Press Pack New in 2020 2 IDENTITY FRANCE'S SECOND-BIGGEST 40 TOP OCCITANIE REGION, SITES 13 'departments' in an area bigger than Ireland Agde-Pézenas, Aigues-Mortes - Camargue Gardoise - Saint Gilles, Albi - Vallée du Tarn, Ariège médiévale : Foix - Mirepoix - Montsegur, Ariège préhistorique : Niaux - Tarascon - Mas d’Azil, Armagnac - Abbaye et Cités, Auch, Aux sources du Canal du Midi (Sorèze, Revel, Saint Ferréol), Bastides et Gorges de l’Aveyron (Villefranche de Rouergue, Najac, St Antonin, Caylus, 8 SITES INSCRIBED Villeneuve d’Aveyron), Canal du Midi - Béziers, Carcassonne et les Citadelles du vertige, Cévennes, ON UNESCO'S WORLD Cirque de Gavarnie - Cauterêts - Pont d’Espagne, HERITAGE LIST: Cirque de Navacelles - Lodève, Collioure en Côte the Canal du Midi, Gavarnie - Mont Perdu, Way of St Vermeille, Conques, Cordes et cités médiévales, James, the Episcopal City of Albi, the Causses and Gorges de l’Hérault - Gorges du Tarn, Gorges de la the Cévennes, the Pont du Gard, the Historic Fortified Jonte - Causses & Vallées Cévenoles, Grand Figeac, City of Carcassonne, the Fortifications of Vauban vallée du Lot et du Célé, La Grande-Motte, Le Grand (Villefranche-de-Conflent and Mont-Louis) Montauban, Lourdes, Luchon, Marciac, Massif du Canigò, Massif du Néouvielle-Vallée d’Aure et du Louron, Mende coeur de Lozère, Millau-Roquefort (regroupement de deux candidatures), Moissac, Narbonne Méditerrannée, Nîmes - Pont du Gard – Uzès, Perpignan Méditerrannée, Pic du Midi, Rocamadour 2 NATIONAL PARKS Vallée de la Dordogne, Rodez, Saint-Bertrand de Comminges, Valcabrère, Sète, Toulouse, Vallée du Lot, Cahors, Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, Puy-l’Evêque 1 MARINE NATURE PARK 28 THERMAL SPA CENTRES 7 REGIONAL 220 KILOMETRES OF NATURE PARKS MEDITERRANEAN COASTLINE 44 WINTER SPORTS MORE THAN 50 MARINAS RESORTS 3 THE EVENT & OTHER EVENTS ABOUT ANCIENT ROME .............................. 6 MUSEUMS & MAJOR EXHIBITIONS ..................................... 7 CONTENTS NEW SITES TO VISIT ..................................................... 11 ANNIVERSARIES ......................................................... 12 FUN WITH ALL THE FAMILY ............................................. 14 WINE TOURISM .......................................................... 16 ARTS AND CRAFTS ...................................................... 17 CHARM-FILLED ACCOMMODATION & GASTRONOMIC RESTAURANTS ...................................... 17 DISCOVER OCCITANIE DIFFERENTLY ..................................26 4 4th France's fourth 1st The highest biggest tourist region accommodation capacity in France with 15.9 with BILLION 3.3 euros visitor spending MILLION beds and nearly 96 500 IN FIGURES TOURISM paid tourism jobs 26.3 MILLION nights at open-air accommodation sites (highest rank in France) or 10% of regional GDP 16.3 MILLION hotel nights (4th highest in France) 1st region for 1st France's most French tourists popular thermal spa destination 3rd region for drawing overseas tourists 188,000 spa users 30 MILLION visitors every year Overnight stays for foreign visitors 2,67 M (main markets) hotels + campsites 2016 around 1,96 M 1,55 M 1/3 1,25 M 887 000 of the national spa market 665 000 543 000 24% 18% 14% 11% 8% 6% 5% Netherlands Germany Belgium UK-Uni Spain Italy Switzerland 5 Sources : SDT Sofres – DGE, Banque de France, enquête EVE – INSEE, Direction du Tourisme Région Occitanie – Acoss/Urssaf NEW IN 2020 NEW The event PRESS PACK PACK PRESS AUTUMN 2020: OPENING OF THE NARBO VIA MUSEUM - NARBONNE (AUDE) With the opening of a museum with an in- ternational scope, dedicated to the Roman colony in Gaul, the region has a new show- case for the archaeological heritage of Oc- citania. The aim is to bring the antique city of Narbo Martius (the Latin name for Nar- bonne) back to life. After the Musée de la Romanité in Nîmes, this will be a new ma- jor centre for Roman culture in the south of France. The 3200m² museum has been designed by the architect Norman Foster. It will feature an exceptional collection of 15,000 pieces, including 1,000 tombstones. The stone collection will be displayed in a spectacular way in the form of a large "wall" with 1700 blocks and fragments. The collec- tion of Roman murals discovered in Le Clos de la Lombarde (a rich Roman house in the city) is a chance for visitors to see all aspects of the Roman city: the urban layout, its mo- numents and population, the necropolises, the house and interior decoration, the har- bour and its activities. https://musees-occitanie.fr/musees/nar- bo-via/infos-pratiques 6 OTHER EVENTS LINKED TO IN 2020 NEW ANCIENT ROME GARD... PACK PRESS EXHIBITION: "THE ROMAN EMPEROR, A MORTAL AMONG THE GODS" Musée de la Romanité - Nîmes (Gard) - from 12 June to 20 September 2020 This major new exhibition at the Musée de la Romanité is or- ganised in partnership with the Louvre Museum, which will be lending over 30 works of an exceptionally high quality. Nîmes has two monuments dedicated to worship of the emperor: "the Maison Carrée" and the "Augusteum" in the Jardin de La Fontaine. The exhibition will help set the monuments in their historical context by exploring the rich and complex theme of the religious expression of political power in Roman society. https://museedelaromanite.fr HAUTE-GARONNE... A NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM IN MONTMAURIN With links to the luxurious Gallo-Roman villa in Montmaurin, a museum was opened in late 2019 in the former village pres- bytery. Here, the treasures from the villa dating from the 1st century A.D. are displayed. This is one of the biggest Gallo-Ro- man villas in France and includes a "palace" with 200 rooms decorated with marble and mosaics. www.villa-montmaurin.fr Museums & major exhibitions ARIEGE... POP CULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES - CHÂTEAU DE FOIX from April 2020. The exhibition shows how the Middle Ages have been taken up in pop culture. After the Château de Morges in Switzerland, the ex- hibition will be specially adapted for the Château de Foix. Among others features, you will see refe- rences to films like "The Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars"... www.sites-touristiques-ariege.fr 7 NEW IN 2020 NEW PRESS PACK PACK PRESS AVEYRON... SUCCESS STORY AT THE SOULAGES MUSEUM - RODEZ With Pierre Soulages just celebrating his hundredth birthday and the museum de- dicated to his work proving to be one of the most popular in France outside of Paris, the year 2020 should be exceptional with an upcoming temporary exhibition: • "Fernand Léger : la vie à bras le corps" ("life head on") will include some of the masterworks of the versatile French artist (painter, ceramicist, stained glass artist, sculptor, etc.) with an inimitable style, in- fluenced by Cézanne and a contemporary of Braque, Picasso and Chagall. https://musee-soulages.rodezagglo.fr HAUTE-GARONNE... AÉROSCOPIA SPREADS ITS WINGS TO WELCOME THE GIANT OF THE SKY, THE Did you know? A380 - BLAGNAC The northern tarmac of the Aéroscopia aviation museum Pierre Soulages is the highest valued already has around 30 legendary planes on display (Concorde, French artist in the world. His works A400M, etc.). It is now welcoming five new planes, including an can be seen in Occitania in Rodez and A380 that is fully open to visitors, the very first A320 from 1987 Conques (Aveyron), where he produced (launched by Princess Diana and Prince Charles!), an A340-600, the stained-glass windows for the Abbey as well as two ATRs (an ATR-42 and an ATR-72), the first aircraft Church of St Foy, as well as at the Fabre to be exhibited by Toulouse's second biggest aircraft manufac- Museum in Montpellier (Hérault). turer. www.tourisme-conques.fr/fr www.musee-aeroscopia.fr https://museefabre.montpellier3m.fr SCOOP ! A freefall simulator will be set up next to the museum in 2020. It will complement the hands-on aeronautic experience already on offer with Aviasim (flight simulator). www.aviasim.com 8 HAUTE-GARONNE... NEW IN 2020 NEW L’ENVOL DES PIONNIERS MUSEUM WELCOMES SAINT-EXUPÉRY – TOULOUSE PACK PRESS From 14 Decembre 2019, come and experience a "Bré- guet 14 flight". Then, from July 2020, visitors can see the office where Didier Daurat, one of the pioneers in the Aéropostale company, once worked. Finally, in au- tumn 2020, you can enjoy the temporary exhibition: "Saint-Exupéry" (co-produced by the Air and Space Museum in Le Bourget). www.lenvol-des-pionniers.com HAUTE-GARONNE... THE MUSÉE DES AUGUSTINS REVISITS THE MIDDLE AGES – TOULOUSE From December 2020: Art and archaeology in Toulouse in the 14th century The Fine Arts Museum in Toulouse will be reope- ning in November 2020, after the restoration of its magnificent glass walls dating from the 19th century, and work to upgrade the buil- ding and provide access to the collections for people with reduced mobility. This will be an opportunity to see the rich collections of me- dieval art from the periods of the Black Death and the Hundred Years War in a new, landmark exhbition co-produced by the Cluny Museum (Paris). www.augustins.org GERS... HAUTE-GARONNE... MUSÉE DES AMÉRIQUES – AUCH A national reference for Pre-Columbian art and sa- "EXTINCTIONS, THE END cred Latin-American art. OF A WORLD" AT THE TOULOUSE The Musée des Amériques (Americas Museum) ope- MUSEUM ned in late 2019. Visitors can now see 16 permanent From 9 October 2019 to 28 June 2020 exhibition rooms with exceptional Pre-Columbian With this new exhibition with its shock title, the Mu- collections and Latin American sacred art (this is the seum de Toulouse in- biggest collection of Pre-Columbian art in France vites visitors to reflect after the Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac Museum). on the extinction of li- The prestigious collection of Mexican featherwork is ving things. Designed unique in France and can rival the collections in the by the Natural History Museo de America (Madrid – Spain) or at the Museum Museum in London, für Völkerkunde (Vienna - Austria). it is now on display www.ameriques-auch.fr in France for the first time.