Cacti and other similar plants to see and to buy

Tarif:  moins de 12 ans: 5€  -   à partir de 12 ans: 7€

Make an appointment to visit

LA VISITE DU JARDIN
(sur rendez-vous)
(2200 m² de partie rocheuse et non pas 5 ha comme il a été indiqué ailleurs par erreur)

Part of the garden is rocky and you need to wear good walking shoes

Les Epines de Lespinet
38, Les Hauts de Lespinet
09000 FOIX - France

Tél: 05 81 05 14 92

contact@epines-lespinet.fr

http://epines-lespinet.fr/index.html

Just outside Toulouse

Mir space station, Soyuz spacecraft, Ariane rocket, Imax cinema, planetarium, stelarium........  This is an incredible day out for all the family many things for children to do.

Adult 19,50 or 22 Euros depending on the season

Children aged 5 - 15 years 14 - 15,50 Euros depending on the season

Open all the year round but hours vary please see their website for all details

http://www.cite-espace.com/#accueil

Opening hours and admission

Open 3 April until end of October

http://leparcaustralien.wifeo.com/index.php

Bison and several other species of animals live on a this large farm  facing the Pyrenees.

There is a path to walk around and you can also take a guided visit on a tractor driven trailor which takes an hour.

There is ample parking and a restaurant on the farm

The farm is open from April until October in April, May, June, September & October it is open on Sundays, Public holidays and school holidays.   In July & August it is open every day.

The hours of opening are 12.00 - 19.00 July & August, 12.00 - 18.00 in the other months.

Tariff - children up to 12 years 6 euros

Adults 8 euros

The farm is situated at Lapenne between Mirepoix & Belpech

http://www.lafermeauxbisons.com/index.html

An excursion on your own, with your family, in a group or with school, to discover the world of bamboo.

Surrounded by green, at the bank of a river, on more than 4 ha, between century old trees Le Parc aux Bambous invites you to discover over a 100 different species: from mini-bamboo to giants who can grow up to more than 50 cm a day.

Laid out paths offer you the possibility to stroll through flowerbeds, a bamboo labyrinth, ponds, shady resting-places…

Contact:
LE PARC AUX BAMBOUS
Jean DENAT et Ine BINKHORST
Broques – 09500 LAPENNE

Telephone: 05 61 60 52 11
Fax: 05 61 69 21 74

From Toulouse:

• take direction Foix Pamiers
• in Pamiers stay on the main road until the exit CENTRE-VILLE - BELPECH
• take direction Belpech, the D11
• after 9 km turn right at the first sign 'Parc aux Bambous' direction La Bastide de Lordat
• follow the signs until the parc

From Carcasonne:

• take direction Foix Mirepoix, or, when you're on the A 61, take exit Bram and from there direction Foix Mirepoix
• in Mirepoix take direction Pamiers D119, turn right after 8 km, follow the sign 'Ferme aux Bisons' and after that the signs 'Parc aux Bambous' on the D6
• cross the village of Lapenne, the parc is 2 km further
• other possibility: stay on the D119 until Les Pujols, turn right direction Saint Amadou - La Bastide de Lordat (D30) and follow the signs to the parc

From Andorra and Foix:

• take direction Toulouse, 8 km after Foix take direction Mirepoix
• turn left in Les Pujols direction Saint Amadou and La Bastide de Lordat (D30) and follow the signs to the 'Parc aux Bambous'.

From the A 66:

• take the exit Mazères- Saverdun take direction Mazères and after that direction Belpech
• in the small village Marty take direction Pamiers, turn left after 6 km and folow the signs to the 'Parc au Bambous'

http://www.parcauxbambous.com/uk.htm

Season 2010 Opening: Low season: from 10/04 until 25/06 and from 06/09 until 03/11: weekends, school vacation zone A and holidays from 14.00 until 19.00. High season: from 26/06 until 05/09: every day from 10.00 until 19.00 Groups on reservation: every day from 10/04 until 03/11 Entrance fee: Adults: 6 € Children from 2 until 11 years: 3 € Groups from 20 adults: 5,50 €

• Avril, Mai, Juin, Septembre, Octobre, Novembre : Tous les jours sauf le mardi de 14h30 à 16h30. Le spectacle est à 15h00.
• Juillet et Août : Tous les jours de 10h30 à 12h30 et de 14h30 à 18h.
  3 spectacles : 11h30, 15h et 16h30

Fifteen years of research hve gone into finding 50 dinosaur sites in the Ariège and where this museum/park is situated is one of those sites.

