Exploring around La Deveze and Montpellier

If you’re planning on spending some more time in the Montpellier region, here are our recommendations and highlights from our week there when we first visited La Deveze!

Montpellier itself & nearby

Montpellier is a lovely city with an interesting historic centre. On top of exploring the centre, here were some of our favourite bits in the city and surrounding area:

  • The famous Promenade du Peyrou & the Sunday market there

  • The area around Eglise Saint-Roch & the colourful stairs

  • Walk down to the river Lez. A great walk is from the city centre -> through Antigone -> past the unusual L’Arbre Blanc building, then keep going south along the river until you hit the very cool street food & restaurant area here.

  • Head down to the sea & beachfront and spot the local Flamingos. It’s a 25 min drive or there are regular buses to some areas. If you have a car then parking here and walking to the seafront is lovely.

  • We had a brilliant day cycling around the canals behind Aigues-Mortes (which itself is nice to walk around briefly, but a bit touristy). We rented bikes from here, cycled up via the Carbonniere Tower until Gallician. Go west out of Gallician and follow the La Laune road until you re-join the canal at the Pont des Tourradons bridge. Take a picnic lunch and some water!

Hike Pic Saint-Loup

Halfway between Montpellier and La Deveze, Pic Saint-Loup is the region’s landmark.

From the top there are stunning views across the wine making valleys below, and the mountain’s profile features on many local wine bottle labels!

There’s a straightforward hike that we chose, starting from the car park here. Takes 2-3 hours in total.

For a scenic drive through the valleys you looked down on, after the hike drive towards Saint-Martin-de-Londres and cut right towards Valflaunès (roads are D122 -> D1 -> D1E9).

Vineyards & wine tasting!

There’s a plethora of lovely vineyards in the area - two we toured and recommend are:

  • Chateau de Lauscaux, Vacquieres

  • Domaine de l’Hortuz, in the valley below Pic Saint-Loup

Our venue (where one of the owners is very knowledgeable about wine) also recommended:

  • Domaine de Cauviac

  • Chateau Puech-Haut (half way between La Deveze and Montpellier)

Near La Deveze

Nearby La Deveze, we’d also recommend exploring the small town of Sauve. From the town you can also walk an easy 60 minute loop around La Mer des Rochers to see the ancient rock formations, and views from the other side of the hills around the venue.