Home • Lac du Salagou - from Joe and Gill Coulson
Lac du Salagou in the Herault, down south in France.
Our
holidays at Salagou are mostly windsurfing but also walking, cycling and canoeing
and exploration of the country of the Cathars, the Albigensian heresy, Knights
Templar redoubts and Simon de Montfort's crusades. The lake was formed 40 years
ago by damming up the river Salagou in its lower valley which is some 50 Km north
of Montpellier and the Mediterranean Sea. It is about 8 Km long and up to 3 km
wide and can be seen in Google maps by typing Liausson in the search bar. If you
have Google earth installed, 'fly' to Liausson; this small village is under Mont
Liausson and overlooks a wide sailing area at the south end of the lake. The Google
earth photo shows the lake and the surrounding old volcanoes and 'Puys'. 
There
are campsites at Vailhes (mid north) and at Clermont L'Herault (south).
The
main winds in summer and early autumn are the Tramontana and sea breezes. This
year, out of 17 days on the lake, we had 5 days of force 4 to 7 tramontana, 10
days of force 2 to 4 sea breezes and 2 days of little wind; temperatures 28 to
35 centigrade, blue skies every day.After nearly 25 years of visiting this lake,
I take a short board and a raceboard with sails ranging from 4.5 to 8.5 square
metres. The sailing photos show a tramontana day along with various views of the
lake and its beaches.
The
bedrock here is the Languedoc 'ruffe' - red Permian sandstone renowned for its
fossils and traces of dinosaur footprints (some at Lieude in the upper Salagou
valley). Old volcanoes and basalt columns rear up through this layer. Further
up into the massif central, there is a 1000 metre thick limestone cap forming
the Causses (where Roquefort sheep graze); this is cut through by rivers to form
huge gorges, one crossed at Millau by Europe's most photogenic bridge.
We
usually try to fit in a canoe trip down the Herault river above St Guilhem Le
Desert. This is a journey of quite surpassing beauty dominated by high limestone
walls as we shoot rapids and glide over clear deep pools. Near Salagou water from
melting glaciers at the end of the last ice age scoured out the limestone to form
dramatic cirques such as Navacelle and the dolomitic Moureze. The rock and the
aridity of the area produce a wild landscape excellent for walking.
For cyclists there are well marked routes around the lake and in the surrounding
country.
A must here is to eat at the Auberge du Lac high above the Vailhe
campsite. The menu is excellent, the wine passable and views over the lake absolutely
magnificent.We usually take two days to drive down and three days to come back
through selected wine areas, armed with a French wine tasters guide to the best
wines at reasonable prices.
For more information contact Joe by email.