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The port of "the centre of the world"...
The Canet en Roussillon is the nearest port to Perpignan which is worth visiting. According to Dali its station is the centre of the world… But there are number of reasons for calling in at the port: its tranquillity and the nearby old town.
The Canet en Roussillon is the nearest port to Perpignan which is worth visiting. According to Dali its station is the centre of the world… But there are number of reasons for calling in at the port: its tranquillity and the nearby old town.
The view from open sea reveals an exceptional background draped in changeable colours depending on the time, light and visibility: opposite the Co
rbières Mounts at less than 10 miles from the coast and in the south the Canigou peak which dominates the Pyrenees bar the horizon. The entrance to Canet is located to the north of the white buildings between two bluish water towers. Following the coastline, the shore, which is always in a perfect straight line edged by a beautiful and wide sandy beach, is projected further out by two riprap breakwaters which stretch out towards the open sea and protect the huge outer harbour. An elegant white turret which is slightly to the north of the harbour emerges from the dunes. A stainless steel “mad scientist” looking sculpture in the harbour channel marks the beginning of the pier near to the harbour master’s office.
KYNETE, KAN OR CANE?
The port, which was created by the Romans, was developed on a secondary arm of the Tet River, in a locality called Gouffre which gave its name to the main basin. As far as the name of the commune is concerned, the first official references to Canet date back to the year one thousand. Is the cane of Provence – a small bamboo or a large reed – at the origin of its name? Historians do not see eye to eye on the question. Is it not rather the Iberian tribe of the “Kynetes”? Or even still the combination of “Kan”, a small height in the primitive Indo-European language and the Latin suffix “ittum” meaning little. In the end, we could say that 
Canet means “the-little-height-where-the-Kynetes-lived-in-the-reeds”?
People lived here towards 1000 BC well before the place was given this name. Archaeologists have found axes, jewellery, swords and everyday objects dating from the Bronze Age.
In addition to the port the Romans left traces of villas and tanks here much later, and the Visigoths who followed them also developed the site. But, with the end of the Pax Romana which abandoned the Eastern Mediterranean to all sorts of conflicts, invasions and kinds of piracy, the coastline towns suffered greatly. In Languedoc-Roussillon there were in addition conflicts between France and Spain (see our articles written in 2008 on cabotages.fr). This was far from an easy time for the area.
FROM THE BRONZE AGE TO THE AGE OF BRONZED PEOPLE
It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the Pax Europea and the globalisation of leisure activities reduced border differences to the positions of towels on the sand… The Canet was able to take full advantage of the fashion for sea bathing among the inhabitants of Perpignan and the influx of those on “holiday leave”. The age of bronzed people transformed the town into a large seaside 
resort and a huge yacht harbour, which was widely ahead of its rivals created by the Racine Mission, which was an inter-ministerial tourist development programme of the Languedoc-Roussillon coastline during the 1960s.
So, you are now entering one of these “historic” harbours. A marked channel – the easterly wind can cause an unpleasant chop to rise – leads to the pass which is bordered on the left by a very wide launching ramp and then by the refuelling station. At the opening of the pass on the left you will see the harbour master’s branch office which you will be able to use in high season; the main harbour master’s office is on the central quay at the bottom of the first basin.
A second pass gives access to the Marinas basin and to the Anneaux du Roussillon basin for the catamarans, and then to the Corbières basin where we can find our dear old shipping vessels.
These numerous basins were reclaimed from land in a natural shelter: all the conditions are united to make Canet a safe shelter in water with a low salt content which is a perfect, problem-free winter harbour. A last extension inland is currently in progress. The number of these various basins is a clear indication of the importance of the harbour and the variety of activities offered at less than five miles from the great Saint Cyprien resort complex! Competition being what it was and all!
