Leucate

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Leucate
Leucate Coat of Arms
Leucate (France)
Leucate
region Occitania
Department Aude
Arrondissement Narbonne
Canton Les Corbières Maritimes
Community association Le Grand Narbonne
Coordinates 42 ° 55 '  N , 3 ° 2'  E Coordinates: 42 ° 55 '  N , 3 ° 2'  E
height 0-70 m
surface 23.55 km 2
Residents 4,428 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 188 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 11370
INSEE code 11202
Website www.tourisme-leucate.fr

Leucate is a French commune with 4,428 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Aude department in the Occitanie region . It belongs to the Arrondissement of Narbonne and the municipality of Le Grand Narbonne . into the Mediterranean Sea The inhabitants of Leucate call themselves "les Leucatois".

geography

Leucate lies between Narbonne and Perpignan on the eastern slope of the Corbières into the Mediterranean ( Golfe du Lion ); the Cap Leucate , the eastern tip of the Corbières maritimes represents. patrimonial Leucate is often the northern edge of the southern French Roussillon expected, although Leucate is neither historical-patrimonial nature still space for Roussillon. In addition to Leucate-Village , Leucate also includes the districts of Leucate Plage and La Franqui , the Port Leucate development area and the nudist settlements belonging to Port Leucate ( Les Villages naturistes ) on an artificially created headland.

The municipality is located in the Regional Nature Park Narbonnaise en Méditerranée .

Districts

Leucate-La Franqui train station

A million years ago the cliffs of today's Cap Leucate were still an island far off the coastline, the sea reached right up to the slopes of the Corbières . Only the deposit of still fertile mud from the mountains and hills of the hinterland, which was washed into the sea by the rivers, connected the rocky island to the mainland. The steady north-south current off the coast of southern France ultimately also caused a 7,000 hectare bay to be separated from the sea by an elongated sandbank: This is how today's salt lake Étang de Leucate ou de Salses was created , which only has three narrow watercourses connected to the sea.

Leucate has a train station ( Leucate-La Franqui ) and is not only served by regional trains, but also has daily connections with Paris and Strasbourg. The districts and the neighboring municipality of Le Barcarès are connected all year round by a shuttle bus, the timetable of which is coordinated with the departure and arrival times of the Le Barcarès - Perpignan bus line.

Leucate Village

In the Middle Ages, Leucate Village was a border town with Spain and, due to its exposed location on a hill, an important observation post for sea and land traffic along the coast. The sparse ruins of the spacious Fort de Leucate, used between the 14th and 17th centuries, are still a reminder of this . The remnants of modern bunker systems from the Second World War near today's radar station at Cap Leucate operated by the French Navy indicate that the town was of strategic military importance until the very recent past.

The small, still very tranquil Leucate Village is the administrative center of the municipality and nestles against the rocky elevation of Cap Leucate on the western side, facing away from the sea . Leucate Village is the seat of the municipal administration as well as the wine cooperative and operates a tourist office right next to the cooperative's large car park. At the end of the village in the direction of Leucate Plage there is a small shopping center, there you will find a supermarket, a gas station, a fish shop and various shops for surfing supplies.

Despite the nearby holiday resorts, Leucate Village has remained largely untouched by tourism, at least externally, as it does not have a noteworthy number of holiday accommodations.

  • Main road

  • Older buildings

  • Memorial to the war dead

  • Weekly market

  • The remains of the fort

Leucate Plage

Leucate Plage came into being at the end of the 19th century after the coast was no longer ravaged by Moorish pirates. Compared to Port Leucate and many other new development areas along the southern French coast, the place is a downright quiet and familiar seaside resort. The townscape is characterized by modern villas and smaller apartment houses, which, especially on the side facing Étang, extend quite densely into the hilly areas. Outside of the “season” (school holidays in France in July and August), Leucate Plage looks extremely deserted. The few local shops and restaurants are then only open to a limited extent.

Leucate Plage borders on the southern flank of the rugged cliffs of Cap Leucate , which protects at least the guarded beach area near the Cap from the often very strong winds. In the middle of summer, however, the sun worshipers also crowd there. At low tide, however, you can easily walk from the northern end of the beach, below the cliffs, towards Cap Leucate and get into two relatively quiet, sandy bays that are not accessible from the land side, at the rear of which you can sunbathe and bathe naked. There is a large car park at the entrance to Leucate Plage , as the wind-protected beach section near the rocks is often visited by bathers from the surrounding area.

  • Dense development towards the Étang

  • Villas along the waterfront

  • South beach

  • Beach at the sheltered north end

Cap Leucate

The Cap Leucate is the eastern branch of the Corbières maritimes . Due to its special geographical and topographical location, it is home to a unique ecosystem. With Cap Romarin and Ile St. Lucie, Cap Leucate is one of the driest and windiest areas in France and Western Europe.

