Straddled by the Carcassonne-Narbonne RN113 on one side and the A61 Autoroute du deux mare on the other Lezignan 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 two superb supermarkets 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 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 e-mail tourisme-lezignan
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.