Cardinal Richelieu would be turning in his grave
If Cardinal Richelieu was alive today, I’m not sure he would be very happy seeing his grand vision of a port at Cap d’Agde realised as a 20th century ‘Super Cannes’ clone.
Both the Cardinal and J G Ballard did share a darker vision though. Whilst Ballard had it in for the future, the Cardinal always seemed hell bent on destroying the present.
Designed by architect Jean Le Couteur in the 1960s and built in the 1970s as one of the largest state-run holiday development schemes in French history, Cap d’Agde was part of another grand vision, ‘Mission Racine’. Named after Pierre Racine, a regional development director tasked in the 1960s with developing the Languedoc Rousillon coast line, Cap d’Agde is a unique blend of architectural movements, mixing the clean lines and structural simplicity of Modernism with the whimsical flourishes of Post-Modernism.
Cap d’Agde is now home to 30,000 permanent residents. This grows to a summer population of over 250,000 visitors and holiday makers. A large proportion of these come to stay at Europe’s largest naturist village. Aptly called ‘The Cap d’Agde Naturist Village’, but often referred to as either ‘naked city’ or ‘nude city’, it’s a self contained enclave with its own infrastructure and amenities including shops, entertainment, nightclubs and beaches. There are strict rules regarding clothing and behaviour that make it one of the most popular naturist destinations in the world.
Amidst Cap d’Agde’s post-modernist concrete jungle are some gems. One of which we visited whilst staying in Canet, a small working town in the L’Herault.
Getting to Cap d’Agde from Canet takes around one and a half hours. The roads are pretty good (beware in August when the whole of France is on holiday, the traffic can be awful) so the 125 km go by quite quickly. Travelling on the A9 (also known as “La Languedocienne”) via Perpignan, Bezier and Pezenas you arrive at ‘Agde’, the parent city of Cap d’Agde. From Agde head towards Cap d’Agde and then the Naturist Village, it’s clearly signposted. Cap d’Agde is the beach facing resort, whilst Agde is an ancient city that dates back to the ancient Greeks.
A quick aside here, directions from apps like Google Maps and Waze, place our destination in the Naturist zone, but we’ve never seen anyone naked, just topless women which is perfectly acceptable on any French beach.
As you progress look for signs to any of the three beaches we’re heading to: Plage de La Conque, La Point du Cap d’Agde and Plage de La Plagette. You may also see signs for Port du Cap d’Agde.
We often park at La Conque, in one of the many side streets without permit parking that dissect the numerous apartment blocks of Cap d’Agde. These streets are all a short walk to the beach. From here you’re adjacent to a path that runs along the top of the beach, it’s not a cliff top but there is a drop with paths down to the beaches and swimming.
If you’re feeling lucky you can drive all the way along the top (follow signs to Port du Cap d’Agde) and when you get to the port, it’s only a small harbour for pleasure boats and diving excursions, you will find a FREE car park. We’ve driven there about five times now and never failed to get a parking place.
This is also the best beach for swimming and snorkelling, it’s called Plage de La Plagette. It’s all golden sand with a rocky backdrop for picnicking. You can walk back to the other beaches easily as they’re just around the headland on the left of the beach. There are also some small coves to explore.
There’s a snorkelling school on the beach that caters for all abilities. Also on the left of the beach are some small cliffs where the rocks protrude into the sea to form a kind of rocky coral reef that’s full of amazing Mediterranean fish including Comber fish, Groupers, Scorpion fish, Sea urchins and the occasional Octopus.
There are a number of restaurants in the port area and one on the small cliff overlooking the beach. We’ve eaten at La Bonne Mere which has very good local seafood and a good selection of inexpensive wines if you want to sleep the afternoon away on the beach. But beware the sun can get very hot. There are a few shady spots at the back of the beach. We’ve left towels and other non-valuable items to save our space whilst we have lunch at La Bonne Mere which is just above the beach. Other restaurants a short walk away are Papy’s Grill, Au bout du quai and Au Soliel.
If you feel like vacationing in this really quiet little area at the end of the Cap d’Agde spit, virtually all the adjacent property is for rent. At the back of the beach on the other side of the small road there are some lovely little two storey apartments, and behind that, on the lotissement are literally 100’s of maison de plain-pied (bungalows) and maison à étage (two storey house where the ground floor is just a garage and utility room).
We’ve had wonderful times here swimming, snorkelling, exploring, eating and lazing around on the beach. We hope you do too.
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