BEDARIEUX, town of France, department of Herault, on the Orb, 27m. N.N.W. of Beziers by rail. Pop. It has a 16th-century church and bridge. Bedarieux is in a zone of woollen and cloth industry based on the sheep-rearing of the hills to the north and north-east, and its cloth-making, carried on under royal privilege from the 17th century to the Revolution, employed, in 1789, 5,000 men, besides many occupied in wool and cotton-spinning. In spite of modern English machinery, the industry declined with the Levant trade, but it has revived a little with the opening up of coal mines. Bedarieux also has tanneries and leather dressing and it trades in timber and farm produce ; it ha a board of trade arbitration.