Top Reasons to Go
- Matisse madness: Captivating Collioure, the main town of the Vermilion Coast, was where Matisse and Derain went crazy with color and created the Fauvist art movement in the early 20th century.
- Fairy-tale Carcassonne: Complete with towers, turrets, and battlements, Carcassonne’s fortified upper town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that feels like a medieval theme park.
- Tumultuous Toulouse: With rosy roofs and redbrick mansions, the "Pink City" is a place where high culture is an evening at an outdoor café.
- Albi's Toulouse-Lautrec: Presided over by the fortresslike Cathédrale Ste-Cécile, Albi honors its most famous native son, Toulouse-Lautrec, with the largest museum of his works.
- Abbey in the sky: At an altitude of nearly 3,600 feet, the picture-postcard medieval Abbaye St-Martin du Canigou enjoys a perch that (literally) takes your breath away.
