Places to visit in Occitanie, France
13 places to visit in Occitanie, France, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Albi Cathedral, Basilica of Saint-Sernin, Canal du Midi and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Occitanie volume.
6 UNESCO World Heritage sites · 3 Famous places to visit · 4 Hidden gems
UNESCO World Heritage sites in Occitanie (6)
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Albi Cathedral
A red brick cathedral begun in 1282, after the Albigensian Crusade, and built over two hundred years; from outside it looks like a fortress. Inside, walls painted in blues and golds and an ornate carved choir screen make a lavish contrast, and it is said to be the largest brick building in the world.
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Basilica of Saint-Sernin
A great Romanesque basilica in Toulouse built over the tomb of Saint Saturnin, the city's first bishop. Its octagonal brick bell tower rises in tiers above a church famed for its Romanesque sculpture, long a stop on the pilgrim road to Santiago de Compostela.
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Canal du Midi
A 240 kilometre canal across southern France from Toulouse towards the Mediterranean, one of the great construction works of the 17th century. Shaded by plane trees, its locks and towpaths are now the domain of slow barges, walkers and cyclists.
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Cité de Carcassonne
A walled medieval citadel on a hill above the river Aude, with two rings of ramparts and dozens of towers. Restored in the 19th century by Viollet-le-Duc, who gave many towers their pointed roofs, it holds a small town of lanes, a castle and a basilica inside the walls.
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Maison Carrée
One of the best preserved Roman temples anywhere, built in the age of Augustus in the centre of Nîmes for the imperial cult. Its Corinthian columns stand on a high podium, facing the glass Carré d'Art designed by Norman Foster across the square.
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Pont du Gard
A Roman aqueduct bridge built in the 1st century AD to carry water across the Gardon river to the city of Nîmes. Its three tiers of stone arches rise about 50 metres, making it the tallest Roman aqueduct bridge to survive and one of the best preserved.
Famous places to visit in Occitanie (3)
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Arena of Nîmes
A Roman amphitheatre built around 100 AD, some twenty years after the Colosseum, and among the best preserved in the world. Its two storeys of sixty arcades once held 24,000 spectators, and today it hosts concerts and bullfights.
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Millau Viaduct
A cable stayed bridge completed in 2004 across the Tarn valley near Millau, designed by the engineer Michel Virlogeux and the architect Norman Foster. With a structural height of 343 metres it held the title of the world's tallest bridge for two decades, its masts often rising above the morning cloud.
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Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes
A Catholic shrine around the grotto of Massabielle, where Bernadette Soubirous said the Virgin Mary appeared to her in 1858. Millions of pilgrims come each year to pray at the grotto, take its water and join the candlelit evening procession past its three basilicas.
Hidden gems in Occitanie (4)
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Cirque de Gavarnie
A vast natural amphitheatre of rock walls in the central Pyrenees, close to the border with Spain. The Gavarnie Falls drop from its cliffs, among the highest waterfalls in Europe, and the notch of the Brèche de Roland cuts the skyline above.
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Cité de l'Espace
A space discovery park opened in 1997 on the eastern edge of Toulouse, the home of Europe's aerospace industry. Visitors walk around a full size model of an Ariane 5 rocket and a replica of the Mir space station, and there is a planetarium.
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Gouffre de Padirac
A great chasm in the limestone near Gramat, opening onto an underground river. Visitors go down by stairs and lifts into the pit, then travel by boat through galleries of rock deep below the surface.
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Pic du Midi
A Pyrenean summit of about 2,877 metres crowned by an observatory, reached by cable car from La Mongie. Its terraces look along the whole chain of the Pyrenees, and its dark night skies are protected as an International Dark Sky Reserve.
Collecting in Occitanie
What are the best places to visit in Occitanie?
LOQAH lists 13 places in Occitanie. The best known include Albi Cathedral, Basilica of Saint-Sernin, Canal du Midi, Cité de Carcassonne and Maison Carrée. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Occitanie?
13, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Occitanie?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Occitanie before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Occitanie and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
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