A fairly hilly country is passed through between Béziers and Pézenas, but there are no bad gradients on the road.
PÉZENAS
stands in a narrow plain, of such great fertility, owing to the volcanic properties of the soil, that it is called the Garden of Hérault. It was a Roman colony, and Pliny mentions the excellence of its woollen stuffs.
A bust of Molière reminds the passer-by that the famous playwright represented his first works in the town during the winter of 1656, and that it was here that he wrote ‘Les Précieuses Ridicules.’
A fifteenth-century gateway survives in the town, and there are some interesting houses of the same and the following centuries.
Leaving Pézenas, one crosses the railway twice, and then goes to the right for Montagnac, crossing the River Hérault.
Montagnac is a sad-looking town, with gloomy and dirty stuccoed houses; and one is glad to leave it behind, as one goes through the sunny hills towards Mèze, having, as one approaches that town, a great panoramic view over the land-locked Etang-de-Thau, with the Mediterranean showing beyond Cette. It is in this neighbourhood that one begins to notice the swords of the cactus, and the olive is seldom absent from the views. Aleppo pines grow picturesquely here and there, and a solitary cypress appears now and then.
It is hardly worth while to linger at Mèze, as there is little to see, and there are many places farther east where the time would be valuable. There is a pleasant run by the side of the sparkling blue waters of the Etang, followed by a rather uninteresting stretch of country to Montpellier, which is entered through a fine avenue of sycamores.
SECTION XVI
MONTPELLIER TO AIX-EN-PROVENCE,
98½ MILES
(158 KILOMETRES)
DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE