Top 7 Lakes around Vendres

🌿 Étang de la Maïre – Wetland near Portiragnes The Étang de la Maïre is one of the large wetlands between Portiragnes and the Mediterranean Sea and shows a completely different side of the landscape than the beaches and vineyards just a few kilometers away. 🌿💧 Around the shallow water areas, reeds, low vegetation, and open paths alternate. Depending on the season and water level, the landscape here always looks different – sometimes large open water surfaces, sometimes significantly drier areas. The network of ditches, canals, and old hydraulic structures is also interesting. Water levels were and are regulated via such structures and sluice gates. Together with rain, dry periods, and evaporation, this creates this constantly changing landscape. By bike, there are sometimes really beautiful gravel and natural paths leading directly through the wetland. 🚲👌🏼 Away from the villages, it is pleasantly quiet here and you get a good impression of how much nature is still hidden behind the coast. Not necessarily a classic excursion destination with major sights – but it is precisely this mixture of water, nature, and old traces of water regulation that makes the Étang de la Maïre interesting. 🇫🇷🌿 Greetings Marcus ✌🏼

Super great area, suitable for everything whether cycling, hiking or running

The pond is home to the most important Mediterranean reed bed, as well as sansouires and salt marshes. It is a Natura 2000 site and protected by the Conservatoire du littoral, serving as a refuge for numerous migratory birds.

The étang de Montady, now dried up, is one of France's most famous landscapes. This natural basin of 400 ha was dug by the winds, like many others in the Biterrois. The reliefs that surround it, occupied by the oppidum of Ensérune and the old village of Montady, correspond to two valleys from the tertiary era dug by erosion and then filled with hard materials at the end of the Miocene (- 5 million years ago).

It's hard to believe that such a wild landscape stretches out just a stone's throw from Saint-Pierre-la-Mer. The Étang de Pissevaches is a coastal lagoon shaped by the sea and wind, where salt water, sansouïres (salt marshes), and reed beds mingle. Its surprising name is said to come from the Occitan « pitz vaca », an ancient image evoking freshwater springs compared to a "cow's urine". Here, the boundary between land and sea still seems to be in motion, offering an open and changing scenery typical of the Aude coastline.

The Pissevaches lagoon covers an area of 900 ha, it is a vast ecological complex rehabilitated as part of a management plan and included in the Natura 2000 site “ Basse Plaine de l’Aude “. Part of the territory of the Parc Naturel Régional de la Narbonnaise en Méditerranée, it has particularly sensitive protected natural areas: the beach is alive and the dune vegetation is fragile.

Surrounded by marshes, reeds and a variety of birdlife, this lagoon is located near the Mediterranean coast and is a haven for migratory and resident bird species. You will enjoy a leisurely stroll while enjoying panoramic views of the water and surrounding vegetation. You will also come across salt marshes and, if you are lucky, you will spot pink flamingos wading in the shallow waters.

Canal tunnel and view of the former pond landscape.