The best MTB trails around Vias

Very quiet country path, away from roads.

🍅🍑 A piece of Southern France that is slowly disappearing 🇫🇷❤️ They used to simply be part of the streetscape here: the small fruit and vegetable stands right by the road. 🍅🍉🍑🍓 When we started exploring the area by MTB about 20 years ago, it felt like there were such vendors by the roadside every 5 kilometers. Simply stop, park your bike, and take home fresh fruit or vegetables from the region. 🚵‍♂️🇫🇷 Today, unfortunately, it looks completely different. Many have disappeared over the years, and now you almost have to be happy if you find one at all. So it's all the nicer that "La Pomme d’Adam" still exists. 🥰 We've actually known this little stand in exactly this spot for about 20 years – and of course, a visit has now become almost traditional for our MTB tours. 🚲😎 Inside, you'll find exactly what you wish for from such a shop: tomatoes, melons, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, vegetables, and even French honey. 🍯🍅🍉 All without much fuss, presented in wooden crates – that's exactly what makes it charming for us. For others, perhaps just a small roadside fruit stand. For us, now, a piece of holiday memory and Southern France as we knew it from the past. 🇫🇷❤️ Hopefully, it will still be around for many years to come! 🤗 Greetings, Marcus

This Benedictine abbey has its roots in the 8th century. Around 770, a monastery is said to have been founded here by Attilio, a disciple of Benoît d’Aniane, near the tombs attributed to three Christian martyrs: Thibéry, Modeste, and Florence. The site then became an important place of pilgrimage. The abbey occupies an even older site: it is located at the foot of the ancient oppidum and on the presumed site of the ancient town of Cessero. Beneath the parvis of the abbey church lies the "Gleizette", a small primitive underground chapel traditionally dated to the 9th century. The current abbey church, largely marked by Gothic architecture, bears witness to the numerous transformations of the abbey during the Middle Ages and the following centuries. In 1639, the abbey joined the Congregation of Saint Maur and received the title of royal abbey from Louis XIII. The Maurists then undertook a major reorganization of the monastery, the conventual buildings of which still retain elements.

Near Vias, the Canal du Midi is bordered by a gravel path suitable for mountain biking and gravel biking. Vineyards and plane trees enrich the landscape. A pleasant stretch for a bike ride.

It is difficult to imagine that between Agde and Marseillan lies one of the largest protected wetland areas on the coast. The Bagnas nature reserve, the former delta of the Hérault, long exploited for salt and then for viticulture, is today a space entirely dedicated to fauna and flora. Between lagoons, salt marshes and reed beds, this changing landscape hosts hundreds of migratory bird species each year.

Difficult to pass by without noticing this monumental fountain dedicated to the “Belle Agathoise”, a symbolic incarnation of the city of Agde. Erected in 1858, it features Agathé, the city's protective figure, surrounded by marble lions that enhance its almost mythological character. More than just urban decoration, it is a tribute to the ancient history of Agde, founded in the Greek era under the name of Agathé.

It is hard to believe that this cathedral is built with the same volcanic rock as that of the nearby Mont Saint-Loup. Its black basalt, from eruptions that occurred about 900,000 years ago, gives it a unique appearance in France: depending on the light, it sometimes resembles a medieval fortress, and at other times a "block of lava" that has emerged in the middle of the old town of Agde.

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.