Sète, France Saturday 5/2/26 Day 6
Today we docked in Sète, another beautiful city on the Côte d’Azur. We had a leisurely morning on the ship with breakfast at Mamsen’s, where we had those famous Norwegian waffles with the delicious brown cheese. Definitely do not miss the opportunity to try one on a Viking cruise. They are fabulous.
Sète is known as the Venice of Languedoc (Languedoc was the former name of the region) due to its series of canals. The city of Sète is located on three small islands, and built around Mont St Clair and an enclosed salt water lake used for oyster and mussel farming. It is primarily a resort town, attracting local tourists as well as foreign travelers. Our guide was born and raised in Sweden, but had lived in Sète for over 40 years.
Because of its location, Sète is a melting pot of cultures and has many districts including Italian, Indian, North African, and French. This mix of cultures has evolved into its own sort of dialect, traditions, cuisine, and identity over the years. It is a lovely city full of beautiful avenues, churches, restaurants, and shops. We took the included walking tour of Sète, which took us from the port, across a couple of canals, and into the city center. We were here on a Saturday, and the city was bustling with locals and out of towers alike. Our guided tour took us through the beautiful tree lined streets and to the covered market, a huge and quite busy open air market where you could buy just about any fish you could want, as well as prepared food. It was standing room only inside the market. We also visited a small Catholic church in the Italian district of Sète.
Our guide gifted each of us a small bag of the locally famous Zézette de Sète, a pastry made of flour, sugar, vanilla, baking powder, and salt, plus rosé wine and olive oil. It was delicious. After the tour, we peeled off on our own to wander the side streets, do a little shopping (I found a beautiful scarf with a sunflower pattern), and have some wine and a snack in one of the outdoor restaurants in the city center.
Back on the ship, we had drinks at the Explores’s Lounge (are you sensing a theme here?), and made a reservation for dinner at the Chef’s Table. We chose this evening to celebrate Steve’s 60th birthday. His actual B day is in few days, but we’ll be off the ship by then, and we planned this whole cruise to celebrate his birthday. The Chef’s Table is perhaps the “fanciest” restaurant on the ship, and by fancy, we mean you will still be hungry after you eat dinner here. :) It’s a set menu with each course accompanied by a different wine. While we enjoyed the wines, the food was just OK. Neither one of us really cares much for fish (we did not have access to the menu when we made the reservation), and everything was heavy on ginger. That being said, the presentation was beautiful, the service was amazing, and our window table was lovely as we sailed out of Sète and watched the sun set. By the time we drank all the wine, I may have forgotten to take a photo of the dessert.
After dinner we headed to Torshavn. It’s a pretty lively place in the evening considering we are on a ship full of old people. :) We had struck up a friendship with Michael, the guitarist, so I asked him to sing to Steve. It was a fun evening. I can’t get the birthday video to upload right now, our inter webs are not so great.
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