Straddled
by the Carcassonne-Narbonne RN113 on one side and the A61 Autoroute
du deux mare on the other Lezignan Corbieres is the market town
centre of the low Corbieres. Its location at the Northern edge of
the Corbieres makes it an ideal base from which to explore both
the Corbieres and the Minervois. A small but regular SNCF
station on the edge of town has regular connections with Carcassonne,
Toulouse and Narbonne.
Despite
the 13th century church of St Felix and the Victor Hugo gardens
Lezignan is not what you could call a beautiful town. the town has
a long history dating
back to pre-Roman times. Many of its old building have been replaced,
but there are a number of superb Maison du Maitre scattered through
its streets. The bars along Cours de la Republic are great for catching
the sun while watching the world go by.
What Lezignan is however is a very lively commercial centre,
its Wednesday morning markets are very popular with locals and visitors
alike-although the locals go early and visitors later. The growing
industrial estate between the town and the Autoroute have four superb
supermarkets(Champion, InterMarche, Lidl and Alde) and a wide range
of building services and car sales rooms. Also on the outskirts
of town is local produce shop CDD and Le Chai des Vignerons- the
oldest wine cave co-operative in the Aude. The Museum of the Vine
and Wine is a great place to start to understand the wine making
process. One of my favourites is also the Co-operative Audoise de
Distillation which produces Carthagene, and the eau de vie Chardonnay
and best of all the eau de vie Marc du Languedoc-all available
at CDD.
Outside of market days, Wednesday 8-12.00, the vegetable
shop next the cinema on Cours de la Republic offers a wide range
of fruit and veg, the fish shop on the same street at the corner
with rue Guynemer is just wonderful- but not on a Monday when stocks
are low. The best butcher can arguably be found at the Champion
supermarket, direction Autoroute.
For
cyclist the Cycles Plancade, at 33, Avenue President Wilson is an
invaluable resource for repairs and replacements. Tel 04 68 27 29
13.
The
Office of Tourism is on the main street, 9 Cours de la Republique.
It has information on the town and area as well as a list of hotels,
Chambre d'Hotes, houses for let and campsites.
Tel 04 68 27 05 42 e-mail tourisme-lezignan@wanadoo.fr
website http://perso.wanadoo.fr/otsi.lezignan-corbieres/
Just
round the corner on Marx-Dormoy is the Maison Gibert, a cultural,
music and art centre which has a wide range of events, exposotions,
talks and activities and is increasingly playing host to the embroynic
new Pay Cathar Tourist initiative linking together the Minervis
and Les Corbieres.
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