Carcassonne is actually 2 towns. I remember when I first arrived in the region and a friend suggested we meet for a coffee in the main square in Carcassonne. So I headed for the medieval town perched on the hill and walked into what seemed like the main square which is lined with restaurants and cafes. I chose a pretty spot to sit and order my coffee and waited for my friend to arrive. After 10 minutes she called me and asked where I was? I gave her the name of the cafe and she said there is no such cafe in the main square in Carcassonne, was I sure I was in place Carnot? Sure enough I was in the wrong place. I was in La Cité and she was in the bastide town below which all
locals call Carcassonne. 
So to get your bearings; La Cité is the walled medieval fortified town that sits majestically on the hill on the banks of the Aude river. Directly below is the bas town, a cluster of houses, little chapels, cafes and restaurants that ooze towards Le Pont Vieux, the 12th century bridge that crosses the river Aude and takes you into Bastide Saint-Louis. This so called modern town was built during the reign of King Louis the sun King and was built as all bastide towns were, in a grid system and at the heart of it is place Carnot, the main square.So what's to see in these 3 distinctly different parts of Carcassonne, well let's start with La Cité and work our way down the hill.
The village of Minerve is a peaceful and enchanting place and it's clear for all to see why it's one of the ‘Les Plus Beaux Villages de France’. 2000 years ago the Romans settled in Languedoc and perhaps the name of this miniscule village stems back to those times. Certainly the village is ancient and in the days of the Cathar crusade would have been known by its Occitan name Menèrba, named after the Roman goddess of wisdom.
It's possible to approach the village from 3 directions and each gives a unique vista. If coming from the direction of the village of Cessaras you will have a superb view of the 'Petite Causse', the name given to stretches of limestone land which in Languedoc is smothered with wild herbs and other Mediterranean plants such as cistus, pine and Juniper. The collective name for these scented plants is ‘garrigue’. The Petit Causse is an ancient land with evidence of mankind from previous millennia. Millions of years ago turbulent river waters sliced a deep gorge across the causse but now the gentle River Cesse trickles lazily going underground during the summer months. Each spring I like to walk these hills and take the now familiar path that crosses the causse and each step I take along the limestone path releases intoxicating aromas of wild thyme warmed by the sunshine. At this time of year the herbs are flowering and are also joined by pretty wild flowers and birdsong is the only sound I hear apart from the crunch of my boots.
Welcome to Februarys' news roundup from the team at Vin en Vacances. We are getting excited as the new season is about to start and we have some wonderful new wine & food tours and some great wine holidays for you. Read on and I hope we will tempt you to pay the Languedoc a visit this year.
Happy Birthday Canal du Midi..!
2016 is the 350th anniversary of commencement of work to build the Canal du Midi for it was in 1666 that the first spade sank into the midi soil. There will be many ways to celebrate this important year and to remember the people who worked so hard to create this incredible waterway. Read Wendy's blog and find out more...
New Tours
Canal du Midi Wine Tours - Our range of tours is growing and this year as well as our very popular Canal du Midi Wine tour we have added the Canal du Midi Epicurean Wine tour. Its a food & wine extravaganza and includes a fabulous wine
tasting cruise.Lagrasse Food & History Walking Tour - For foodies who also like a bit of history we have a new 3 hour walking tour around the village of Lagrasse which runs every Saturday. After a foodie stroll around the market stalls in the medieval covered market you will enjoy a history stroll around the village and learn some of the fascinating facts about one of 'Les Plus Beaux Villages de France'. Find out more...
Imagine a time before motor vehicles when the pace of life was slow and the work was hard. In those days moving produce out of Languedoc was difficult and involved a long sea voyage around Spain and Portugal or along rough, rutted roads with a horse and cart. Wine was moved from wineries in barrels, on carts from villages to towns but to move it any further caused it to spoil with the jostling of the cart.In the 17th century the market for wine was where the population was growing, mainly in the north, in larger towns
such as Paris but also the lucrative export markets including Holland and the British Isles. In the parts of France that had navigable rivers or where towns were close to the Atlantic such as Bordeaux, it was reasonably easy to move wine north. For Languedoc the nearest Atlantic port was Bordeaux but due to a protectionist law known as the Bordeaux Privilege hardly any Languedoc wine left the French shore from Bordeaux. The only choice left to the folk of Languedoc was a long sea voyage around Spain and Portugal which could also spoil the wine.
“Te Counaissi” - it looks and sounds familiar, and yet..... If you happen to be in Languedoc between January and the
two weeks before Easter, and you're passing through the town of Limoux, it could well be an expression you hear. It's the tease or taunt spoken by the masked Pierrots taking part in the region's famous Carnival; and it's your cue to engage the Pierrot in some banter ! Te counnaissi is Occitan - it means, I know or I recognise you, and unlike many other pageants, in Limoux, those who go to watch, also have the chance to participate! Be warned though, they're fond of showering you in confetti!We all know the French love a party, and the Carnival of Limoux is a party of pretty extraordinary calibre. Thought to have its roots in the Middle Ages, not even the dark days of the French Revolution could halt proceedings, and it remains the longest running 'fete' in France.
Last week the Vin en Vacances team payed a visit to Clos du Gravillas, a boutique winery farming organically on limestone soils in the Minervois. They wanted to taste some of the 2015 wines to see how they are maturing and here is team member Marcel Van Baalens report:
On our vineyard tours we get to taste a lot of wines on a yearly basis! Don’t worry, the spit-bucket is our best friend. Tasting so many wines gives us a fairly good idea about the quality and the character of a vintage. But what makes a great vintage? Every vintage is different, and so it should be. To describe a vintage we have to look at all the four seasons. Vivaldi was right! But conditions may vary locally.We talked to John Bojanowski of Clos du Gravillas, a boutique winery in the tiny appellation of Saint-Jean-de-Minervois, famous for its sweet Muscat wine.
As yet another season comes to a close, and the winter nights invite us to cosy up in front of the fire, it's a wonderful chance to look back at the highlights of our year.Vin en Vacances is a special business; it's a 'people' business; it's what we do, so here are some memories of us, our little team, making lots of people happy.
This year I had the impression that the seasons had nudged forward by a month. Spring began during March and although I had the logs crackling on the fire in the evening, the days were often bright and perfect for hiking which I did a lot of. However, during winter we had seen a lot of rain, some of it torrential and the little river at the bottom of my garden was deep and fast flowing as spring arrived. The vines started to wake from their winter sleep in early April and the spring sunshine and warmer than normal temperatures soon had them sporting their tufts of greenery like ribbons twisted into little bows. Flowering began just as it should and the little green flowers soon turned to baby grapes and by the end of May we had what looked like bunches of ‘petit pois’ beginning their short journey of around 100 days to become sweet juicy grapes.
Hi there followers of Wendy's blog! Ever wondered what it would be like working for a Vineyard Tour Company? Read on for a little bit about my experience.
I'm Natalie (sans h), and it’s been 3 months since I started work as an intern for Vin en Vacances, 3 crazy months which have flown by, obviously caught on the back of that famous Languedoc wind. Now that it has reached September and the flurry of activity has started to gradually subside, I can look back on the last 3 months and say that I have absorbed the workload and lifestyle relatively well. I have still got 2 months left, so without speaking too soon, I think it is still safe to say that I’ve had a really fabulous and inspiring summer.
Peter and Deborah Core made a life-changing move when they quit their jobs in London and headed to New Zealand to learn how to become wine makers. Deborah was a lawyer and Peter an accountant so their new chosen path was one that took them in an entirely different direction and one they have no regrets taking.