We stayed in Sète on the south coast of France last week - 'keeping it real', as we liked to remind ourselves every time we were confronted with what a 'real' town, as opposed to just a tourist trap, does and looks like. I don't know the literal distance, but it's a million miles from the glamour associated with the South of France by the likes of Cannes or Monaco. Like Cannes though, there is a film connection in the form of Agnès Varda, who's 1954 debut, La Pointe Courte, was filmed in the region of the same name, where she lived on a boat with her family during the second World War. Thankfully, the Pointe hasn't been gentrified and still felt like a proper community complete with ramshackle fishing equipment. Looking around it was easy to imagine how hard life once was there...
...on the way to the Pointe we came across some classic poster decollage, under a bridge, gloriously layered, probably due to the fact that it hardly served as a great advertising space...
...I took a few photos of the parts I liked and once home created a print from one of them...
...turns out, to our surprise, Sète is a creative kind of place, with ateliers everywhere, along with some great murals such as this one by Codex Urbanus...
...the Tielle is a pie filled with octopus in a spicy tomato sauce, something of a 'signature' dish for Sète, if that doesn't sound too poncy for what is street food once taken to sea by fishermen. Consequently it's cheap...and delicious. The octopus seems to be revered in the town, almost worshipped, judging by the sculpture of one in a square local to us and it's inclusion in so much art work...
...in this poster they've included another legendary aspect of the town, it's water jousting, but we were too early for the season, unfortunately. We did, however, come across a bar that hosts one of the teams, which proved to be a favourite haunt...
...note the state of the door...that's what we meant by 'keeping it real'. Most of the town's building haven't seen a lick of paint for decades, proudly baring the scars of time and all the better for it in my opinion. Coming from London, we're plagued by gentrification everywhere, usually in the name of profit. In Sète the streets feel 'real' as opposed to being middle-class showrooms. Former grand houses look foreboding come night time and the atmosphere they create is tangible...
...we never tired of walking those streets.
Sète has typical tourist activities such as boat trips and beaches just outside of town but despite those it still feels like a secret even though cruise ships stop for brief visits. Despite the beauty of the grand canal, which along with others slices through the town, it doesn't dress itself up to impress visitors. The traffic rarely pauses and no doubt it has the problems associated with any busy place but I found it captivating.
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