Mauguio Carnon

The Carnon estuary and Mauguio lagoon were initially prized for water transport of merchandise and for fishing. However, the area was undeveloped until relatively recently, with the only houses being the fishermen’s huts in Carnon, near to Perols.
 
The development of the seaside resort as we know it today began timidly in the second half of the 19th century further to the construction of the canal in Perols.
 
Carnon grew in parallel to the development of new methods of transport which improved both the journey between Montpellier and Carnon and also from the left bank to the right bank of the canal.
 
In 1830, the first fee-paying river crossing barge was introduced. It was used to transport carts, passengers and baggage from one bank to the other and operated until 1921 when the bridge was completed.
 
The first tourists were students from Montpellier and shopkeepers on family outings. Carnon-Plage, known as Carnonville-la-Mer back then, saw a gradual flowering of ladies’ umbrellas and men in swimming costumes with shoulder straps.
 
From 1859 the installation of cafés, restaurants and chalets heralded the start of Carnon’s tourism vocation. Shaded terraces, refined calm and serenity began to attract holiday makers from all over France who enjoyed relaxing in the shade of the trees in the 19th century Bosquet Park or sipping a cool lemonade on the deck of a beach hut.
 
Carnon was considered as a resort reserved for the Montpellier elite.

The volume of tourists increased considerably further to the creation of the Omnibus between 1907 and 1909, a twenty-seater horse drawn carriage carrying passengers from Place de la Comédie (in Montpellier) to the canal in Carnon; and the introduction of a daily bus service between Montpellier and Carnon in 1933.

The population in Carnon continued to increase, in spite of the devastation caused during the Second World War.

Post-War reconstruction gave the opportunity to build a new bridge, a dance floor, a water tower to supply running water to the town in 1956 and later on, the development of a marina in the 1970s.

The good news caught on and Carnon became one of the leading and foremost tourist resorts on the Languedoc coast.

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