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Montpellier-A capital always seeking access to the sea
Montpellier’s dream is to be joined to the sea again, as it was when it was created. Two routes are being studied: a sea lane via the River Lez and the coastal road. New districts are emerging: Port Marianne, Port Jacques Cœur, Jacques Cœur 2… and by 2012, pleasure boats will sail from the sea to Montpellier, where residents will be able to moor them right in front of their houses.
Montpellier and its link to the sea go back a long way…
"The dream of joining the town to the Mediterranean goes back to 985 when Montpellier was created. At the time, flat-bottomed hull boats went up the River Lez to Substantion (now Castelnau-le-Lez)," explains Philippe Saurel, in charge of Town-planning on the local council of Montpellier who continues: "the sea could also be accessed via the lakes, not forgetting that Lattes was a Roman port. "
Over time, the Montpellier port kept the name of Port Juvénal (at the end of the current avenue du Pont Juvénal), managed by the Sea Consuls. Boats used it until the end of the 19th century and even at the start of the 20th century.
But the arrival of the train sounded the death knell of river traffic, as merchants started to prefer rail transport. Montpellier was the second town in France to be equipped with a train, and the first liaison with Sète dates back to 1838.
After that, the lakes via which the boats passed became silted and sanded up, as they were no longer looked after. The wild River Lez, however, was tamed. Reviving tradition slightly, boats with low draughts and headroom could go up it as far as Port Ariane at Lattes but no further (see insert).
So what has become of Montpellier’s old dream to be joined to the sea? The regional and local authorities are working on two routes: river and road.
For the first, Philippe Saurel is leading a gigantic project: a new district towards the Mediterranean which will include a dock for pleasure boats. "Inspired by the current fountain in Jacques Cœur 1, this dock will enable to shelter 80 boats, at the foot of the buildings: real marinas for the people of Montpellier will be available from 2012. The final basin will include the one from where the fountain begins and the part that extends to the River Lez."
The River Lez will be deepened by 80 cm and its flow will be altered to improve its navigability. But this is not just a question of equipment; it is a question of shifting the town towards the sea. The port will be surrounded on one side by the future contemporary art centre and on the other side, by the new Town Hall of Montpellier, designed by architects Jean Nouvel and François Fontès (to be opened in 2011). It will be entirely blue and in the shape of an enormous boat. The second route is called Avenue de la Mer; it is the land route. When finished it will be 63 m wide, start in Antigone, and end at the beaches, going through the towns and villages of Lattes, Pérols, Carnon and Palavas. Tram lines 1 and 3 will go down the middle of this road, alongside a footpath and ramblas like in Barcelona. On the Montpellier section, which compares itself to the "Champs-Elysées" of the town, new districts are intended to arise: business centres, elite schools and residential areas.
However, even if the water traffic of yesteryear were to make a comeback, it would not turn Lattes, Carnon or Palavas into real ports for a town whose size and ambition are constantly growing. The regional capital is now looking to Sète for its maritime development, and an urban community project is being discussed, going towards the West to the Ile Singulière and the Thau lake, with a tramway between the two towns…
Lattes, from Etruscans to Jacques Coeur
A hundred years before Marseilles, Lattara, Lattes, was one of the largest ports of the Mediterranean, and already used by the Etruscans in the 6th century B.C., and then by the Greeks and Romans. But in the 3rd century A.D., maritime access routes were altered and Lattes lost all significant activity.
It wasn’t until the 12th century that the Guilhems, lords of the town of Montpellier, fast developing, brought the Lattes port gradually back to life.
In the 15th century, Jacques Cœur, an important entrepreneur and financier, set up commercial warehouses there. This was the most prosperous era of the Lattes port.
