Languedoc-Roussillon: overview

Places to visit in Languedoc-Roussillon

Carcassonne

Once the border with Spain, and dominating the plain, Carcassonne is the only medieval monument of its kind in Europe, due to its two sets of intact fortifications, which surround a tiny town of 350 inhabitants overlooking the modern city. The first ramparts were built by the Romans in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD; the second lot were built in the 13th century by St Louis. In periods of siege during the Middle Ages, up to 10,000 people would take refuge here. In the 19th century Carcassonne was restored by the controversial Gothic Revivalist architect Viollet-le-Duc, so parts of it are deliberately more picturesque than the medieval originals.

Across the drawbridge, the bustling little town today is filled with cafés and restaurants, bakeries and antique shops. The medieval Château Comtal is particularly impressive, the summer festival making use of its fabulous amphitheatre. 

Nîmes

Nîmes 9,43km (27 miles) northeast of Montpellier, is a far-sighted city which successfully combines the old with the avant-garde. Once an important Roman city, Nîmes’s 2,000-year-old amphitheatre still echoes with the sounds of bullfights that draw enormous crowds to the Feria de Pentecôte every May. Among other Roman relics and the lovely Jardin de la Fontaine, an 18th-century network of terraces, bridges and water pools, stands the Carré d’Art arts complex, a modern tribute in glass and steel by British architect Norman Foster. 

Pont du Gard

This gigantic 2,000-year-old aqueduct is without doubt the most impressive of all the Roman monuments preserved from an cient Gaul. It carried spring water from near Uzès to the town of Nîmes, a distance of 35km (22 miles).

Built of enormous granite blocks joined without mortar in three tiers of arches, six at the base, 11 at the middle level, and 35 at the top, this highly functional construction is also remarkably beautiful, in total harmony with its landscape. The best view is from the riverbank near the Château St-Privat, beyond the aqueduct.

French Catalonia: Prades, Perpignan and Céret

Col de Puymorens, the scenic road winds down steeply, passing the ski resort of Font-Romeu, into a wide valley that separates France and Spain, before plunging into the narrow Gorges de Carança and not levelling off until it reaches Prades at the foot of the Pic du Canigou. This was the favourite town of the cellist Pablo Casals (1876–1973), and a music festival is held in his honour in the magnificent 11th-century, restored Benedictine abbey of St-Michel-de-Cuxa every summer.

Above the abbey, the tiny road twists through Vernet-les-Bains, with a spa cooled by a mountain torrent, to Casteil where a steep 30–50-minute hike leads to the spectacularly sited monastery of St-Martin-du-Canigou. One of the finest examples of Romanesque architecture in the region, it is still inhabited by a community of monks. 

Perpignan, the heart of French Catalonia, is a lively city of moderate size, and a good way to approach it is by canal. The gem of the Catalan coast, however, and inspiration of 20th-century painters such as Matisse, Braque and Picasso, is Collioure, 30km (19 miles) to the southeast. Encased in a small rocky bay, the seaside village, with the 13th-century Château Royal dividing the bay, has escaped the development that has devoured some of the coast of Roussillon. The scenic rocky coast road continues southwards – suffering traffic jams in summer – all the way to Cerbère, the last port before Spain.

Set in the Pyrenean foothills in the Tech Valley, about 25km (16 miles) south of Perpignan, Céret is a small medieval Catalan town steeped in traditions and famous for its excellent Musée d’Art Moderne containing works by Picasso and Braque, among others, who were all inspired by the remarkable surroundings. 

Montpellier

A few kilometres inland, Montpellier, 56km (35 miles) northeast of Béziers, is the capital of Languedoc-Roussillon and one of the liveliest and youngest cities in the Midi. It was revitalised during the 1990s by a dynamic mayor who initiated a programme of avant-garde public architectural developments. 

The city has a large university and a medical school – the oldest in France, dating back to the early 13th century – whose student life focuses around the buzzing old town. Just to the east, on the salt flats and sun-bleached blue lagoons of the Petite Camargue, stands the perfectly preserved walled town of Aigues-Mortes, the ‘place of dead waters’ (referring to the surrounding saline marshes), built by St Louis as the embarkation point for the Seventh Crusade.