Guide to Languedoc-Roussillon

Languedoc-Roussillon

Southern region bordering the Mediterranean and comprising:
Aude (11)
Gard (30)
Hérault (34)
Lozère (48
Pyrénées-Orientales (66)

Population: 2.1 million
Principal city: Montpellier
Tourist board

The name 'Languedoc' comes from the old southern word for 'yes' (oc) and the local language occitan is still kept alive. The southernmost tip of the region is French Catalonia: its history, culture and traditions, and even its flag, span the Pyrenees and are shared with Spanish Catalonia.

Containing all the Mediterranean resorts from Aigues-Mortes to Perpignan, the main industry in Languedoc-Roussillon is tourism. The Cap d'Agde's quartier naturiste is Europe's biggest garment-free zone; the Mediterranean climate and setting probably help the cause. Often overlooked in favour of the popular and nearby Cap d'Agde, the bassin de Thau has much to offer. It is the hub of the French oyster and mussel industry and shellfish fairs take place here annually. The sunny region of Languedoc-Roussillon has made it an obvious candidate for solar power: at Font-Romeu (Pyrénées-Orientales) the power of the sun has been harnessed by a spectacular solar furnace.

The region has bitter experience of the evil done in the name of Christianity: the peaceful Cathars were brutally exterminated by the Inquisition in the 12th and 13th centuries, and the Protestants of the Cévennes were similarly persecuted by the Vatican during the Wars of Religion.

The Cévennes region is more famous these days for Robert Louis Stevenson's travels with a donkey — and to this day it's still possible to experience this rustic way of travelling. In the far south of the region, the pic du Canigou is known as the Sacred Mountain of Catalonia: Catalans treat it with great respect, as do the many walkers who come to climb the 2,784 metre peak.

A lot of wine is grown in this region. Much of it used to be inferior pinard (plonk) but the quality has been forced to increase in order to compete. Banyuls wine was one of the first to obtain an appellation d'origine contrôlée. It is aged in an unusual way, sometimes being left outside, exposed to the elements, for 20 years.

Cassoulet (originally cassole d'Issel, meaning the cooking pot from the small Languedoc town of Issel) has become a national dish, but there are many regional variations. The newly created Route du Cassoulet is dedicated to extolling the excellence of this traditional stew: it can be sampled at a range of restaurants along the route which stretches from Lézignan (Aude) to Toulouse.

The beautiful capital and ancient university town of Montpellier, founded from the 10th to the 12th century by Jews, Muslims and Christians, has the oldest botanical gardens in France. Suggested visits outside the city include Aigues-Mortes and the Camargue.

Carcassonne epitomises the old fortress towns of the middle ages, and the spirit of the time is brought to life in a reconstruction of a medieval banquet in nearby Villerouge.

The city of Nîmes dates back to Roman times: its most impressive sights are the amphitheatre and the Maison Carrée. However, it also has examples of modern architecture and design — notably the Carré d'Art (a modern art museum) and an unusual marble bus stop. The Pont du Gard, the oldest bridge in France, dates from 19 BC. This unmistakeable landmark was built to transport water from Uzès to Nîmes, a distance of some 30km.

The Causse Méjean is one of several desert-like landscapes at the southern edge of the Massif Central. Deforestation during the last 200 years has made it bleak and barren, but there is some spectacular scenery and amazing underground caverns.

Aude (11)

Population: 795,000
Principal city: Carcassonne
Tourist board

Aude is former Cathar country; and there are many vestiges from their times. Especially noteworth are Quéribus, built on an impressive craggy peak in the south of the Corbières; Peyrepertuse, whose 300-metre-long walls extend along a mountain ridge overhanging a sheer cliff; and Arques, whence Cathar emissaries journeyed to Avignon to obtain letters of clemency from the Pope.

Carcassonne is enclosed by three kilometres of turret-studded ramparts. Although it underwent restoration in the 19th century under the supervision of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, this vast and unique urban complex offers us a striking insight into what the great fortified towns of the medieval West were probably like. The lower town was built under St Louis to counteract the dangerous unrest of the upper town.

