ETANG DE VENDRES AND THE LOWER AUDE VALLEY
VENDRES , Hérault – Natural heritage
About
The pond of Vendres, bordered to the east by a dead cliff, occupies an aeolian depression of the lagoon complex of the Languedoc coastline. Formerly larger and open to the sea, it has been progressively isolated from it by the formation of a barrier beach. The narrowness of the grau through which it communicates with the sea today and the mass of alluvium brought by the Aude, contributed to this clogging and to shape this typical landscape. Very early on, the shores of the pond attracted populations and a fishing village, with huts made of cob and reeds, was established around the 9th-8th centuries BC. But it is especially during the Roman period that a belt of villas developed, the most famous of which, perched on the promontory that dominates the pond to the north, is the one that the legend
