Predating holds

Le Musée d’Art et d’Histoire includes a visit to the apartments of the archbishop arranged as they were in the 17 centuries.Near Narbonne we suggest you visit Fontfroide Abbey, a beautifully preserved monastic estate complete with church, cloister, chapter hall and laybrother’s buildings.Narbonne is an important town in the department of Aude in Languedoc-Roussillon that was once the capital of the first Roman colony in Gaul and later a capital of the Visigoth kingdom.Until the middle ages Narbonne was a prosperous city and port but plague, war and a harbour that was prone to silting up led to a decline in its fortunes.The main attractions in Narbonne are conveniently situated close together in the centre of town, in and around the the Place de l’Hotel de Ville.

The sculpture surmounts one of two large granite columns in the Square, thought to have been erected between 1172 - 1177 during the reign of Doge Sebastiano Ziani bearing ancient symbols of the two patron saints of Venice.Children and adults alike will enjoy a trip to the Sigean nature reserve at 20 kilometres south of Narbonne.You can find more local travel ideas in the Aude guide and the Languedoc-Roussillon guide.Les Halles is an award winning covered market open every day and a great place to stock up on local fresh produce.The market in Narbonne is one of the best in France.On the outside the structure is lovely to see with its large flying buttresses.Inside it is the height of the cathedral which is impressive and it has some very impressive 14 century stained glass windows, and in the treasury you can see various interesting artefacts including a Flemish tapestry of the 15th century depicting the creation of the world.It is also made up of parts of antique statues and is a copy, the original being kept in the Doge's Palace.The Lion, in its present form, is a composite of different pieces of bronze created at very different times, building upon ancient "core" components.Not far away L’Horreum (the grain store) is the only building in Narbonne that remains from Roman times: inside the grain store there are lots of underground galleries in which goods were stored (although the main storage building has disappeared), and various remnants of other Roman buildings are displayed.On the edge of the town centre you can see the Basilique Saint-Paul, an early Gothic church which has been built on the site of a 4th-century necropolis.