DESTINATIONS EUROPE | FRANCE
cuisine at La Barbacane, where highlights of the £112 tasting menu include Seine scallops with Comté cheese. The wine menu is the fattest I’ve ever come across, and I opt for a delicious Crémant de Limoux – a sparkling wine made using the champagne method but produced in other areas of France. The town of Limoux, just a 20-minute drive from
Carcassonne, is an essential stop-off. The vineyards here are generally family-run and much smaller than the behemoths of the Champagne region, offering more opportunity to speak directly to the producers in question. Examples include Domaine du Grès Vaillant, which has been producing sparkling wine for hundreds of years, where current owners Aigline and Laurent rely on horses to pull machinery and turn the soil. “Recently, there’s been growing interest from China in our wines,” says Aigline during a tasting of the vineyard’s crisp, dry varieties. “But the problem is that you’ll go to a trade show, chat to a Chinese buyer who says he loves your wine and would like to place an order, and he’ll request 150,000 bottles, which isn’t feasible for many [small-scale] Limoux vineyards.” But Aigline and Laurent shouldn’t worry – there’ll
ABOVE: The town of Limoux is 20 minutes from Carcassonne PICTURE: Shutterstock/BearFotos
be no shortage of Occitanie-bound wine lovers who will be more than happy to pick up the slack.
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Osprey Holidays offers a three-night B&B stay in a Classic King Room at Hotel de la Cité Carcassonne, with flights from Stansted departing September 7, from £749.
ospreyholidays.com
Trafalgar’s 10-day Highlights of France and Barcelona tour, which spends a night in Carcassonne, costs from £2,318 per person, based on two sharing, for a departure on August 28. The price includes accommodation, activities and the services of a Trafalgar tour director. Flights are extra.
trafalgar.com
Headwater’s four-night self-guided Tour de France – Canal du Midi break costs from £1,389 per person, based on two sharing, for departures in July. The price includes B&B, bike hire, a navigation app and luggage transfers, but not flights.
headwater.com
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