Historic sites
Aigues-Mortes ramparts
Aigues-Mortes, Gard
A walled town in the marshes of the Camargue, built by Saint Louis in the 13th century as his port for the Crusades, with ramparts over 1.6 km long s…
Travel tips in Occitanie, France
About Occitanie · All tips in France
France › Occitanie
Country facts
Historic sites
Arènes de Nîmes
Nîmes, Gard
One of the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world, built around 70 AD and seating about 24,000 people.
Historic sites
Carcassonne (La Cité)
Carcassonne, Aude
A fortified medieval city on a hill in Languedoc, with a double ring of walls and 52 towers, restored in the 19th century by the architect Viollet-le…
Natural features
Cirque de Navacelles
Ganges, Hérault
A spectacular canyon in the limestone plateaus of the Causses, where the River Vis once looped around a meander, leaving a hill in the middle of a va…
Historic sites
Conques
Firmi, Aveyron
A medieval village of stone houses with slate roofs clinging to a steep hillside, around the Romanesque abbey church of Sainte-Foy, a great stop on t…
Natural features
Gorges du Tarn
Ispagnac, Lozère
A deep canyon carved by the River Tarn between the limestone plateaus of the Causses, with villages of stone such as Sainte-Énimie and La Malène alon…
Historic sites
Pont du Gard
Vers-Pont-du-Gard, Gard
A Roman aqueduct bridge built in the 1st century AD to carry water across the Gardon river to Nîmes.
Historic sites
Pont Valentré, Cahors
Cahors, Lot
A fortified 14th-century bridge with three tall towers, crossing the Lot River at Cahors, and one of the finest medieval bridges in France.
Historic sites
Rocamadour
Gourdon, Lot
A pilgrimage village that clings to a 150 m cliff above the Alzou canyon, with chapels and sanctuaries stacked one above the other.
Historic sites
Saint-Cirq-Lapopie
Cahors, Lot
A medieval village clinging to a cliff 100 m above the Lot River, voted France's favourite village.
Historic sites
Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert and the Pont du Diable
Saint-Jean-de-Fos, Hérault
A medieval village tucked into the wild gorges of the Hérault, around the Romanesque abbey of Gellone, founded in 804 and a stop on the Way of St Jam…
Historic sites
Château de Castelnau-Bretenoux
Bretenoux, Lot
A huge castle of red stone on a hill above the Dordogne valley, one of the finest examples of medieval military architecture in France, built from th…
Attractions
Fonseranes locks, Canal du Midi
Béziers, Hérault
A staircase of eight locks on the Canal du Midi at Béziers, lifting boats 21 metres up the hillside, one of the great feats of Pierre-Paul Riquet's 1…
Historic sites
Fortress of Salses
Salses-le-Château, Pyrénées-Orientales
A massive Spanish fortress built in the 1490s, when Roussillon was part of Spain, to guard the road from France.
Walks and treks
Gorges du Gardon
Poulx, Gard
Wild limestone gorges of the Gardon river upstream of the Pont du Gard, with cliffs, caves and the hermitage of Notre-Dame de Laval.
Natural features
Jardins de la Fontaine and Tour Magne, Nîmes
Nîmes, Gard
Beautiful 18th-century gardens built around the spring that gave Nîmes its name, with statues, stone balustrades, canals and the ruins of the Roman T…
Natural features
Lac du Salagou and the Cirque de Mourèze
Clermont-l'Hérault, Hérault
A lake in a landscape of striking red earth, called ruffe, and black volcanic rocks, west of Montpellier.
Historic sites
Minerve
Olonzac, Hérault
A medieval village perched on a rocky spur between the gorges of the Cesse and Brian rivers, besieged by Simon de Montfort in 1210 during the crusade…
Historic sites
Montségur
Villeneuve-d’Olmes, Ariège
The ruined castle on a steep rocky peak in the foothills of the Pyrenees where the Cathars made their last stand.
Walks and treks
Pic du Canigou
Vernet-les-Bains, Pyrénées-Orientales
The sacred mountain of the Catalans, rising to 2,784 metres above the plain of Roussillon, with a cross on the summit decorated with Catalan flags.
Natural features
Camargue gardoise
Saint-Laurent-d'Aigouze, Gard
The western part of the Camargue, a land of marshes, reed beds, lagoons and salt meadows where white horses, black bulls and flamingos live.
Historic sites
Château de Montal
Saint-Céré, Lot
A Renaissance château built in the 1520s by Jeanne de Balzac for her son, who was killed in the Italian wars.
Historic sites
Fort Saint-André, Villeneuve-lès-Avignon
Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, Gard
A 14th-century fortress on a hill across the Rhône from Avignon, built by the French kings to watch over the papal city.
Historic sites
Oppidum d'Ensérune
Nissan-lez-Enserune, Hérault
An ancient hilltop town between Béziers and Narbonne, lived in from the 6th century BC until Roman times, with a museum of Greek vases and finds.