Another strong attraction to the area is the canal du Midi, which runs west to east towards the Mediterranean Sea. Put into service in 1681, it connected Aquitaine with the Mediterranean, and Languedoc with the Atlantic. Textiles, cereals and wine were just three of the products that were transported, right up until this century, when rail surpassed its carrying power. Nevertheless, the canal is still extremely popular with pleasure boaters.

Other places of interest are the medieval bastides (purpose built, grid-planned, defended towns and villages); Gruissan and Port Leucate, on the Mediterranean coast; and the Route des Étangs, which encourages the visitor to learn more about the ecology of the Aude's seven saltwater lagoons, their islands, salt marshes, flora and fauna. The Aude is also a copious producer of table wine.

Gard (30)

Population: 585,000
Principal city: Nîmes
Tourist board

As far as ancient monuments go, Nîmes, the capital of Gard, steals the show with its amphitheatre built between the 1st centuries BC and AD, the central Maison Carrée and the pont du Gard, the ancient aqueduct from Uzès to Nîmes (a distance of some 50 km), is the tallest ever built by the Romans. However, Nîmes also has some excellent examples of modern architecture and design, notably the Carré d'Art (a modern art museum) and an unusual marble bus stop.

Further south in the Petite Camargue, the walled town of Aigues-Mortes is another marvel: the site was bought in the 13th century by Saint Louis in preparation for the departure of the 7th Crusade. Protestantism has traditionally had a strong root in the Cévennes, although its followers were very brutally persecuted by the Catholics throughout the Wars of Religion.

Natural curiosities include the Cirque de Navacelles, which is a huge loop carved out of the rock by the River Vis between the Causses of Larzac and Blandas; the Lussan Gorge, and la Bambouseraie, a 100-year-old plantation of bamboo near Alès. The Cévennes area is famous for Robert Louis Stevenson's account of his trek through there with a donkey.

Amongst the traditional festivals celebrated are the famous Camargue bull races and the férias of Nîmes. . . and to cheer up the grey days of February, the village of Roquemaure holds a kissing festival in honour of St Valentine, whose relics reputedly reside there.

Hérault (34)

Population: 795,000
Principal city: Montpellier
Tourist board

The capital of the region of Languedoc-Roussillon, the ancient university town of Montpellier, has been an important node since its foundation. Although its self-designation as 'Capital of Southern Europe' seems open to contention, the city is nevertheless renowned for its art and culture, and hosts innumerable international music, dance and cinema festivals. It also has the oldest botanical gardens in France.

Inland, the Hérault Valley, also known as 'the Golden Valley', is a sunny, charming, typically Meridional landscape. Among the sites worth visiting are the Clamouse caverns, the Hérault Gorge and the cirque at Mourèze.

The Minervois region, named after the Cathar stronghold of Menerba (the city of Minerva) standing on a natural rock pedestal. The ruins, witness to the mass slaughter of their Cathar defenders by Crusaders in 1210, can still be visited. The Minervois, along with the Hérault's other wine-growing areas, once attracted raised eyebrows with the inflated quantity to quality ratio of its produce. However, the tradition of producing gros rouge in Languedoc-Roussillon has given way to demand for better quality wines.

Much as its hinterland is known for its wines, the Hérault above all draws its visitors because it is on the Mediterranean Sea. Perhaps most famed throughout the world is the Cap d'Agde, whose quartier naturiste is Europe's biggest garment-free zone. French libertarian values, the Mediterranean climate, and the glorious setting do much for the cause.

Béziers was the home town of Paul Riquet, the engineer who was responsible for the linking of the Atlantic and Mediterranean oceans with the canal du Midi. The canal actually passes through the town on its final short stretch to the Mediterranean.

