A few years ago I discovered Canet, a town in the south of France on the Mediterranean coast that is part of the French Catalan region. It is bordered to the north by the river Têt, to the east by the Mediterranean, and to the south-west by a large étang – a salt-water lake separated from the sea by a narrow strip of land.

This arrangement gives the town an unusual L-shaped layout that has shaped its development over the years, and will largely determine how it grows and evolves in times to come.