Polygone Shopping Mall, Béziers

Opened about 5 years ago, the pretty Polygone Shopping Mall has attracted some excellent mainstream fashion boutiques. It now boasts the biggest Zara in France and the Mango store has just reopened at three times its original size. There are over 100 shops, 10 restaurants, a bowling alley and a cinema which often shows films in English. Our favourite store is Souleiado, which blends high fashion with Camargue-inspired fabrics; their Head Office in Tarascon is also a museum housing the original printing blocks that the company has been using to produce their fabrics for the last 200 years.

The indoor parking lot underneath the Polygone is probably one of the better deals in Béziers and it's connected to the city centre by 2 very original  busses (an English double decker bus and an American school bus), which run every 15 mintues and are free of charge.