Le Canal des Deux Mers à Vélo day 9 - 46 km from Gruissan to Béziers

The final leg of the trip. I took my time in the morning, and paid a visit to the pink salt ponds at Gruissan before making my way along the coast to Béziers, where I was planning to catch a train back to Paris.

At this point, I was no longer following the official Canal des Deux Mers route. Given that I was on the coast, I didn’t feel like going back inland to join the canal. Instead, I fancied just following the coastal cycle paths and roads. And for me, this turned out to be ideal.

The route takes you through to Narbonne Plage, which is a popular seaside resort town. There are cycle paths following the beach, which make it very pleasurable to ride. A little after Narbonne Plage, I turned inland to finish the journey, passing through vineyards and eventually arriving just above the famous Les neuf écluses de Fonseranes; a series of nine locks taking canal boats down a hill towards an aqueduct across the Orb river below Béziers.

Just before crossing the bridge to Béziers, there was a large wishbone sculpture, so I stopped to grab a selfie in front of that with the town as a backdrop and a friendly lady took a few pics for me.

The town looks like and impregnable fort, but at the behest of pope Innocent III, a crusade was launched and in 1209, its forces successfully entered the town and murdered its entire population of around 20,000 men, women, and children.

Getting to my hotel in Béziers was quite the climb. The streets of the town are incredibly steep, and it didn’t take long before I got off my bike and walked it up to the centre. Once I was settled in, I decided that I had eaten enough duck and that some Moroccan food would be a nice change. I found a little Moroccan café called Restaurant Tajine Royal. it’s not fancy, but their food was very tasty and great value.

After eating, I made my way back up the hill and back to my hotel reasonably early, ready to be up early for my train to Paris.