There are reasons aplenty for our enduring love affair with the south of France. Robin Gauldie explores some of Occitanie’s most desirable towns
Occitanie, like Provence, is one of those French regions that feels almost like a country in its own right – as, of course, it was, back in the good old days of wandering troubadours, proud Counts of Toulouse, fervently religious Cathars and equally fanatical Papal crusaders.
They left a vast patrimoine that includes the ghostly shells of Cathar strongholds like Lastours, spectacular churches and abbeys, and of course, the mighty citadel of Carcassonne, the region’s tourism anchor.
But enough medieval history. In 2016, the French government, in a fit of rationalisation, cobbled Occitanie together from the former regions of Midi- Pyrénées and Languedoc- Roussillon, and their component départements of Ariège, Aude, Aveyron, Gard, Haute-Garonne, Gers, Hérault, Lot, Lozère, Hautes-Pyrénées, Pyrénées-Orientales, Tarn and Tarn-et-Garonne.
“Occitanie has a population of almost six million and covers an area larger than Ireland,” points out Anna Sirinides, a Carcassonnebased Leggett agent.
It’s a counterpane of landscapes, from the summeryellow, sun-baked sunflower prairies of the Gers to the sea of vineyards that stretches across Aude and Hérault to the long, sandy Mediterranean beaches and oyster lagoons of Roussillon. To the south loom the Pyrénées, sometimes hidden in summer haze but snow-capped and startlingly visible on a clear spring day. For skiers, more than 30 resorts and 1,000km of pistes lie around three hours away.
To the north, the Massif Central peters out in the forest-cloaked hills of the Montagne Noire. Through it all runs the Canal du Midi, surely the greatest engineering work of the 17th century and progenitor of a French penchant for grands projets that is still going strong, from the TGV routes that now connect Occitanie’s main cities with Paris to the awesome Viaduc de Millau that sweeps you across the awesome Tarn gorges as you drive south on the A75.
Ease of access is one Occitanie’s many selling points: the autoroute takes you almost all the way to Toulouse or Montpellier from the Channel ports. There are good TGV connections from Paris to all of the region’s major cities, and you have a pick of five regional airports (plus two more just across the Spanish border for those looking to buy in the southeast).
LA VILLE ROSE
Toulouse is France’s fourth largest city and Occitanie’s administrative capital, with a population of around 500,000. It’s the home of Airbus and of France’s space programme, while a large student body – it has more than a dozen universities – gives it a
