Discover Béziers with your smartphone !

With spring just around the corner, the days are getting longer, the sun is finally deigning to warm us up and we’re finally daring to put our noses outside. So Lauren and I decided to try out the Tourist Office’s latest innovation: the Rewind audio walks!

If there’s one thing we’re proud of at Béziers Méditerranée Tourist Office, it’s our program of guided tours! Whether it’s to discover our local heritage, our traditions, our landscapes or the great history of Béziers and the surrounding area, our guides Charlotte and Sarah offer you a wide range of events every year, some of which have become must-sees.

Today, we’ve decided to think about those who aren’t available at the times of our tours, our non-French-speaking visitors, or even those who simply prefer to discover a territory on their own. How can we help? With our audio tours, a selection of immersive audio tours that use geolocation to take you from one point of interest to another! We’ll take you on board and explain everything to you!

Choose from :

– The essentials of Béziers from the Canal du Midi to the historic center
– The trompe-l’oeil of Béziers

Try out the trompe-l’oeil audio tour of Béziers!

To start with, I’ve selected the tour of my choice on our online ticketing service: today, it’s the Trompe-l’œil in Béziers!

Once I’ve made my purchase, I scan my QRCode, which prompts me to download the Rewind app, which automatically opens my tour, and Lauren and I head off to our starting point in front of the information desk in Béziers’ historic center.

Thanks to geolocation, the pleasant voice of our guide Pauline starts up as soon as we approach the landmark, visible on the interactive map on my phone. After a few pointers, Pauline directs us to our first trompe-l’oeil.

I put my phone back in my pocket, follow her directions, and off we go!

Thanks to the indications in our headphones, we soon arrive at the first trompe-l’oeil at the very beginning of rue Mairan. As we approach it, thanks to the geolocation system, our guide begins his presentation of the Jean Moulin fresco and the Romanin gallery. Each element is explained, set in its historical context, and we learn more about our local and national hero, his past as an artist and Resistance fighter! Lauren and I take the time to get up close and observe every detail. This tour is off to a great start!

Our guide invites us to continue our discovery up Rue Mairan. We take our time, window-shopping.

After discovering the fresco by Jean-Baptiste Dortous de Mairan in the street of the same name, we pass a number of trompe-l’oeil paintings scattered around the town: we can learn more about Camille Saint-Saëns, Casimir Péret, Antonin Moulin and Jean-Marie Cordier!

We’re already halfway along the route! Our guide Pauline invites us down the Allées Paul Riquet to our next fresco. We take the opportunity to stop in front of the Théâtre Municipal to admire its magnificent façade; there’s so much to see!

The sunshine on this beautiful day makes us want to takea coffee break! Lauren and I settle down on the terrace, taking off our headphones for a few minutes to pause the tour and chat over a refreshing drink, before strolling around the flea market that had taken place on the Allées Paul Riquet.

Our little flea market stop over, we’re back on the tour! Our guide directs us to the magnificent trompe-l’oeil of the Arlésienne. We learn that this is the very first trompe-l’oeil that artist A. Fresco installed in Béziers; its history is fascinating, as we learn that Daudet’s Arlésienne was actually from Béziers! But I won’t tell you any more… it’s up to you to come and discover it.

Following Pauline’s voice in our ears, we cross the avenue back to Les Allées, before heading off into the narrow streets of the town center to continue our tour. At this point in the audio tour, we still have 5 frescoes to discover. But I’m not going to tell you everything, so that you can discover them for yourself! I’ll just give you my favorite trompe-l’oeil: the 1907 winegrowers’ revolt. So beautiful, so rich in detail, and our guide’s voice immerses us in all the fascinating history of this intense period in our past!

Our tour ended at Place des Bons Amis, with the fresco by Injalbert. Counting our various shopping and coffee stops, and taking our time, we had a great 2-hour stroll, full of wonderful discoveries! We’ve both been won over by this new, totally autonomous way of visiting Béziers, and can’t wait to try out some new ones with our girlfriends! In fact, we’re planning to try out the audioguided tour soon: The essentials of Béziers from the Canal du Midi to the historic center.