Seahorses | Étang de Thau ~ Sète ~ Marseillan ~ Cap d’Agde | southern France by the Mediterranean

I came to the town of Marseillan in the south of France to care for two black male brother felines, Once in a while they bat at each other, but most of the time are cuddling and curled up sleeping with one another, Each purr machines and gentle, one more naughty. He had seemingly disappeared, until i spotted a lump under the covers; playing hide n seek.

I had been familiar with the name Sète, the village on the hill across the lagoon, traveling by it on the train. That’s Sète below glowing pink at sunset.

I’ve bicycled all over the place; google mapping routes, drawing maps and exploring. I found myself riding parallel to train tracks, often.

Between drawing maps and asking people, I found my way. And each time I started talking to a stranger, which I do often, I learned something new about the area. 

The seagulls are very vocal. White swans, pink flamingos and a variety of seabirds are everywhere. Many places are like a ghost town in the winter; massive camping areas for summer vacationers. I cycled to Marseillan Plage, learned that it made a big difference which side of the canal one is on, after traversing the distance and finding a dead end towards a light house and large building, with no bridge. I had to cycle back several km back. Later asked an elderly gentleman pointing to the canal who informed me that this building hosts students learning to sail. I spotted a class in session the other day.

I conversed with two men in french who met sailing years ago, and are now each self confessed  ‘nomads’ – living in different places with their boats. I said, hey that’s my music name nomadbeatz! 

At one point I mentioned the book I’m writing “A Seahorse Tale” and immediately one mentioned that this body of water – Étang de Thae – is a habitat for seahorses. What? Really?  

It’s a lagoon bordered with a sliver of land between Sète and the Mediterranean. I looked up the Étang and seahorses and sure enough, it’s true.

A Marine Dump that has become a privileged habitat for seahorses in the Étang de Thau (France)

Les hauts secrets de l’étang de Thau 

And other article in french (good language practice with google translate displaying the paragraph and its translation side by side) talking about the history of the lagoon, its past problems with pollution from a concentration of phosphates in the last 50 years, which has been resolved, yet with a current new threat of warming water temperatures. Climate. The threat hangs over the Etang de Thau

”In the 1970s, the Hérault basin was in agony. Over the previous two decades, agriculture intensified and the number of inhabitants increased without sewage treatment plants keeping pace….It is a fragile, precious environment, saved several times. But for how much longer? Between land and sea, the Thau pond is closely monitored by scientists. Because, in addition to the ecological singularity of this lagoon separated from the sea by islets of sand, the activity of many shellfish and oyster farmers depends entirely on its ecological balance.” Hippocampe is french for seahorse.

L’hippocampe moucheté ou Hippoccampus guttulatus

After looking up where in Étang de Thau seahorses are located, I made my way winding on road around Sète to the left side and around to the lagoon. This time I braved getting in the water ~ cold water bathing ~ and felt fantastic, shivering as i wind dried. I saw the crescent moon and got almost all the way back to Marseillan with enough sunlight to see the way (dusk).

I also was informed about Cap d’Agde and found my way to explore it, by this time, it was the full moon.

I also learned from conversation about the Canal du Midi, created to allow boats through to the Mediterranean from the Atlantic. This is it below looking in one and the opposite direction.

Canal du Midi

So it has been a nice synchronicity of discovery.

wind carving circles from needles of grass

bicycle path to Agde

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook and music composition. The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.