Featured holiday Cathar country to Mediterranean Collioure walking holiday Languedoc-Roussillon, France

You are met at Toulouse airport or station and, should time allow, you are taken to your first Cathar Country stronghold, Roquefixade, where you can enjoy climbing to the top of the castle to get panoramic views of the Ariege peaks before enjoying a warm-up walk nearby.
NB: It is also possible for you to drive directly to Foix and leave your car here for the rest of the week. You will then be driven back to collect your car at the end of the holiday for no additional charge.
You spend your first night at the three-star Hôtel Restaurant Lons right in the historic centre of Foix, close to the castle, and beside the River Ariege. This is a most welcoming, family run hotel that balances contemporaneity with tradition as is nowhere more evident than in its atmospheric and highly rated restaurant (eat overlooking the river). In the best sense, this is what hotel-restaurants in France used to be like. Allow time to check your kit, pack your rucksack and study your guides and map.
Transfer time: 1 hr 30 mins
Walking time: About 2.5hrs
Elevation: Plus 270m, minus 270m

We provide a transfer to start the day so that the day can concentrate on being a marvellous walk with fantastic views, historic landscapes, and tranquillity all the way (but no great ascents or descents) to the spectacular site of Montségur. When you see its remarkably secure position, it is easy to understand how this was the last stronghold of the Cathar "rebels" - holding out for 10 months in 1244, then many being burnt alive for refusing to renounce their faith. You descend into the village, and can visit its small, but high quality, museum before we transfer you to Puivert. Puivert is a lovely village with its own lake and sandy beach, deep in the Cathar countryside, and right on the Cathar walking path, the GR7. The Petit Verger (The Little Orchard) is a well-run and most welcoming 5 room chambres d'hôtes. The rooms are large, the facilities en-suite, the private gardens and woodland delightful, and the food superb in its authentic, rural style. Plus, there is a superb local brewery selling authentic real ale just next door. Again, it is the sort of place that is hard to find - and a joy when it is done as well as this.
Transfer time: 1 hr 30 mins
Walking distance: 6.5 kms or 15 kms
Walking time: About 2.5hrs or 5.5 hrs
Elevation: Plus 400m or 900m, minus 400m or 500m

Today starts with a visit to Puivert's chateau, one of the best preserved, and, consequently, most interesting in the region. From there paths take you around wooded hilltops before walking through a most strange (but entirely natural) "green labyrinth" of rocks and trees. You then continue on the GR7 all the way to the ancient and attractive riverside town of Quillan, or you can choose a transfer to save the last few miles.
You stay at the impressive three-star Hôtel La Chaumière right in the centre of Quillan, so perfect for a stroll and aperitif before dinner, which offers modern versions of traditional regional specialities. Not just interesting, but good too.
Transfer time: 15 mins
Walking distance: 10 kms or 17 kms
Walking time: About 4hrs or 6.5 hrs
Elevation: Plus 250m or 450m, minus 150m or 650m

We transfer you this morning to the remarkably well preserved castle of Puilaurens, which certainly saved the lives of many fleeing Cathars as it was protected from Crusader attack by being Aragonese property. From there you walk through interesting countryside to contrasting Fenouillet: its Cathar castle impressive but now in ruins, its tiny village completely restored, and much praised. You now walk through the "secret", and surprisingly narrow, Gorges de Saint Jaume with its overhanging rocks, wooden bridges, waterfalls, and sense of history almost hanging in the air. Soon after you pass through woods and vineyards to arrive at the charming 15th century pilgrimage chapel of Notre Dame de Laval, and then your destination for today, the pleasant and characteristically rural village of Caudies de Fenouilledes. You stay in the charmingly simple converted winery that is the Relais de Laval. It offers a welcoming ambience, and a gastronomic tour of Roussillon cuisine, which includes elements from the north (foie gras), the west (cassoulet), the east (shellfish), and the south (Catalan stews etc) - not forgetting the local wines, and particularly the aromatic aperitif Muscat.
Transfer time: 30 mins
Distance: About 11.5 km
Time: About 4 hrs 30 mins
Elevation: Plus 550m, minus 800m

You start today with a transfer to the spectacular Gorges de Galamus - huge cliffs almost touching in parts, houses built into and under rock faces, a beautiful, fast flowing river (a favourite with canyoneers), and the wonderfully located, carved out hermitage of Saint-Antoine. In complete contrast, you then walk through the high altitude "garrigue" (typical Mediterranean low level, soft leaved shrubs and small trees) under vast blue skies (usually!) to arrive at the magnificent eleventh century castle (two castles actually) of Peyrepertuse, called a "ship in the sky" because it seems to sail across the plateau surrounding it. You can now choose between a transfer or a walk down to Cucugnan. You stay at the charming, four-bedroom, two star Auberge du Vigneron, which is an excellent example of an authentic restaurant with rooms as the food and wines are undoubtedly the stars of the show here. Expect to be surprised by the quality, innovation, style and taste of the dishes you will enjoy here.
Transfer time: 30 mins
Distance: About 15 km or 19 kms
Time: About 5 hrs or 6 hrs 30 mins
Elevation: Plus 650m or 750m, minus 750m or 850m

You begin the day with a very pleasant 2 hour stroll along the GR7, Cathar Country footpath, to "inaccessible" Queribus, one of the last refuges of the Bons Hommes, which provides an inspiring view of the blue, blue Mediterranean from its imperious, lone peak situation. This is appropriate as we then transfer you to that Mediterranean at the unforgettable fishing and artists' village of Collioure. You can simply stroll around the colourful village, explore its castle (one last castle, this one where the sea laps its foundations) and museum discovering more about Braque, Matisse and Picasso (among others) who all painted here, or you can take one of several walks that follow paths up through vineyards then back along the cove packed coastline with sandy beaches for a welcoming swim.
You stay at the three-star boutique Hôtel Mas des Citronniers in the centre of the village, a short stroll from the water's edge and set in its own extensive gardens. You dine in one of our favourite restaurants in the village.
Transfer time: 1.5 hrs
Time: About 2 hrs 30 mins
Elevation: Plus 450m or minus 150 m

This is certainly a memorable last day walking along this most attractive - and surprisingly unspoilt - section of the coast where the Pyrenees descends to meet the Mediterranean resulting in vine-covered hillsides, views up to the Pyrenees, dominated by the 8,500 feet Mount Canigou, and a "scrunched up" coastline filled with small, and some tiny, coves and creeks, many with overhanging trees and flowering bushes, sandy beaches, and beckoning turquoise waters, not least the rather larger Paulilles beach. You pass by an old windmill, the fort at St Elme, and walk out onto Cape Béar and Cape Ullastret before arriving, reluctantly perhaps, at Banyuls sur Mer, the traditional Mediterranean destination for an Atlantic-Mediterranean walk.
Your last night is spent at the beachside three-star Hôtel Les Elmes with its stylish rooms, most with sea views, and gourmet restaurant on a terrace overlooking the Mediterranean. It's a wonderful place to end your journey, and the food is good too.
Distance: About 13 km
Time: About 4 hrs 30 mins
Elevation: Plus 500m, minus 500m

After breakfast you will be transferred back to Toulouse airport or railway station. The journey time is about 2.5 hours.