It's good to get away from the British summer. Here in the south of France there is heat, swimming pools, the Mediterranean, good food and wine. There is a trade off though because the one thing that is usually missing from my summer holiday is good beer. I always endevour to take a few bottles of good British or Belgian beer for emergency use. the hypermarkets may have one or two passable beers. Jenlain, Trois Monts and La Goudale go well with the local cheeses.
This year I've struck lucky. Portiragnes Plage is a tiny resort which springs to life in July and August to service the large camp sites which are packed out at this time of year. I've been here before and had been pleased to find a bar with 20+ Belgian beers. The area is popular with Belgians so the likes of Duvel and Chimay are also widely available. I wasn't counting my chickens because bars come and go but a quick scan of the beer list reaveled over 80 Belgian beers some of which aren't that common in Belgium. I can confirm that after extensive sampling they all seem to be in stock and trade was excellent. I have passed so far on Bush Prestige at 25 Euros for 75cl. 13% barrel aged beer and 90 degree heat don't really go together never mind the price.
The bar is the 7eme Vague (translates as '7th wave'), Bvd Front de la Mer, Portiragnes Plage, Herault if your passing. Campers and Caravanners bookmark the excellent 4 star Camping Les Sablons just a five minute walk away.
The little supermarket at the town square sells six-packs of bottle-conditioned Leffe Tripel for very little, along with Killian's Irish style ale and Jenlain. It also sells a brown beer from Kronenbourg called Millesime, which I thought was very good. One shouldn't forget the little bottles of Kellegen lager, which are great when drunk ice-cold on the beach. The local wine's not bad, either.
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