The coast close to Béziers and Narbonne enjoys the same attributes - and problems - as the rest of the Languedoc shoreline: fantastic sand but not a stitch of shade, and endless tacky development buffeted by a wind that would flay the shell off a tortoise.

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For a quick escape from Béziers, you can take a thirty-minute bus ride across the flat vine-covered coastal plain to VALRAS , at the mouth of the River Orb, whose old-fashioned family resort status is still just discernible. Further south, St-Pierre and Narbonne-Plage (reachable by bus from Narbonne) are uninspiring, modern resorts, and the only redeeming feature of this stretch of coast is the mini-landscape of the Montagne de la Clape , a former island, pine-covered and craggy, and not more than 200m above sea level, despite its name. At its far end the fishing village of GRUISSAN , 13km from Narbonne (there are buses), built in concentric rings around the hub of the Tour Barberousse, is the only real place of character left, and it, too, is under assault by the developers. Out along the beach, plages des chalets , is a section of houses originally built on stilts to keep them clear of the sea, but since the danger of flooding has receded many have now added ground floors.     

The one really worthwhile thing to visit near Gruissan is the Chapelle Notre-Dame-des-Auzils . It's about 4km up a winding lane into the Montagne and stands in a quiet and highly atmospheric spot in the pine woods. All along the road leading to it are moving memorials to the people of Gruissan lost at sea in merchant ships, trawlers and warships, from Haiti to the Greek island of Skiros. If the chapel's open, take a peek inside at the ex votos offered by grateful seamen and their families, many of them now painted onto the walls, the originals having been stolen in the 1960s.

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