Water Jousting in Sete, France

Oft forgotten little Sete has more going for it than I envisaged.  Many years ago I took a barge trip down the Canal du Midi ending at the medieval village of Carcassone , just a few miles from the small port of Sete. 

With a chance to watch the ancient sport of water jousting I decided it was time to revisit the area. Sure, there were also other reasons for our visit to this part of the world,   but water jousting dating back to 1666 happened to be the first.

Seated along the Royal Canal, we watched two opposing boats position themselves as each team of 10 oarsmen rowed towards their opponents with their selected jouster standing tall and steady  on the ‘tintaine’ about 2 meters above  the water level. The red team selected the captain of our ship, a young and agile Englishman; the blue team selected the town’s 7^th year in a row champion jouster.  One look at my photo tells you who won and the video shows our captain succumbing to the cold waters of the Royal Canal.    

and the charm of ranunculars and tulips all along the canal  heralded  the arrival of Spring.