Cailhavel is a village in the heart of the AOC Malepere wine region and surrounded by open countryside. The nearby larger villages of Montreal and Belveze du Razes are both less than a 10 minute drive away and both have small supermarkets, shops, banks, post offices, pharmacies, doctors, dentists, outdoor swimming pools(open July August), tennis courts, restaurants and bars.

Indoor swimming pools can be found in Limoux and Carcassonne. Carcassonne has an excellent 18 hole golf course complete with restaurant and brasserie. A wide range of outdoor activities are available in the local area including walking, cycling, horse riding, canoeing and fishing. Cailhavel is a fantastic centre for exploring Pays Cathare,

Carcassonne is only 20km away with its medieval Cite, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (photo below left). Limoux at 15km sits astride the river Aude and is home to the sparkling wine "Blanquette de Limoux" and the world's longest winter Carnival: form January to March.

Castelnaudary (photo below right), 20km, is home to the famous "Cassoulet" dish and also a picturesque 'Bassin' a popular mooring point on the Canal du Midi, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. Slightly further away at 30km the bastide town of Mirepoix is a very popular traditional market town. Not forgetting the many wine caves large and small, who are always happy to welcome visitors and talk about their AOC wines of all colours, and the many restaurants and auberges always ready to serve regional cuisine.

We are 20kms from Carcassonne for airport, rail and motorway links and its fairytale medieval Cité. Toulouse, ‘The Pink City', (the cathedral is photo below left) also with an airport, is about an hour's drive north, as is Narbonne and the beaches of the Med' to the south. To the west and east are mountains; the Pyrénées and Black Mountains respectively, again both reachable within about an hour's drive. And if you wish to spread your wings even further, you can drive to Andorra or Spain in about two hours.

The Languedoc region has many facets and is full of choices, whether to ski on the sea or the snow, visit lakes or river, plain or mountain. Being only 10km from A61 motorway Cailhavel is well placed to allow you to visit all of this as well as major towns and cities, such as Toulouse, Perpignan, Narbonne and Béziers (photo of the Friday flower market is below right) during a day out. Spain and Andorra are also possible destinations for day trips and there is much to see and do whilst travelling around the region.