La Grande Motte - Languedoc region
 

I will be staying in La Grande Mott for 5 days and plan to do day trips on my own on the train from Montpellier, I am looking at Carcassone, Sete, Pont du Guard. I love walking,food and wine, shopping and not too keen on seeing too many museums,
Any suggestions. I am in my late 40's.
Travel will commence early June

You will have a car at your disposal, I hope.

no will that be a problem

Just curious Brijam but have you actually been to La Grande Mott? There is no train service and to reach St Roch, the train station in Montpellier, you'll need to first take the bus then the tramway. Having a car, given your travel objectives, would indeed be a very good idea.

I find La Grande Mott a soulless, impersonal place but it does have a beach. If making day trips is your primary objective and you have no car, staying in Montpellier would better serve your needs.

My husband will be at a conference and I was planning to do day tips but it does not sound like it will be an easy option without a car. We plan to hire one after the conference.
Maybe plan B is needed...what are my options staying at LGM without a car...

Why La Grande Motte? It's a really dull place with hardly any French "ambience." Your options are pretty much nil without a car. What a shame...though it IS France, so you have that. Maybe there are buses, but they are probably geared toward workers and school kids. Google the official town website.

Thank you. Are there places to walk or ride?

Of course there are places to walk - there are everywhere on earth. What do you mean by "ride?"

Here is the link to the bus company that serves La Grande Motte: http://www.herault-transport.fr/index.php

People constantly criticise La Grande Motte because it was a cheap development that sprang out of nothing in the 1970's so it does not have any character yet. However, most people who say it is appalling have never actually spent any time there. I confess that I have only passed through it, but it always looked like it could be quite pleasant during the tourist season. Winter, when 80% of the apartments are empty, would be another matter -- but that is also true of any resort town, historical or not.

Info on La Grande Motte : http://www.ot-lagrandemotte.fr/

<i> most people who say it is appalling have never actually spent any time there.</i>

While it is true that I am only one of the many who dislike la Grande Mott, I actually spend a great deal of time in this area. Unlike Plavas les Flots, le Grau du Roi, or even Carnon, la Grande Mott does not have a vibrant town center and is virtually vacant in winter (80% of the apartments being empty may be a low estimate). It was a cheap development and the atmosphere there is made all the less appealing by very poor maintenance of the infrastructure; sidewalks broken, buildings needing painting, yards full of weeds. People go there for their annual August vacations because of the beach and marina and that's probably the only draw to this town.

However, we are talking about June and your experience apparently is not about La Grande Motte at all, since you were just in the "area" and not there at all.

Is your point only to discredit those who disagree with you kerouac? I have spent more time in la Grande Motte than I care to recount and make every effort to avoid it for the specific reasons I point out which were detailed and to the point. La Grande Motte was built cheaply, its lack of property maintenance preserves the overall feel of cheapness, and even in June, it has all the warmth and personal charm of a ghost town.

If there is a more soulless place in France it might be Albertville, which after the Olympics, has become another heartless and empty place, full of quickly constructed buildings that seem to have no further purpose.

And as I have said, there are much better locations nearby.

Sorry to offend you, Sarastro, but the OP is apparently staying in La Grande Motte whether it pleases you or not. Do you think that you are doing her a service by painting the most horrible picture possible? Do you think that La Grande Motte would still exist if everybody found it to be as awful as you claim?

Thank you all for your responses, yes I had heard its not a stunning location to stay hence the train trips.
StCirq - in NZ we ride bikes - hence the word ride... so I wanted to know if there were places to cycle, in some towns cycling is not appropriate for various reasons.
Really appreciate teh links to other sites.
Sorry to have caused any problems

Brijam, google the website for the town and see if there are bike rental sites listed. I can't imagine bike riding wouldn't be appropriate for any reason - it's a beach area and flat.

There is a bike trail from La Grande Motte to Carnon : http://www.rollerenligne.com/article...-motte-34.html

Thank you Pvoyageuse nice to hear from someone wanting to be helpful and thanks again to the other people who provided useful links.
I now need to find a village for 3 days where we can eat at a local village with good wine and ideally a view..any ideas this time we will have a car when we leave La Grande Motte - will be probably heading to Burgundy or Frankfurt after that.

Le Grau du Roi (richt next to LGM) is a pleasant enough village to visit and have a bite to eat!
Having spend many summer there, I can say LGM isn't the most charming village, but in summer it isn't too bad either.
And the area is pretty flat, so biking will be possible.

Aigues Mortes is also a very beautiful fotified town. Montpellier is beautiful also.

BTW, LGM also has enough restaurants of it's own. So you won't starve out there ;-)

Hi we visited Aigues Mortes this past fall. Definitely worth a stop. A lot of people like Sete too, which is not too far afield. I would not recommend heading to Carcassonne - out of your way and overrun with tacky tourist shops and a very dull tour of the castle. There are lots of bike routes along the coast and it is a great way to explore the area. YOu might be lucky to see some pink flamingos and pink salt marshes - the salt from this region is delicious. Be prepared for wind!

You are very close to the Camargue - that would be a great place to explore especially by bike. Or you could horseback ride.
Check out town websites there may be some festivals on - the Courses Camarguaises are very popular in the area.
Heading out you have your pick of places - Nimes is a lovely stop, and yes, you should check out the Pont du Gard and then of course, there's Provence...
Have a great stay. If you find a good bakery, you have a bike to ride and it's sunny really what more do you need?

