The Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon

Like the most celebrated dish of this area, cassoulet, the southwestern region of France is a feast of diverse ingredients. Just as it would be a gross oversimplification to refer to cassoulet merely as a dish of baked beans, southwestern France is much more than just Toulouse, the peaks of the Pyrénées, and the fairy-tale ramparts of Carcassonne. Rolling, sunbaked plains and rock- and shrub-covered hills dotted with ruins of ancient civilizations parallel the burning coastline; the fortifications and cathedrals of once-great cities like Béziers and Narbonne rise like ghosts from the Mediterranean haze; and Collioure and the famed Côte Vermeille, immortalized by Matisse and Derain, nestle colorfully just north of the border with Spain. Nevertheless, the city of Toulouse remains the cultural and human hub of this rich corner of France. Serving as gateway to the region, alive with music, sculpture, and architectural gems, and vibrant with students, Toulouse is all that more famous regional capitals would like to have remained, or to become. Sinuously spread along the romantic banks of the Garonne as it meanders north and west from the Catalan Pyrénées on its way to the Atlantic, "La Ville Rose"—so called for its redbrick buildings—has a Spanish sensuality unique in all Gaul, a feast for eyes and ears alike. Toulouse was the ancient capital of the province called Languedoc, so christened when it became royal property in 1270, meaning the country where oc—instead of the oil or oui of northeastern France—meant yes. Outside Toulouse, the terrain of the Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon is studded with museums, like so many raisins sweetening up a spicy stew. Albi, with its Toulouse-Lautrec legacy, is a star attraction, while Céret's Musée d'Art Moderne remains packed with Picassos, Braques, and Chagalls.

Céret, in fact, is the gateway to a fabled "open-air museum" prized by artists and poets: the Côte Vermeille. The Vermilion Coast is centered around Collioure, the fishing village where Matisse, Derain, and the Fauvists committed chromatic mayhem in the early years of the 20th century. They were called the Fauves, or "wild beasts," partly because their colors were taken from the savage tones found in Mother Nature hereabouts. Where Matisse, Derain, Picasso, Gris, and Braque first vacationed and painted, thousands soon followed. A town of espadrille merchants, anchovy packers, and lateen-rigged fishing boats in the shadow of its 13th-century Château Royal, Collioure is now as much a magnet for tourists as it once was and still is a lure for artists. Today the town—composed of narrow, cobbled streets and pink-and-mauve houses—is a living museum, as you can discover by touring its Route du Fauvisme, where 20 points along a route through town compare reproductions of noted Fauvist canvases with the actual scenes that were depicted in them (view-finder picture frames let you see how little has changed in eight decades).

The view of the fabled Côte Vermeille from the Alberes mountain range reveals a bright-yellow strand of beach curving north and east toward the Camargue wetlands. From the vineyards above Banyuls-sur-Mer to the hills once traversed by Hannibal and his regiment of elephants, this storied coast retains a Spanish tinge, reminding us that the province of Roussillon was once part of Catalonia (just over the border to the south) and the veritable crown of Aragon's medieval Mediterranean empire. The Mediterranean smooth and opalescent at dawn; villagers dancing Sardanas to the music of the raucous and ancient woodwind flavioles and tenores; the flood of golden light so peculiar to the Mediterranean.. everything about this fabled vacation region seems to be asking to be immortalized in oil on canvas.

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