FÊTE DU POINTU

For the occasion, this sea snail will be available in a variety of recipes, each more mouth-watering than the last, from restaurant owners. The public will be able to taste them and learn from the fishermen about the unusual history of this gastropod…

The ‘Pointu’ owes its name to the fearsome spines spiralling around its shell. You can always call this spiny murex by its clever name: the ‘Bolinus Brandaris’, but it’s more interesting to tell the original story behind this complicated name…
This age-old snail served a very specific and prestigious function from Antiquity to the Middle Ages: it secreted a mucus that provided the ‘purple of the ancients’, or ‘Tyrian purple’ (named after the Tyrian oxide it contains).
The very high cost of purple meant that it was only used on fabrics for the gods and the ruling classes of the societies surrounding the Mediterranean. In Rome, it was the symbol of power: the width of the purple band worn on the toga and the more or less bright colour of the red garments indicated the social status of the wearer. Only emperors wore garments dyed entirely purple. In Constantinople, the emperor’s chamber was purple, and the son of an emperor born while his father was reigning, i.e. in this chamber, bore the prestigious nickname of ‘Porphyrogenetus’ (‘born in purple’, in Greek).

For the occasion, this sea snail will be available in a variety of recipes plus

The scarcity of the Murex snail led to the disappearance of the techniques used to make purple dye.

Today, the ‘Pointu’ has regained its purely culinary function. Although the Spanish have always been very fond of it, its consumption had been somewhat shunned in France, but this sea snail has won back its fans over the last ten years or so.
So this “Fête du Pointu” comes at just the right time, and the setting of Grau d’Agde was just the right one, especially as the very official “Confrérie des Pointus” was founded there in 2014.

During the morning, accompanied by the Confrérie and entertained by a peña, the fishermen will dock on the Quai Commandant Méric to remove the snails, while explaining the history of this traditional fishery.

At 10am, a necklace sold on the spot will give access to a tasting of a ‘Pointu’ in each of the partner restaurants that have shown great imagination in preparing and cooking this gastropod.