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You can enjoy a wonderfully restful holiday just staying around Les Marronniers and walking the many well marked randonees (footpaths), bathing in the nearby lake, playing tennis and picnicking at Mas Cabardes, less than five miles away, or taking advantage of a day's pony trekking from the stables about a mile out of the village.
Les Châtaux
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In October 2001 we sat sunbathing by the Mas-Cabardès lake watching a kingfisher flash to and fro, and on a short stroll discovered brilliant clumps of autumn crocus. I captured an autumn crocus with my camera but the kingfisher was too fast for me.
Ruined church near Salsigne
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We prefer to mix the restful with sightseeing and you will find many leaflets at Les Marronniers. But just to give you a taster: A few kilometres to the east is the remarkable cave, Grotte de Limousis, with its unique formations of gleaming white aragonite crystals. At a hands-on paper mill near Mas-Cabardés children can have some messy fun learning to make paper and take home the results, at the Musée du Moulin à Papier. And, of course, just 25 minutes away is the old city of Carcassonne, a World Heritage site and well worth a visit. There are also a host of totally French small towns and villages such as La Grasse, the much photographed and painted small capital of the Corbières, just over the hill from the Montagne Noire, and Mirepoix with its lovely medieval half timbered square.
In winter and early spring it is but an hour's drive to the snowy and skiable peaks of the Pyrenees, and it takes the same time to drive to the coast. We particularly love Coullioure, where Matisse and other Fauve painters used to hang out. It is less that two hours into Spain and three to Barcelona. Although we have never tried this ourselves we are assured by locals that on the same day in April one can be skiing in the Pyrenees in the morning, and lapping up the sun in T shirt weather in a café on the coast in the afternoon. There are numerous superb restaurants serving such loca | | | |