Another well-known feature of the region are the several étangs, or coastal lagoons, in which locals rear huge crops of oysters. Sea fishing is also important at a traditional, human dimension at ports such as Mèze. And the humble sardine may seem a strange source of inspiration, but Philippe Anginot thinks otherwise: his museum in the port of Sète is the first in the western world dedicated to this fish. Sète is also one of a number of sites where jousting festivals take place between crews of specially-built boats.

The ancient town of Pézenas, around 20 km inland from the étang de Thau, is particularly fond of its links with the playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière, who was based here in the 1650s. The town also boasts many fine examples of urban architecture, dating from the 15th century. Look out also for the petits pâtés de Pézenas (sweet-and-sour, bobbin-shaped pastries); the improbable legacy of Clive of India, who stayed in the town in the mid-18th century and donated an Anglo-Indian delicacy to the town's culinary heritage.

This is an account of the joutes nautiques in Agde, which is very much a local affair. 34 A pictorial account of the famous water jousting event at Sète, which takes place every year around the fête de Saint Louis. This colourful event dates back to the 17th century. 34 Often overlooked in favour of the popular and nearby Cap d'Agde, the Bassin de Thau has much to offer. It is the hub of the French oyster and mussel industry and shellfish fairs take place here annually.

Lozère (48)

Population: 73,000
Principal city: Mende
Tourist board

Lozère, on the southern edge of the Massif Central, is bisected east to west across the middle by the Lot Valley, and at the département's centre stands Mende, attractively sited on a terrace above the River Lot.

The Lozére (which before the Revolution was called le Gévaudan) is amongst the least populous of French départements, and according to one piece of trivia, it has the highest mean altitude of all the French départements. Its wild, desert-like landscapes are not as well known as other French uplands. Deforestation during the last 200 years has made them bleak and barren, but the scenery is spectacular, and includes dramatic gorges and caverns. Four important rivers rise in the département: the Gard, the Lot, the Tarn and the Allier. The brooding, exposed Mont-Lozère, the Parc National des Cévennes and the Aubrac, a wide plateau of pastures, open to the heavens and strewn with flowers during the summer, are of great interest to nature lovers, walkers and other outdoors folk.

To the north of the département stand the rugged volcanic monts de l'Aubrac, renowned for their flora. Right at the southern edge of the département, the causse Méjean is another desert-like landscape: deforestation during the last 200 years has made it bleak and barren, but there is some spectacular scenery and amazing underground caverns.

In the south-east of the département, between the mont Lozère et le Mont Aigoual, lies the Parc National des Cévennes. This area of forested hills and steep valleys epitomise what is referred to as la France profonde: the low-populated rural areas which have suffered greatly from l'exode rurale. Because the soil is exposed, poor and arid, the département is not especially renowned for culinary specialities. The Cévennes are a surviving bastion of Protestantism, and still remember the brutal wars the Catholics fought against the Calvinist camisards in the 18th century.

Amongst the reasons the Cévennes attracts English-speaking visitors is Robert Louis Stevenson, who famously wrote about his travels through the region with Modestine, a small donkey he purchased for 65 francs and a glass of brandy.

At Marvejols, just to the north of RLS's starting point at Le Monastier, naturalist Gérard Ménatory has established the only reserve in Europe exclusively for wolves, with more than 100 wolves living in a 65-acre park; well worth a visit.

Lozère's lupine connections don't end there: The Lozère and its surrounding areas remain of great interest to cryptozoologists (researchers into as-yet unknown species of animal) for the Beast of Gévaudan, a wolf-like creature that massacred a many farm workers and children in the 18th century. Poems, novels and even a comic strip have been inspired by the beast. Wolves were common in the region, but this specimen was much larger and fearsome than the common wolf — so fearsome in fact that it was declared by many to be a werewolf. Other accounts suggested the culprit was a madman dressed in a wolf's pelt. Whatever the truth, the body count reached intolerable levels: Louis XV despatched a body of soldiers to the area, to no avail. Huntsmen, attracted by the promise of a hefty reward, swarmed to the region. Still the beast went uncaptured, although the hunters succeeded in decimating the natural wolf population. Finally, the beast was shot, identified as a wolf, and paraded around the countryside. Recent evidence, however, points to the fact that the beast was a hyena escaped from a local menagerie.

