The best MTB trails around Villeneuve-Lès-Béziers

From the Ensérune plateau, the landscape opens widely onto the Montady plain and its Green Sun. This site was not chosen by chance: the oppidum occupied a dominant strategic position, both for monitoring traffic routes and for enjoying exceptional visibility to the distant reliefs. In clear weather, one understands here why this promontory has been occupied since Antiquity: it offers natural control over the entire surrounding basin.

It is nicknamed the "Bridge of Three Eyes". Three openings designed within the logic of the Canal du Midi: navigation, water drainage, and continuity of local circulation. A work from Pierre-Paul Riquet's project, to be discovered in the landscape between Vias and Agde.

The Saint Roch footbridge, inaugurated in 2016 in Sérignan, is the first structure to cross the Orb river since the construction of the old metal bridge at the very beginning of the 20th century. It was also the only access road to the village and the beaches. But the width of the roadway and the sidewalks made circulation dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians. The footbridge, 80 m long and 3.50 m wide, is reserved for them, as well as for people with reduced mobility. Crossing the Orb via the Saint Roch footbridge, lingering to watch the currents rush downstream, enjoying the view of Sérignan and the collegiate church, the wild banks of the Orb, is another way to enter Sérignan.

The Saint Roch footbridge, inaugurated in 2016 in Sérignan, is the first structure to cross the Orb river since the construction of the old metal bridge at the very beginning of the 20th century. It was, moreover, the only access road to the village and the beaches. But the width of the roadway and the sidewalks made circulation dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians. The footbridge, 80 m long and 3.50 m wide, is on the contrary reserved for them, as well as for people with reduced mobility. Crossing the Orb via the Saint Roch footbridge, lingering to watch the currents rush downstream, enjoying the view of Sérignan and the collegiate church, the wild banks of the Orb, constitutes another way of entering Sérignan.

The single lock of Portiragnes opens onto the Agde reach downstream. This is a typical area of the landscapes of the Languedoc coastal strip. Indeed, from this lock onwards, the canal surface is at an altitude of only 1 meter above sea level. It runs alongside wetlands of former salt ponds (la grande Maïre), where a rich fauna and flora are found (bulls, horses, waders, amphibians, reeds...) and some pine groves. These places are conducive to the establishment of numerous campsites.

You can observe a fine example of these spillways 1 km downstream from the Portiragnes lock. Built on the right bank, on the towpath side, these spillways are for some surmounted by arcades allowing the dry passage of the horse teams that towed the boats until the beginning of the 20th century.

The single lock at Portiragnes opens onto the Agde reach downstream. This is a typical area of the landscapes of the Languedoc coastal strip. Indeed, from this lock, the canal surface is at an altitude of only 1 meter above sea level. It runs along wetlands of former salt ponds (la grande Maïre), where one encounters rich fauna and flora (bulls, horses, waders, amphibians, reeds...) and some pine groves. These places are conducive to the establishment of numerous campsites.

The Cassafières port, established in the 1980s in a basin right next to the campsites, allows you to rent a boat to navigate the canal and visit the Languedoc coastal plain.