Languedoc
Why go?
Every Brit, it seems, is buying into the Languedoc - or wants to. So desirable is this hot rocky corner of southwest France, bordered by long beaches and the Spanish Pyrenees, that it's been called the new Provence. Languedoc-Roussillon (though we're concentrating on Languedoc here) has also been described as one of the "most exciting and spectacular places to make wine on earth"; indeed, it produces twice as much wine as Australia. The area has a distinct identity defined by its own language, Occitan, and a cultural heritage steeped in Catharism, a heretical strand of Christianity. So the landscape is thrillingly rich in hilltop bastides, from the wild ruin of Queribus to the still 'active' Abbeye de Saint Martin-de-Canigou.