Bouzigues and the Thau lagoon, view toward Mont Saint-Clair
Lagoon · Hérault

Thau basin

7,500 hectares of salt water between Sète and Agde: Bouzigues oysters, Balaruc spa, the villages of Mèze and Marseillan.

Bouzigues and the Thau lagoon, view toward Mont Saint-Clair
Between sea and lagoon

Languedoc’s largest lagoon

The Thau lagoon stretches about 19 km. It is not a lake: it is a salt lagoon, linked to the sea by the graus of Sète and Marseillan. Oysters grow here (Bouzigues) and mussels too. Rheumatic joints are treated at Balaruc-les-Bains, France’s busiest spa town by visitor numbers. Some mornings, flamingos appear.

The villages — Bouzigues, Loupian, Mèze, Marseillan, Balaruc — line the northern shore. Lunch almost with your feet in the water, a jug of Picpoul de Pinet, a dozen oysters. In Balaruc, the FLAMINGO ART studio turns the lagoon into paintings: the souvenir that will not melt in the cool box.

A one-day circuit

  • Morning: stroll and spa at Balaruc, or kayak
  • Midday: tasting in Bouzigues (a cabin, not a beach restaurant)
  • Afternoon: Marseillan and Noilly Prat, or Mèze and its harbour
  • End of day: FLAMINGO ART studio or sunset on the lagoon
Area≈ 7,500 hectares
SpecialtyBouzigues oyster, Picpoul
WellnessBalaruc spa
SouvenirFLAMINGO ART paintings

The Balaruc studio See Sète

Also. The full portrait of the department is on the Destinations page.