You will find more than 10 species of reptiles and 4 large families of dinosaurs, fossil flora and dinosaur eggshells.

Around 30 species of dinosaur from around the world, dinosaur tracks, life size reconstructions, skeletons and sculls.

Children can learn about paleontological excavation

Children visitors : 5,5€

Children under 5years old : free

Contacts

Musée-parc des Dinosaures
La Forêt aux dinosaures
Castagnès Route de Sabarat
09290 Le Mas d’Azil
Tél : (+ 33) 05.61.60.03.69.
E-mail : laforetauxdinosaures@orange.com

http://www.ariege-dinosaures.com/-Ariege-Dinosaures-.html

Situated in a valley between Foix and St Girons and dating from the 12th and 18th centuries, Combelongue Abbey is one of the rare Premonstratensian abbeys in Southern France.

Combelongue has an astonishing Mudhéjar-influenced romanesque architecture. It has been built of brick in an area of stone.

The gardens are also open for visiting and comprise a medieval garden, a renaissance garden, a French garden, an Italian style theatre and lawns.

Open July - September every day from 3.00 - 6.00

Location
On the D117
Foix 32 km
Saint Girons 12 km

http://www.abbayedecombelongue.fr/1_visites.html

by Val Wineyard

http://writingaboutrenneslechateau.blog4ever.com

Anyone can go into the Tourist office and pick up beautiful leaflets about what to see in Narbonne but there is much of interest that they don't tell you about.

The Tourist Office itself (rue Jean Jaurès) is housed in what used to be an old mill on the river; there was a mill race there in medieval times. You can see the remains of it on the quai Victor Hugo.

The river in Roman times was called Axat; then it became the Aude. It ran through Narbonne until it changed direction in the 14^th century. An immense storm flooded the landscape, and the river was “captured” by the flood waters so it ran to the sea and its estuary, now silted up a bit, was at Cabanes les Fleury. Later, the old bed of the Aude was used for the Canal de la Robine, running from the Canal du Midi near Le Somail and traversing the Aude, to run onto its old river bed through Narbonne.

The canal continues across the étang to Port La Nouvelle. You can park in Narbonne by the quai Victor Hugo and hire bikes to ride along the canal bank all the way to Port la Nouvelle. You pass the Ile de Ste Lucie, a protected nature reserve where cars – and smoking – and dogs - are banned. It's very beautiful. In the distance you can see La Nadière, a tiny island that once was a fisherman's village, connected by a wooden walkway to the mainland. It was abandoned in 1939.

Narbonne was founded by the Romans in 118BC and was just a palisaded army camp on the north bank just of the River Axat. But in the first century BC Julius Caesar sent his commander, Drusus Nero to colonise the region and Narbonne grew into the “Crossroads of Europe” linking the Mediterranean with the Atlantic, and northern Europe with Africa.

With Drusus came the glorious Tenth Legion to whom the Emperor Augustus later gave the mountain called La Clape on which to grow their vines. If you take the road from Narbonne towards Narbonne Plage you will see a signpost on the right for Pech Redon. It is a wine chateau making wines from the Boulenec grape – the same variety that was first planted there. They have an interesting wine experimental station and you can buy wine, dark and spicy, made to Roman recipes.

While we are exploring Narbonne's hinterland, go towards the autoroute sortie of Narbonne Sud, but just before you get there, take the tiny road signposted for La Nautique. This used to be a Roman port; there is a Roman anchor on the quayside and a sailing centre with old fashioned wooden boats called “Egyptian.”

They have recently been lifting the mud in an attempt to stop the étang silting up and you can find bits of Roman amphores embedded in the dried mud.

From La Nautique you can see Bages, famous for its medieval town and its artists, across the étang. You can find the turning for it off the N9 towards Perpignan.

From Bages take the little known minor road across the marshes to the more interesting Peyriac sur Mer.

St Paul Serge, who christianised Narbonne, landed there when he came to Gaul about 50AD, having been a Roman governor on Cyprus. He was converted it's said (but it isn't true!) by Mary Magdalene. Just to the north of Peyriac is a cross marking where he landed; about a kilometre in from the étang, which was much bigger in Roman days and is steadily shrinking as it silts up, so I know it's true he really did land there.

Then St. Paul Serge continued to Narbonne, missionised, and died sometime before 100AD. Later a church was built over his grave and has been known as the church of St, Paul Serge since about 250AD. It is still there in Le Bourg and is open every morning and afternoon. The crypt contains Roman and Visigothic stone coffins – and a skeleton or two! Another item of interest is the masonic window; freemasonry is forbidden by the Church.