Well I love food and wine so I guess I'm set up

I would recommend Aigues-Mortes and the Camargues over Sète in a heartbeat. After LGM you'll need something scenic and quintessentially French, which LGM isn't (well, that's debatable, but would take too much typing time). Go through the Camargue (make sure you have GOBS of mosquito repellent) and enjoy it - it's unique and beautiful. Sète is totally different from LGM, but can be seedy in its own endearing way.

It's France - doesn't matter where you are - you'll eat and drink well. Not to fret on that account.

Have viewed bus/tram timetable it looks like I will be able to work with that - travel with the commuters - up early in the morning ...I will get a chance to walk and look around Montpellier...good coffee, croissants for breakfast watching the world go by and lots of walking and shopping ..thats a good way to start the holiday.
Approx how far away are: Camargues and Aigues-Mortes

If you like seafood, you might want to consider le Grau du Roi which is, like Sete, a main port for boats fishing the Mediterranean. Specifically, le Dauphin, a restaurant along the port entrance (rive droite), of which the owner's son is the captain of the fishing vessel parked just in front. Needless to say the fish served here is fresh but everything served is delicious and menus (3 course meals) are typically under 20 euros.

Also you'll like Le Grand Large, an excellent small restaurant on the beach just off the left bank of the canal or port entrance. The food here is a step above what one typically finds in le Grau du Roi and reservations are recommended:

Telephone: 04 66 53 12 34

For excellent value, try La Rose des Sables, 36, rue Michel Rédarès. Also on the left bank, this is one of the few restaurants open year round in le Grau du Roi and is always packed with locals, prices for a menu (3 course meal) are again under 20 euros.

Le Barque Bleu is another tiny restaurant that only serves oysters and other crustaceans. Prices for a dozen oysters are very modest. It's a great yet unassuming place for lunch.

With which to enjoy sea food, purchase the local wine from Pinet call Picpoul de Pinet. It's light, very dry, and a perfect companion to oysters and other seafood.

Aigues Mortes has a number of good restaurants as well including l'Escale (near the entrance to the walled city) which serves a wonderful lunch for about 11 euros including entre, plat, and dessert and a glass of wine.

http://hotel.escale.free.fr/

Between Aigues Mortes and le Grau du Roi (in addition to probably hundreds of flamingos feeding in the local lagoons) are the old Baleine Salt Works (which was recently purchased by an American company and now has a different name) and the main offices of Listel, one of the biggest wine producers in France. Both of these locations are open to the public and the tours are modestly priced.

http://www.listel.fr/
http://www.visitesalinaiguesmortes.fr/

Not far away towards A9 is Perrier, now open for tours to the public but you will need to call for a reservation:

http://www.sites-touristiques-gard.f...ource-Perrier#

There is really a lot to see and do very near to la Grande Motte, no need to travel very far.

Sarastro's text reminds me of a vacation I took not many years ago in that area in which Perrier is located. I have a cousin, that at the time, was working for a French bank in Bahrain. One of his fellow workers had a home in Lunel, where the Perrier plant is located. This fellow offered my cousin use of his home for the summer, not wanting it to remain unoccupied. My cousin called me from Bahrain and told me of the availability of the home. Two days later, my wife and I, and another cousin were in Lunel. We had a fantastic three weeks in Lunel. The town is very unremarkable, but it has a good conveniently located railway station, which connects very easily and economically to places like Avignon, Nimes, Arles, Montpellier, and many other places. We did not spend much time in Lunel, but we had many meals there. It has great ,regional type cooking, inexpensive restaurants, and is a nice town. Other than the home base of Perrier, its' claim to fame is that it was the French home of Karl Marx. Lunel would be a good place from which to operate if you want to explore the southeastern area of France. It is a very inexpensive town, but it has, from outward experiences only, some nice inexpensive hotels. If I were to go back to that region, I would certainly consider Lunel for my home base.

I made a report about my trip to Sète two years ago, if it is on your list of places to see: http://anyportinastorm.proboards.com...&page=1#127510

Just to say that LGM has a permanent winter population of retired people and commuters to Nimes.

It is far more active than most of the other coast towns in winter.

The architecture is either love it or hate it. Over time it has grown on me :-)

It's true that I have seen "out-of-season" La Grande Motte slowly evolve over the years. It used to be 98% dead in the winter. Now I would put that at only about 80%. Obviously, by early June it will already be much more lively.

Just the fact that it is now 40 years old makes it much more real, because many of the people who bought holiday apartments there long ago are now retirees who live there full time.

I'd never heard of La Grande-Motte until this thread so I googled some photos. It looks well kept in the photos but maybe it's run down looking when you're there. I don't know. But anyway, I kinda like that architecture. It looks fun and futuristic (from a 1960's perspective) and at least no medieval buildings got torn down to build it. I bet someday it will be on some sort of heritage list as a classic example of architecture from that time period. I'm not saying it will get UNESCO status for its modern architecture, like Le Havre for example, but as other examples of that kind of architecture get torn down I'm sure there'll be some sort of preservationist movement to save at least some of it. I'm going to pay a visit next time I'm in the area so thanks for bringing this to my attention.

I frankly think that it has some of the best 1970's architecture (which isn't saying much, I'll admit). At least it has architectural unity rather than being a complete mishmash of poorly assembled additions.

It was innovative. It has a network of footpaths linking the town areas.

You can explore with google streetview. This - http://goo.gl/maps/nTMQ0 - is an exhibition centre.

Very 60's !