10 reasons why Occitanie may be the new Provence

Looking out from Toulouse the map looks invitingly blank. For Occitanie is the “other South of France”, intensely French, a sun-warmed countryside where livestock outnumber people.

Occitanie? It’s the administrative replacement for Languedoc-Rousillion and Midi-Pyrenees bureaucratically butchered at midnight on 31st January 2015.

As Provence’s country sister, Occitanie does decadence in its own bucolic way – enjoying the traditional luxuries of good-food, fine wines and the time to savour them. For this rural paradise of quiet roads winding through vines and sunflowers hedonistically lives off the fat of the land.

With it hill-top mediaeval villages, Occitanie has more than it’s fair share of France’s “plus beaux villages”. There’s plenty to…