To the immediate south of the Minervois, the small town of Lézignan is well worth a visit. On Wednesday mornings, it has one of the largest street markets in the area and that alone is worth seeing. Lézignan is also the home of the 'Maison Gibert', an old and rather grand building on the site of the original 'circulade' which formed the old heart of Lezignan. Starting from la Maison Gibert, every Thursday, there are guided visits around the town of Lézignan and the Maison Gibert itself has a varied programme of exhibitions, evening presentations and conferences from March through October.

Beyond Lézignan, the other side of the motorway, lies the hilly area of the Corbières, another area well known for its excellent wines. In the Corbières, you can visit several well known Cathar strongholds, the chateaux of Queribus, Peyrepertuse, Termes. Further west, into the Ariege, you have Puivert and the famous 'last stand' chateau of Montsegur.

Not far from the town of Tarascon is the cave of Niaux which can be visited on a guided tour to see the stone age wall paintings. The number of visitors each day is very limited to protect the humidity and the environment so in summer time it is advisable to reserve your place.

Also in the Ariege, you will find the largest cave system in Europe open to visits by the public, LOMBRIVES. They can accept groups up to 1200 visitors and Lombrives is even mentioned in the Guiness Book of Records. You will find LOMBRIVES cave on the RN20 at Ussat les Bains. For more details on the many organised visits possible as well as their numerous other facilities, visit their web site. They have an outline map showing the access.

Beyond the Corbières lie the Pyrenees and beyond them is Spain. Visitng the Pyrenees south and west of the Minervois can take you into the Principality of Andorra. It will take you nearly four hours and 240 km from Olonzac.

The beautiful town of Barcelona is 280 km from Olonzac and takes only three hours passing down the motorway via Perpignan along the Mediterranean coast. Along the way, before reaching Perpignan, turn off to the west to the village of Tautavel, not far from Queribus, where there is a very well presented museum of the stone age man. Between the French frontier and Barcelona, you may wish to stop at Figueras to visit the Dali museum.

The coastal villages around Perpignan were a favourite of the impressionists. Collioure is one os these villages and is best visited before June and after August because in the summer, the small coastal roads and parkings are stretched to capacity by holidaymakers from the north.