Béziers, Hérault Département, Occitanie, France

🇫🇷 Béziers is a subprefecture of the Hérault department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Béziers hosts the famous Feria de Béziers, centred on bullfighting, every August. A million visitors are attracted to the five-day event.

The town is located on a small bluff above the river Orb, about 10 km (6.2 miles) from the Mediterranean coast and 75 km (47 miles) south-west of Montpellier. At Béziers, the Canal du Midi passes over the river Orb by means the Pont-canal de l'Orb, an aqueduct claimed to be the first of its kind.

Economy Béziers is a principal centre of the Languedoc viticulture and wine making industries.

Road: The A9 autoroute between Italy and Spain skirts Béziers. The final link in the A75 autoroute between Pézenas and the A9 was completed in December 2010 and provides direct links to Clermont-Ferrand and Paris.

Rail: The Gare de Béziers is a railway station with connections to Toulouse, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Marseille, Paris, Barcelona and several regional destinations. TGV trains stop in Béziers, but the tracks between Montpellier and Spain are not yet high speed tracks.

Air: Béziers Cap d'Agde Airport (previously Béziers-Agde-Vias Airport), owned by the Chamber of commerce and Industry, provides connections to destinations in northern Europe. Following an extension to the runway which was completed in March 2007, Ryanair began flights to and from Bristol Airport in March 2008, and later to London Stansted and London Luton Airport. Current (Jan. 2013) destinations from this airport with Ryanair are Bristol, London Luton Airport, Paris Beauvais, Oslo Rygge, Manchester, Edinburgh, Weeze Airport and Stockholm Skavsta, while Flybe serves Southampton.

Canal: Primarily used today by trip boats and plaisanciers, the Canal du Midi is still used commercially to carry Languedoc wine to Bordeaux for blending. The canals locks have a maximum length of 30m, slightly less than the 38.5m adopted under the later Frecinet standard. Although parts of the River Orb are navigable, they river is interrupted by a number of impassable weirs.