Sète

The fishing boats come in at dawn and the restaurants benefit by noon — Sète in France is a canal-laced port town where the catch is still the calendar and the water jousting on the Canal Royal is treated with the seriousness other towns reserve for football. Georges Brassens was born in these streets and is buried on the hill above, his guitar-shaped gravestone facing the sea he sang about.

Sète sits on a narrow strip of land between the Mediterranean and the Étang de Thau, a saltwater lagoon whose oyster beds produce approximately 13% of France's oyster output. The town's Canal Royal hosts joutes nautiques — water jousting — a tradition dating to 1666 in which teams on opposing boats attempt to lance each other into the canal, an event treated as the town's principal sporting occasion. Georges Brassens, one of France's most celebrated singer-songwriters, was born in Sète in 1921 and is buried in the Cimetière Le Py with a view of the sea. Mont Saint-Clair, the hill above the town, provides 360-degree views across the étangs, the Mediterranean, and the port. The Italian influence on Sète's cuisine reflects the Neapolitan fishing families who settled here in the 18th century — the tielle sétoise, an octopus-and-tomato pie, is their most visible legacy.