From the local road between Leucate Plage and Leucate Village top right undistinguished, marked only with an easily overlooked, small, red lettered sign ( "phare") road branches off to about which one to a parking lot behind the lighthouse at Cap Leucate come . From there, a beaten path leads along the high, white cliffs in the sunlight to the Cap and then on to La Franqui ; the path is also used by adventurous mountain bikers. Shortly before the radar station, you can descend over a steep scree slope to a sweeping sandy bay , which is also popular with snorkelers . Wine is still grown on the plateau of Cap Leucate , and various orchids grow in the abandoned fields in spring , most often the strikingly tall giant orchid ( Barlia robertiana ).

  • Rocks at Cap Leucate

  • Bright stones

  • lighthouse

  • Radar system

La Franqui

The small seaside resort of La Franqui is located north of Cap Leucate and is still characterized by its numerous Belle Epoque villas and the pine trees planted in their gardens . However, between them you also come across sober concrete buildings in the style of the 1960s and older, externally neglected holiday homes, which make the place look a little shabby in some places despite its well-polished beach promenade.

La Franqui has a nearby house beach, which is sometimes extremely ruffled by the wind and is then a popular target for windsurfers who are blown out into the open sea at adventurous speed. A short distance between the sea and the Étang de La Palme there is a kilometer-long, wide beach to the north, where sand sailing and other sports are also possible.

The European windsurfing championships and kitesurfing competitions are held annually in April in La Franqui .

  • La Franqui is located between the salt lake and the sea

  • La Franqui on Cap Leucate

  • Gardens shape the townscape

  • Functional buildings in place

  • Old beacon building called La Redoute

Port Leucate

Sunset at the port exit

The Port Leucate development area is a city designed by government planners in the 1960s for budget travelers that is almost entirely surrounded by water. A small "town center" on the edge of one of the two harbor basins (1200 moorings in total) offers the usual tourist offer of simple restaurants, fast food, beach supplies, children's entertainment and a tourist office where German is spoken. The only specialty is an ice cream shop, also located at the port , which offers ice cream from its own, sometimes award-winning, production - a rarity in southern France. Port Leucate has two hotels, two Villages de Vacances (holiday villages for groups or families) and a camping site with pitches and mobile homes . Tens of thousands more summer vacationers are accommodated in a spacious ring of mostly uniform holiday settlements and apartment houses around the town center, which are mostly built, managed and rented out by real estate agencies. In the south, Port Leucate merges almost unnoticed into the neighboring Port-Barcarès , which was designed by the same architects. There is also the Aqualand adventure pool , where you can see from the numerous water slides far to the Mediterranean, over the Étang and on clear days even as far as the Pyrenees and Corbières.

  • Apartments in Port Leucate

  • Extremely dense development

  • Port in the middle of town

  • Fast food at the port

Les Villages naturistes

The wide and around 1500 meters long sand fill ("Île de la Corrège") between the port entrance of Port Leucate , the Center Ostréicole (the oyster farmer port), the Étang and the sea is reserved for naturism , so it can be naked anywhere and anytime to be walked around. This artificial spit was created during the construction work for Port Leucate, Port-Barcarès and the port of Port Leucate. Despite the seven nudist facilities located here , the fine sandy nudist beach, which is also open to the public, never looks overcrowded, even in the main season.

The “Villages naturistes” of Leucate are the second largest nudist area in southern France after those at Cap d'Agde . It consists - from north to south - of the holiday complexes "Les Mas de la Plage" (single-storey terraced houses), "Eden" (single-storey, small terraced houses) and "Ulysse" (a wide, high-rise apartment complex), a protected residual Mediterranean biotope Dunes and the holiday complexes “Aphrodite” (neat, small terraced houses with apartments on the ground floor and upstairs), “Oasis” (up to two-story houses with lush inner courtyards) and “Les maisons de la jetée” (terraced houses with their own garden area). These six holiday complexes border directly on the sandy beach without a dividing road. Two more small settlements with villa-like buildings are attached to the “Oasis” complex on the land side, while “Aphrodite” borders a small harbor for nudists who own boats. Opposite it, on a peninsula in a sea lagoon and in the area behind, is the “Jardins de Vénus”, the seventh and youngest of the nudist settlements. The lagoon and port of "Aphrodite" are connected to the sea by the chenal ("channel") on which "Les maison de la jetée" are located.

The family-friendly facilities “Club Oasis” and “Aphrodite Village” are visited by French people, but also by numerous German, Swiss, Dutch and Belgian guests. Oasis is under German management.

  • Nudist beach

  • The 1500 meter long nudist beach

  • Green living areas

  • Green living areas

  • Houses on the water

Surname

The name of the place is derived from the bright limestone cliffs of the steep coast, which already served as orientation for the ancient Greek seafarers: leukos means 'white' in Greek. A lighthouse is still in operation today a little off the cliffs at Cap Leucate - and also two modern competitors: a white-clad transmitter for French television and - right on the edge of the cliffs - a radar station for the French Navy to monitor ship traffic on this stretch of coast and one nearby Training area for low-flying pilots .

Population development

year 1962 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2009 2017
Residents 1077 1233 1244 1968 2177 2732 4060 4428
Sources: Cassini and INSEE

economy

Port Leucate (front), Leucate Plage (left back) and the nudist settlements (center)
View over the Étang de Leucate

The municipality of Leucate has an area of ​​2355 hectares, according to the survey in 2009, a little more than 4100 inhabitants lived here (2004: almost 3400), half of them in Leucate-Village . In July and August, the number of residents increases to up to 60,000 during the French school holidays - mainly due to the dense development in Port Leucate .

