Around Marseillan



Rooftops of Marseillan

Wednesdays are a day off school in Marseillan.  Last week, Georgia, her friend Sofia and I walked around town hoping to get a better sense of the layout of the place.  In typical old European form, the streets in the centre of town are only one car wide (though usually open to two way traffic) and are anything but straight.  The houses on each “block” are conjoined though there is occasionally a space between rows of houses that might be wide enough to let a person pass, though not wide enough for a horse - maybe 24 inches.  In this particular town, most of the streets are paved. Only the very centre which houses the shops and market are cobbled.  

Great door and vine

 


Tile used as exterior trim - cool

Typical street in Marseillan



The opposite side of our street

Market day in Marseillan-Ville is Tuesday and in Marseillan-Plage it's on the weekend.  In Marseillan-Ville in addition to a few food stands there are a couple of dozen clothing stands.  For the most part, the goods are more dollar-store than hand-crafted though there are some exceptions.  The Sunday market at Marseillan-Plage is mostly a giant yard sale with a huge number of individuals selling whatever they're trying to get rid of plus a few vendors selling antiques and a small food market. 

From our house it is exactly 150 meters into the market square where there is a small supermarket in addition to a butcher, produce vendor and a couple of bakeries as well as a pharmacy, hairdresser, and pizza place.  Less than a kilometer away there is a larger supermarket that has a small gluten free section in addition to a walmart type of selection of household stuff. 




Within the town, but outside the market square there is a hardware store, bank, and a few other shops but little in the way of clothing or shoe stores.   For clothes, shoes, and bicycle gear we'd need to go to Agde, a slightly larger town a ten minute drive away. 

There are restaurants scattered around town with the majority placed along the port where the tourists hang out.  There are also multiple vintners which we have yet to investigate.



I was fully prepared to dock the boat at a small town on the Rhone called Condrieu sur Roche (or something to that effect) but Tom was keen to make it closer to the Mediterranean and in the end we seem to have landed somewhere that is just right for us!