an enclosed salt water lake (used for oyster and mussel fields) and on the other side is the Mediterranean. It is also the eastern starting point of the Canal du Midi. Several canals run through the main part of town, and the canals are lined with docked boats. We checked into our hotel and headed to the beach. Sete has the best beach that we have been to thus far. There was a little restaurant that rented beach chairs. The weather was perfect, and after about 5 minutes I was fast asleep! After a few hours on the beach, we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We headed to the port area of town as the sun was beginning to set. We walked along the canals and met a local artist named Willy. Amy and I both bought a few of his beautiful water color paintings of Sete. Next, we headed to dinner. Sete is the largest fishing port on the French Mediterranean coast, so we were looking forward to some really fresh seafood. The lady at our hotel had suggested a restaurant called Chez Francois, and we were not disappointed!

Tuesday morning, we left Sete and headed to Nimes. Matthew and I visited Nimes with his family in June. We liked it so much that we thought Amy and Trey would enjoy seeing the Roman architecture. While Amy and Trey went into the coliseum, Matthew and I walked around to parts of the city we didn't see in June. We met back up for lunch at a restaurant right beside the coliseum. There was a Metallica concert that night in the coliseum, so as we ate lunch, we (and I am sure everyone else throughout the city) listed to the sound checks by the Metallica tech crew. After walking around Nimes for a little bit after lunch, we got in the car and started the 3 hour drive back to Clermont.

On the drive back, we crossed the Millau viaduct, the tallest vehicular bridge in the world. After crossing the bridge, there is a welcome center, where you can park and walk up to the top of a hill to get a great view of the bridge.