Photos

June 12, 2009
Sete 340301 34200
Hérault Languedoc-Roussillon
43.400 3.683 74 m

Let fish pass, ("Laissez passer les poissons", in french). Fisherman hut of the Pointe Courte,in Sète. (2 images).

One sight.
Other sight.

Let big fish leave... Let small fish live.

The "Pointe Courte" is a typical village of fishermen of Séte, whose activity is exerted on the pond of Thau, on bank of which this small harbour is located.

The "Pointe Courte" is a French film directed by Agnès Varda, in 1955, who tells the risks of a couple within in this small fishermen harbour.
Agnès Varda, name Arlette Varda, was born on May 30th, 1928 in Ixelles in Belgium from a Greek father and a French mother, and lived her adolescence in Sète after 1940. It is a French photographer, a director of cinema and a plastician. She in particular directed “Cléo de 5 to 7” in 1962. After having received multiple rewards during its career, it was promoted under Commander of the Legion of Honor, on April 12th, 2009.

The pond of Thau is a littoral lagoon that a sand cord, connecting Sète to Cape-d'Agde, separates from the Mediterranean, with which it communicates, by the graus of "Pisse-Saume" and of "la Quinzaine" at Marseillan-Plage, and channels of Sète. The pond of Thau ensures the junction between the "canal du Rhone à Sète", and the "canal du Midi", connecting them in fact to the sea.
Its 7500 hectares extend over the maximum length from 19 km, for a minimal width of 1300 m. It is the largest and deepest of the Languedocien ponds. Of an average depth of 4,5 m, 1/3 of the funds exceed 5,50 m. On place of the resurgence under-crossbred of Vise, near Balaruc-les-Bains, it reaches 30 m.
The pond receives sea water thus, but also great quantities of fresh water by sources and brooks, medium favorable to the production of phytoplankton.
Since 1875, the shellfish farming developed, mytiliculture and ostreiculture, 2.000 people employed by 600 establishments produce 12.000 tons of oysters and moulds per annum. The production is ensured according to a technique known as of supspension, with support called tables. One finds thus from 2500 to 3000 mesh wires, which support via cords, the seed oysters of moulds or oysters.
The pond borders the Saint-Clair Mount around and on which the town of Sète is built.

Sete is a French commune of the department of Herault and Languedoc-Roussillon area, populated of 43 400 Sétois and Sétoises distributed on 24 km², is 1792 hab/km².

In 1666 Pierre-Paul Riquet, who built the "Canal du Midi" connecting the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, creates the port of "Cette".
The city was founded in 1673, after the beginning of the construction of the port in 1666 during the reign of Louis XIV.

It is the town of artists like Paul Valéry, Georges Brassens, Manitas de Plata, Jean Vilar, the brothers Di Rosa.

It is the 1st fishing port of the French Mediterranean. Fishing setoise is made of artisanal flotillas, made up of family armaments. Fishing is day labourer (left the boats 3 hours, return towards 16-18 hours), during 220-230 days of fishing per annum, for an average tonnage of 8 000 to 10 000 tons (2/3 blue fish, 1/3 white fish). The setoise fleet includes:
- 34 general-purpose trawlers from 18 to 25 meters.
- 17 tuna boats senneurs from 25 to 45 meters.
- about thirty small boats practising traditional fishing.
- the production of oysters and moulds is mainly concentrated on banks of pond of Thau.

My images of Sete