Pyrénées-Orientales (66)

Population: 364,000
Principal city: Perpignan
Tourist board

The département of Pyrénées-Orientales is interchangeable with the term 'French Catalonia'; its history, culture and traditions are closely linked with 'Spanish' Catalonia on the southern side of the Pyrenees, and the two regions share the same flag. Mankind has appreciated the douceur of this region since time immemorial: there are palaeolithic and neolithic remains in Tautavel, Eyne and Elne (the ancient capital of the Roussillon region and site of later Iberian and Roman excavations).

Amongst the département's most memorable sights is the pic du Canigou, also known as the 'Sacred Mountain of Catalonia'; Catalans treat it with great respect, as do the many walkers who come to climb the 2,784 metre peak. Another attraction for tourists is the Little Yellow Train (le Petit Train Jaune) which links the Pyrenean communities with Perpignan. This narrow-gauge railway runs through the valley of the Têt, past Romanesque ruins and ancient fortifications. A curiosity along the way is the solar-powered Font-Romeu; the intensely sunny region was an obvious candidate for solar power, and at Font-Romeu it has been harnessed to fuel a solar furnace; look out for the vast array of mirrors that focus sunlight into the collecting tower.

Prades is the site of a church that contains an impressive wooden reredos; a masterpiece of baroque art made up of around 40 statues and bas reliefs, in the centre of which is throned Saint Peter. The town has been famous throughout the music world since the 1950s for the summer festival created by the classical cellist Pablo Casals, who had strong links with the Catalan region.

Collioure, a small port on the Mediterranean, owes its fame not only to its ancient origins, but also to the early 20th-century artists Matisse and Derain, who were seduced by the light. Their Fauvism movement inspired other artists, including Raoul Dufy and Picasso, to seek out the town, and the fame and fortune of the Côte Vermeille was made. Today, the town is home to art exhibitions both temporary and permanent.

Banyuls is remembered as the home of the sculptor Aristide Maillol, whose bulbous female nudes are almost the town's trademark. One of the greatest modern sculptors, Maillol was born, died and is buried in the town, amidst a peaceful grove of olive and fig trees. Amongst the culinary specialities of the area are the strong, sweet red wine of Banyuls, which was one of the first to obtain an appellation d'origine contrôlée. It is aged in an unusual way, sometimes being left outside, exposed to the elements, for 20 years. Olive oil is also a speciality, although levels of production have dropped in recent times.

Espadrilles, with their bright summer colours, are synonymous with the south of France and, and there is even an espadrille museum next to the factory at St Laurent, where they are made in a variety of styles and colours.

Every year Perpignan hosts a dramatic religious procession on Good Friday, a tradition which dates back 500 years. The red and black costumes of the penitents and the solemnity of the procession cannot fail to impress spectators.

One of the greatest attractions for visitors to this département is Rennes-le-Château, perched on a mountain 32km due south of Carcassonne. This tiny village provides a breathtaking panorama of the distant Pyrenees. Yet almost no-one who makes the four-kilometre climb up from the valley to this extraordinary village is here for the view. For somehow, Rennes-le-Château holds the key to an awesome secret.

In 1891 Bérenger Saunière, the penniless parish priest of Rennes-le-Château, found four parchments hidden in his church. Or so we are told. Nobody knows where those parchments are now, though facsimiles were published in 1967. By the time of his death in 1917 he had spent millions. It followed, therefore (people said), that the parchments had led him to a treasure. What was the secret of the curé's wealth? Over the decades the mystery has become much more complex and mysterious than that. What started as an interesting puzzle, a kind of jigsaw with lots of pieces missing, led into labyrinthine byways of history, bringing glimpses of the Knights Templar, the Cathars, Merovingian kings and Visigoths, gold, secret societies, heresy, and even the ultimate prize of Christian history — the Holy Grail.