In Roman times Narbonne had ramparts (bits of which still remain behind the Archbishop's palace where is the new modern Cadran Solaire) and people were buried outside the town walls all around. Many of today's churches began as chapels serving graveyards, hence St. Paul Serge became a basilica whose graveyard which reached as far as the river Axat. When the Visigoths came in the sixth century, they called the fast developing area outside the walls “bourg”, which means town in the northern tongue, and this area of Narbonne is still called that today.

Another famous Narbonne saint is Saint Sébastien.

Around 250AD he held Christian meetings in a house where is now the great cathedral. Sébastien served in the Praetorian Guards, the personal bodyguard of the Emperor Diocletian, from 284 to 313, and was caught converting the soldiers (Christians were being persecuted in Rome at the time). He was tortured by arrows but survived and Diocetian forgave him. The second time the Emperor found Sébastian still preaching Christianity, however, he was upset beyond all measure. It's said he was in love with his wayward bodyguard and St. Sébastien today is an icon for gays. The saint's martyrdom was horrific, hung upside down by one leg over an open fire. There is a plaque in the outside wall of St. Sebastien church, near the main entrance, but it's difficult to say if this was meant to be Sébastien or a Knight Templar. The Templars were buried with one leg over the other in a figure 4 shape.

At one time the church had cloisters; these have now been renovated with astonishing sympathy and provide a garden for the occupants of the elderly people's apartments around it. St. Sébastien's church is beautiful inside and many “Narbonnais”, as the people are called, prefer it to the cathedral. It is only open at 6pm on Saturday for mass; you can find out more in the main cathedral.

St. Sébastien's church had a graveyard at one time, for when the Place Bistan was excavated, they found many graves there, and beneath them the “apron” or rounded front of the huge Roman Capitol with its marble columns. Then all was covered up; the mural showing the Roman slaves building the capitol disappeared and a restaurant was built there instead. A facsimile of the statue of Romulus and Remus being fed by a wolf was erected and Place Bistan, named after a powerful family of merchants called Bistani in the twelve century, was re-named the Forum.

Narbonne's cathedral was built in 1272 and is substantially as it was then. On the site was a church to Our Lady and also a chapel to Mary Magdalene. But the Archbishop of the time wanted to attract pilgrims away from St. Sébastien and so the cathedral was later dedicated to St. Just and Pasteur, two Spanish saints.

Behind the Cathedral was the quarter owned by the Archbishop, opposite it was the Palace of the Viscounts, under what is now Monoprix, and the tangle of tiny streets behind that was the Jewish kingdom of Narbonne. The archbishop had a port on the river near the now Tourist Office – the port has recently been excavated – and fishermen used to moor up there from the étang. Then they carried their product through the cathedral to the market, held for hundreds of years in front of the cathedral, by the Passage de l'Ancre, which is still there.

The Archbishops and the Viscounts were always jostling for power in medieval times, making small fortunes from the tolls they got by controlling roads and the building of them, while the Jews continued their trading in peace. But in the 1309 King Phillip the Fair persecuted the Jews and tried to expel them from France, seizing their goods. The prosperity, trade and cosmopolitan atmosphere of Narbonne were wrecked.

The Jews have only reappeared since the last war; they have a synagogue on the rue de l'Ancien Courrier. (The Protestant church on the rue Condorcet is still called a Temple!) Things picked up with the prosperity brought by the canal, the railways and the wine trade; Monoprix and Les Halles were built.

Les Halles, the covered market on the Cours Mirabeau, is open every morning from 7am to 1pm except Mondays and has a lively Mediterranean atmosphere. Cheeses come in all sorts of colours, whole tuna fish hang up on the fish stalls, ladies selling fruit and vegetables give you free bunches of parsley, traders (who have been working since the early hours) drink coffee and cognac at the cafés or devour huge plates of steak and chips. It's like a separate village within Narbonne; everyone knows each other, it is noisy and very French.

My favourite eateries in Narbonne? Well, there's nothing the matter with MacDonald's

if you just want a snack, especially if young people or children are with you, and it is so pleasant sitting out under the trees watching the Narbonne world pass by. However, the Café de la Poste, opposite the main post office on the boulevard Gambetta, is delightful, with super lunches for the postmen. Go in the winter so you don't get shuffled into the restaurant at the back like a tourist, and then you can admire the impromptu art exhibitions they hold there and share a table with local people who will ask why you chose to come and live in the Languedoc “where the weather is so severe”.

I always reply that it is warm, like the people of Narbonne.