Saint-Félix-Lauragais -Located in the Midi Pyrenees, France

Saint Felix is a lovely little town situated on a hill top in the Haute Garonne department of the Midi-Pyrenees. Its location affords it some wonderful views across the French countryside into the Languedoc Roussillon region where the Pyrenees act as a fabulous backdrop to the already impressive views.

The town makes the most of this position and has built a ‘table de orientation’ at the edge of town where you have the best views and close to the ‘Chateau de Saint Felix Lauragais’ which was built in the 13th century and is now a privately owned property listed as a ‘monument historique’.

You will find a nice town square just up from the church and the day we visited there was a jazz band playing from a restaurant on the corner of the square. We managed to catch the last few tunes and were quite pleased to find anything going on as this was a Sunday afternoon and you have to know where to go to get a bit of life on a Sunday in the South of France.

Although if you are in this region you will find that the craft shops and stalls of Durfort near to Revel and Soreze are usually open and working on a Sunday during the summer months. Saint Felix is no stranger to craftworks either and has a potter's market that runs throughout September each year. You can contact the Office de Tourisme in St Felix by ringing 05 62 18 96 99, country code for France is 33.

As you wander around St Felix you find little openings in the architecture resent you with some wonderful views of the surrounding countryside. Just like this one of a local windmill set on the hillside.

Pays de Lauragais
As an entity I believe that the Pays de Lauragais is not particularly well known, but on investigation you will find that the region has a lot to offer the tourist and any visitors to the area, the capital of Pays de Lauragais is of course Castelnaudary which sits on the Canal du Midi and is a world heritage site, built by Pierre Paul Riquet. Some of the towns of interest and within an easy driving distance of St Felix Lauragais are Villefranche de Lauragais that has a fabulous church with a 6 bell walled belfry, Revel with its famous Saturday morning food market and Durfort with its traditional copper crafting industry.

The history of the Cathar period is also rife in the region with Issel and St Papoul located just down the road. Saissac with its fabulous 'Chateau' is only a stones throw beyond St Papoul and of course the fabulous walled city of Carcassonne is only about 40 minutes from St Felix and even closer to Castelnaudary. There is also an abundance of mills all through the region with one of the nicest examples being at Mireval just south of Castelnaudary. With its mix of hills and planes you will find that there are plenty of other places beyond St Felix that can provide spectacular views across this lovely countryside. Places such as Saissac and Fanjeux, each with their own interest and history.

French Weather
It is always useful to know what weather you are likely to encounter on your travels and for French weather information the principle weather web site in France is meteofrance.com . You can look at the region of interest by entering a postal code or, town name, for example Castelnaudary which is located in Aude in France can be found by either entering the town name or its post code 11400.

Another useful web site in English is the Yahoo weather station weather.yahoo.com which again allows you to select the region or place of interest for specific information on your chosen destination and up to 6 days weather using the extended forecast.

Find a 'Vide Grenier'
A 'Vide Grenier' actually means an attic sale or is the equivalent of a car boot sale in the UK. But the French do things a bit differently, so more often than not you will find that the 'Vide Grenier' is spread throughout the entire village and is a mix of professional and amateur sellers offering pretty much anything you can think of. There can also be entertainment and hot food available at some of the larger locations. They are probably every antique hunters' favourite way to spend a day. Just sifting through the offerings looking for a real bargain.
Find a Vide Grenier

Pays de Lauragais