The main source of income for the permanent residents of Leucate is - besides tourism - viticulture . Leucate extends into several AOC areas, namely the AOC Fitou (see also the Fitou growing area ), the AOC Corbières , the AOC Rivesaltes and the AOC Muscat de Rivesaltes . In the Etang de Leucate ou de Salses mussels and oysters are grown (several hundred tons per year): lovers they can directly from the fishermen in one of the connecting road from Leucate Plage to Port Leucate situated Center Ostréicole buy "fresh harvest" and relatively inexpensive.

tourism

Windsurfers at Tramontane

Leucate gained popularity among younger tourists because of its unusually favorable surfing weather location for the Mediterranean coast, making the large, mostly very flat Étang de Leucate ou de Salses an ideal sports area for both beginners and experienced windsurfers . It is a good surfing area because a strong wind often blows - to the chagrin of pure bathing holidaymakers who want to sunbathe along the 16 km long coast belonging to the municipality. The offshore, cool, dry and often gusty Tramontane from the northwest builds up as soon as a low pressure area has formed over the Mediterranean and often reaches storm strength. Along the Autoroute A9 , there are multilingual warning signs on large signs about these dangerous cross winds, which can be fatal especially for carriages with caravans. The Tramontane is often replaced after a few hours of calm by the so-called Marin from the southeast, which is the result of a stable high pressure area over the Mediterranean. The Marin usually blows weaker and far more evenly than the Tramontane, but it brings moisture from the sea with it, which makes it humid and thunderstorms.

Personalities

Sons and daughters of the church

Other personalities who worked and are working here

Regular events

Clouds at Tramontane
  • 10 km de la Corrège à Leucate (canceled annually in March until 2017, 2018): long-distance running competition, in February 2019.
  • Mondial du Vent (annually in April): Internationally renowned wind & kite surfing event, which is also regularly attended by surf greats like Robby Naish and is also a tour stop of the Windsurf World Cup every few years . A colorful supporting program takes place around the competitions.
  • Sol y Fiesta (every year from Ascension Day): Well-attended three-day folk festival in the form of a typical Mediterranean fiesta with music, dance and spectacular street theater performances with international participation.
  • Voix d'Étoiles (annually in November): Festival of "Animated Film Dubbing Voices" - Many performances of new and well-known animated films, including premieres / previews.

literature

  • Marcel Bournérias, Charles Pomerol and Yves Turquier: La Méditerranée de Marseille à Banyuls: Languedoc - Roussillon. Neuchâtel, (Delachaux et Niestlé), 1992 (Guides naturalistes des côtes de France; 9), ISBN 2-603-00844-7 .
  • Noel Hautemanière (photos), Jacques Hiron (text): Leucate - plein cadre. Collection Cap Leucate, 2004, ISBN 2-9516053-3-1 (illustrated book).
  • Jacques Hiron: Il était une fois Leucate. Leucate, Edition du Cap Leucate, 2005 (reprint of the 1998 edition).
  • Christophe Neff: Cultural landscape change, tourism and biodiversity on the Leucate peninsula (Dept. Aude / France). In: Tourist areas of the Mediterranean region in transition. Contributions of the meeting of the working group "Geographical Mediterranean countries research" from 11.-13. October 1996 in Regensburg. Regensburger Geographische Schriften, Issue 27, Regensburg 1998, ISBN 3-88246-193-4 , pp. 99-135.
  • Christophe Neff: Observation geographiques et floristiques sur la presqu'île de Leucate. In: Bul. Soc. Et. Sc. Nat. Nimes et Gard, T. 62, 1999, pp 23-34.
  • Christophe Neff and Peter Frankenberg: Reflexions géobotaniques sur les plantes échappees de jardins: L'exemple de Euphorbia dendroides et d'autres espèces ornementales dans la région de Leucate et dans les Corbières maritimes (Aude, France). In: Bul. Soc. Et. Sc. Nat. Nîmes et Gard, T. 63, 2001, pp. 7-10.
  • Christophe Neff: Les Corbières maritimes - forment-elles un étage de végétation méditerranéenne thermophile masqué par la pression humaine? In: Eric Fouache (Edit.): The Mediterranean World Environment and History. IAG Working Group on Geo-archeology, Symposium Proceedings. Environmental Dynamics and History in Mediterranean Areas, Paris, Université de Paris - Sorbonne 24-26 avril 2002. Elsevier France, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-84299-452-3 , pp. 191-202.

Web links

Commons : Leucate  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Villages naturistes Leucate
  2. ^ Conseil-general : Statistical data on Leucate. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  3. ↑ The 10 kms de la Corrège . Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  4. ↑ http://www.mondial-du-vent.com/. Retrieved May 14, 2019 (French).
  5. ↑ http://www.solyfiesta.com/. Retrieved May 14, 2019 (French).
  6. ↑ http://www.voixdetoiles.com/. Retrieved May 14, 2019 (French). and [1]