Contact
The conical towers and ramparts of the medieval city of Carcassonne
Regions of France

Occitanie

Some places whisper their beauty. Occitanie declares it — from a walled medieval city to the widest vineyards in France.

Scroll
← All of France·Occitanie
The land of the troubadours

Medieval citadels and sun-drenched vines.

From the Mediterranean to the Pyrenees, this is France's sunniest, largest wine region — Cathar castles on their cliffs, Roman aqueducts, pink-brick cities and the shaded Canal du Midi. Here time bends between the citadel and the vineyard, and the air still carries the echo of troubadours.

30% of France's wine300 days of sunshine300+ historic castlesFrance's No.1 for biodiversity
The Cathar castle of Peyrepertuse in ruins along a mountain ridge
The mystery of the Cathars

Castles built closer to heaven.

The Cathars rejected the wealth of the Church, and the Church came for them. Their eagle's-nest fortresses — Peyrepertuse, Quéribus, Montségur — still cling to the cliffs above the Corbières, silent since the crusade, wrapped in legends of hidden treasure the storytellers have never let go.

We walk the Cathar trail with a historian who knows the sieges by heart, fly the castles by helicopter, and stand on Montségur where two hundred once chose the fire over recanting.

A sunlit southern French table with red wine and bread
Bold, rustic, deeply authentic

The Occitan table.

A gastronomy of contrasts — the sea and the mountains, the sweet and the savoury, all under three hundred days of sun. You claim a seat at its table.

A rustic bowl of white beans with sausage and meat

Cassoulet

The ultimate comfort
White beans, duck confit and sausage, slow-baked to a crust — said to date from the Hundred Years' War.
The great debate
Castelnaudary, Toulouse or Carcassonne? Everyone is certain.
In the cassole
The earthenware dish that gave the dish its name.
A wedge of blue-veined cheese

Roquefort

The king of blues
Raw sheep's milk, aged in the Combalou caves — the world's most famous blue cheese.
The black diamond
Truffles from the Tarn, hunted through the winter oak forests.
The caves
We take you down into the fleurines where the mould does its work.
Fresh oysters with lemon and a glass of white wine

The Mediterranean

Leucate oysters
Straight from the lagoon, with a glass of Picpoul — the taste of the coast.
Tielle & bourride
Spicy octopus pie and a golden Sète fish stew.
Catalan crème
Crème catalane, cinnamon and citrus, cracked like a brûlée.
A glass of deep red wine in golden light

The largest cellar in France

Corbières & Languedoc
Warm, full-bodied reds from Narbonne to Carcassonne.
Crémant de Limoux
Sparkling wine made here before Champagne ever was.
Banyuls & Maury
Sweet, amber, sun-drenched — poured on a terrace above the sea.
The colourful Mediterranean bay of Collioure below its hilltop fort
Every Occitanie we design is different

No two of our journeys are the same. Tell us yours.

Speak to Marie
The city of Carcassonne floodlit gold against the night sky
La Cité de Carcassonne

A whole city inside its walls.

Not a castle — a fortress town, two rings of ramparts and fifty-two towers, saved from demolition and restored to its medieval self. By day it draws the crowds. At night, floodlit gold above the vineyards, it belongs to the few who stay to watch it burn against the dark.

A sketch of what we\'d build you

Journeys we've made here.

Six we've designed here. Open one to see how it goes.

Walking the lists between Carcassonne's double ramparts
Between the walls
Walking the lists at dawn
See the journey
The three-tier Roman Pont du Gard aqueduct over the river
Rome in the south
Two thousand years of engineering
See the journey
A barge under an avenue of plane trees on the Canal du Midi
The slow south
Under the plane trees, at walking pace
See the journey
The pink-brick Capitole of Toulouse at golden hour
La Ville Rose
The city that glows pink at dusk
See the journey
The Cathar castle of Peyrepertuse atop white limestone cliffs
Eagle's nest
The fortress in the clouds
See the journey
The ramparts of Carcassonne on their hill in golden evening light
Golden hour
The ramparts turn to honey
See the journey
0104
Marie Tesson, founder
A travel house — not a tourism office

Why us.

A tourism office hands you a ticket to Carcassonne with ten thousand others. We hand you to the people who are Occitanie — the historian who has the ramparts before dawn, the affineur in the Roquefort caves, the vigneron on the terraces above the sea, the bargeman who knows every lock on the Midi. Twenty-five years of friendships open doors no ticket can.

iTwenty-five years of real relationshipsNot suppliers on a commission — friends who open their own doors.
iiAround fifty journeys a year, never off-the-shelfEach built from nothing. We turn most inquiries away.
iiiMarie reads every inquiry herselfA real conversation, and a reply within two days — or nothing at all.
Start a conversation
Begin here

Tell us the Occitanie you want to feel.

A Cathar castle by helicopter, the Roquefort caves, a barge under the plane trees, a vineyard terrace above the Mediterranean.

Marie reads every inquiry herself and writes back within two days.

No itinerary · No brochure · A real conversation
Write to Marie