THE LANGUEDOC-ROUSSILLON REGION OF THE SOUTH OF FRANCE How to get there

Located in the south of the country, the Languedoc & Roussillon region is one of France’s best kept secrets. A dramatically varied landscape and two distinct proud cultures, Occitan and Catalan, combine to make this region deservedly unmatched in its romantic associations. Its remote villages and little travelled byways affording a much needed window onto a rural culture no longer found in northern France.

The region’s coastline of nearly unbroken beaches is punctuated by ancient fishing villages and their modern resort counterparts. Inland, beyond the band of the coastal plain the land gradually rises from scrubby hills to the cool wooded highlands of Haut Languedoc and the forbidding peaks of the Montagne Noir. Great rivers, the Herault, Orb, and Aude have carved their way down through the hills leaving spectacular gorges, while vines and olive trees intersperse the rocks. West of Haut Languedoc the grain fields and vineyards extending from Toulouse to Albi are a world apart, while below it the Canal Du Midi, a 17th century waterway bisects the region; south of it the terrain rises again, first to the Corbières Hills and the barren Pays De Sault, then surging skyward to the snow capped Pyrenees.

The 11thcentury city of Carcassonne is less than half an hour to the west of Conilhac-Corbières whilst the nearest Mediterranean beach is only half an hour to the east. Along the coast to the north or south, you can find all types of resort offering fancy marinas to children’s play areas. Most beaches have the usual pedallos, sailing dinghies and wind surfers for hire. Within an hour by car you can visit a selection of Abbeys, fortified villages, castles, caverns and gorges, Cathedrals and Monasteries – even a medieval fort.