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Languedoc
Tourist offices and related websites
Hérault | Aude | Pyrénées-Orientales
When Julius Caesar pushed out the frontiers of the Roman Empire, Latin gradually replaced all native tongues except Basque and Breton, and in southern France provided the future basis of its unique dialect. Provençal derives directly from vulgar Latin, in which ‘Oc’ was the word originally used for ‘yes’. The language thus spoken became known as ‘la langue d’oc’, giving its name to Languedoc.
Greater Languedoc, called Languedoc-Roussillon and known as the ‘midi’, includes in ancient Roussillon a region long dominated by the Spanish house of Aragon, until the French redrew the frontier by force of arms.
Culinary specialities include "pâté de sanglier" (wild boar), "cassoulet", a thick stew of white beans with duck and pork, and sheep and goat cheeses.
Hérault
The sun-drenched département of the Hérault begins among the mountain crags of the Massif Central and gently descends towards the sea. Its coastline is much less spoilt and more protected than in the rest of Mediterranean France, stretching from the exotic marshlands of the Camargue to the tree-lined Canal du Midi. With wild gorges, sandy beaches, enchanting villages and ruined castles, the Hérault has an exceptional range of scenery and a superb climate.
Aigues-Mortes, on the edge of the Camargue, is its highlight: a perfectly preserved walled city that rises on the horizon like some desert mirage. Nowadays marooned in a salt wasteland, back in the 13th century it was a fortress-port, from where Louis IX set sail on an ill-fated attempt to retake Jerusalem for Christianity. Montpellier is another former port that silted up and had to reinvent itself as a suave and sophisticated centre of learning. Its old town, fully pedestrianised, has many elegant shops. The Canal du Midi, shaded by huge plane trees as old as the canal itself, was devised in the 17th century to link the Mediterranean with the Atlantic Ocean. A prodigious engineering feat for its time, it has 64 locks, 55 aqueducts and more than 130 bridges. To find it from the Languedoc’s wine capital of Béziers, follow signs for Narbonne as far as Nissan les Ensérunes.
Villages with views abound, but Minerve is among the best. With a ruined castle perched precariously above the Cesse gorge, Minerve changes colour, chameleon-like, as the sun descends in the sky. Olargues, in the Jaur Valley, has sinuous medieval streets, an ancient bridge and an old tower. St Guilhem-le-Désert, standing guard at the entrance to the Hérault gorge for more than a thousand years, has quaint little alleyways and the beautiful Gellone Abbey, southern Romanesque architecture at its best.
Aude
From the capital of the Aude, Carcassonne, the largest medieval fortified city in Europe, the scenic route to Spain and the sea follows the river through perpendicular gorges and forested ravines to the spectacular harbour of Collioure in the Pyrénées-Orientales. East of Carcassonne, the motorail terminal of Narbonne was a flourishing port until the sea left the town high and dry. It has shaded squares and tree-lined walks and the St-Just Cathedral is the tallest in southern France. Quillan, to the south, is at the foot of the Pyrénées in the Aude Valley, and surrounded by forest. Limoux and Les Corbières produce much of the region's wine.
Pyrénées-Orientales
The Pyrénées-Orientales covers much of ancient Roussillon, owned by the Kings of Aragon and afterwards part of Spain, becoming French in 1659. The old frontier had once been at Salses, just north of Perpignan, an old Roman town where Hannibal first launched his elephants on the unsuspecting and terrified guards of this little outpost, on his way to Italy. Its fortress, built by Ferdinand of Aragon, fell to the French forces of Cardinal Richelieu in 1642, after a three-year siege.
Perpignan itself is a reminder that this is the most southerly département of mainland France. Apart from the plane trees, its Promenade des Plantains has alluring rosemary bushes and many flowers that flourish only in the abundant warm sunshine. The Palace of the Kings of Majorca, who once ruled from Perpignan, is noted for the splendour of its great hall and its gothic chapel.
To the southeast, Collioure also has its 12th century royal castle overlooking the exotic harbour but the village is famous as the focal point of the Fauves, literally the ‘wild cats’, artists famed at the turn of the 19th century for their unbridled use of form and colour. They included Henri Martin, André Martin, Derain and, most famous of all, Henri Matisse. He captured Collioure’s exceptional natural beauty and painted its greatest view, across the red terracotta roofs of the town towards the lighthouse on a rocky promontory jutting out to sea. The reputation of Matisse is such that he brings huge crowds in July and August, when the best advice is to arrive at crack of dawn, sample the luxury goods in little boutiques that were once fishermen’s cottages, take a coffee break in one of the smart cafes on terraces overlooking the sea, lunch early and head for home.
Tourist offices and related websites
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Saion, Aude
Rennes-les-Bains, Aude
Corbières vineyards
Collioure, Pyrénées-Orientales
Carcassonne, Aude
Duilhac, Aude
Château de Lastour, Aude
Soulatgé, Aude
Château de Peyrepertuse, Aude
Canal du Midi, Sallèles d'Aude
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