Mas Camps is situated in the foothills of the Pyrenees, surrounded by vineyards. In this idyllic setting we offer you an escape from the hustle and bustle of city life and yet we are only 20 minutes from the dynamic city of Perpignan with it's convenient daily connections to London, Toulouse and Barcelona. Although in the country, we are within 30 minutes of the Spanish border, about 40 minutes from the beach resort of Canet Plage, under an hour and a half to the ski resorts and 2½ hours from Andorra making this an excellent base for sampling the region as you can see below.
There is a wide range of holiday and vacation options within just 15 minutes drive of Mas Camps, including:
Cycling. The region is host to sections of numerous cycle races including the Tour de France and the Tour de Languedoc-Rousillon (which, as you can see, passes directly in front of Mas Camps). In addition to the cycle races themselves, there are innumerable routes than can be taken by mountain bike either independently or on escorted tours.
The Cathar history of the region has left a considerable number of hilltop castles of which such as the Quéribus Castle, visible from our car park, and Peyrepertuse (pictured here) which is a little further along. Naturally, there is a considerable degree of uphill walking from the various visitor centres to the castles themselves. There is an entrance charge to most of these of around €5 per person.
Whilst we hope that you will enjoy the food in our restaurant, if you are looking for authentic French cuisine, we can thoroughly recommend the Auberge du Cellier in Montner which offers the very best of French cuisine at quite modest prices.
Opportunities to learn French, with courses offered locally by Rousillanges among others.
There are fantastic motorbike routes all over the Pyrennees offering snaking roads in excellent condition with little traffic and great weather. If you'd like a local biker to show you around, Alistair from Pyrenees Adventures can point you in the right direction with self-guided tours or, if you wish, show you round some of the routes that make the most of the scenery all around us. Either way, you'll come across a lot of fellow bikers from the many who pass us each day to those you'll meet along the road and with secure storage of your bike during your stay at Mas Camps.
From a somewhat earlier historical era, the village of Tautavel is where the 450,000 year old Tautavel Man was discovered. It hosts a museum and exhibition depicting the state of the landscape in his time.
The mountainous nature of the landscape gives rise to a number of attractive gorges like Gouleyrous shown here and a wide variety of others slightly further afield.
Several walking routes cross the region. The Sentier Cathare takes you on a 12 day exploration of the history of the region taking you past the two nearby hilltop castles mentioned above in addition to several others (there is also a horseback variant of this route). Mas Camps itself played its part in history, being the site of one of the Templar encampments (Mas del Camps).
Wine tasting in countless vineyards including our own Mas Camps within the hotel, Mas Amiel and Château Sainte Roch across the road and countless others. Mas Camps is one of the few vineyards to provide accomodation which makes us a popular base for the professional wine buyers.
Within an hour of Mas Camps
Abbeys such as the hilltop Abbey St Martin pictured here. It takes about an hour of uphill walking to reach this so you need to be relatively fit. The tours (only in French) cover four areas of the abbey and take about an hour, the last one starting at 5pm in the summer.
Canet Plage and numerous other beaches, all the way down to Spain in fact. You will also find the usual variety of water parks along the coastline and in summer the full range of water sports is on offer.
More castles such as this one at Salses. Those not on hilltops are considerably more accessible as they do not require a climb to reach them. Most charge around €5 per person and some have shops stocking an excellent range of texts on the medieval history of the region.
These rock formations near the lovely town of Illes-sur-Tet.
Narbonne, one of the larger historical cities in the area boasting an uncovered section of Roman road right in the city centre.
The african reserve of Sigean is a short drive north along the coast from us.
Spain. If you would like a taste of Spain, Port Bou is probably your best bet. Although it can be reached in about an hour, the stunning views along the 90 minute coastal route make it by far the better option.
Within two hours of Mas Camps
Barcelona, well worth a trip, though do it by train as the city runs on for quite a bit if you're arriving by car.
Beziers with it's impressive series of locks on the Canal du Midi.
The walled city of Carcassonne. This looks much better from a distance than it does closeup as they overdid the renovation so inside you'd think you're in Disneyland rather than a real walled city.
Foix, currently undergoing quite a bit of roadworks but otherwise a lovely town.
Montpellier, supposedly the city most French people would like to live in. It's a bit like a warmer version of Paris.
If you want a taste of Spain, Port Bou, just over the border is probably your best bet. The views along the coastal road are stunning; it takes about 90 minutes from Mas Camps via this route; you can return via Llansa in about an hour via the motorway.
Ski resorts, including Font-Romeu, Espace Cambre d'Aze and Capcir among many others.
Toulouse, home of Airbus. If you want to tour the aircraft factory, you will need to book about a week ahead. Make sure you book the English language tour unless you are brilliant at numbers in French.
Not to mention such sights such as this unusual group of skiers at Saillagouse.
Andorra, the ski-ing and shoppers paradise. Since Andorra isn't in the European Union, there are customs posts on the way out (or rather on the into France and Spain) although they appear to totally ignore all cars except, sometimes, those with a French or Spanish number plate.
When should you come to the Pyrenees Oriental? That depends on what you would like to do here as the range of activities on offer make it an almost year-round holiday destination.
January through to March is primarily the time for winter sports and most accomodation outside the ski resorts is closed over that period.
Late February is the start of the rambling season with some quite extended sunny period altough you should be prepared for sudden downpours if you are coming early in the year.
From May through to September we get the typical mediterranean weather. The grape harvest is in September.
Although it does get cooler, it is often t-shirt weather right up until November.
Pyrenees Tourism have quite a reasonable website though the English is very flakey.
Depending on exactly where you're going you'll find either the Rough Guide to the Pyrenees or their Languedoc & Roussillon guide the best.
If you're travelling further afield in France, Lonely Planet France, is an excellent reference-book style guide. The Rough Guide France is less encylopedic and you may find it easier to use.
In terms of activity guides there is a wide choice: Lonely Planet Cycling France, Independent Walker's Guide to France and Walks and Climbs in the Pyrenees to name but a few. Watersports don't have a specialised guide but are on offer on the Mediterranean coast in the Summer.
For maps, you could go for the Michelin Tourist & Motoring Atlas but unless you're going well off the beaten track, you'll probably find that their Mini Atlas is much more practical (if you're flying, the larger version is far too big to bring anyway). In terms of online maps, www.mappy.com seems to give the best coverage of France and it also gives reasonable driving directions.
... is described in our transport section, but briefly you can fly to Perpignan (15 minutes away), Carcassonne, Girona or Toulouse (about 90 minutes distant), Barcelona (2 hours), take the TGV to Perpignan, or, of course, drive here.
Car Rental. If you want away in a hurry in a rented car either run from the plane, or use someone other than Avis, Europcar or Hertz (this isn't a slight on their speed of processing, just that they're very popular and have big queues at Perpignan when a flight lands). Which is cheapest? It depends on when you're renting and what you're renting and if they've any special offers on. For instance, I've found Hertz to be both the cheapest rental place and the dearest at various times. If you're coming over for a long weekend you can even get the crazy situation where it's cheaper to rent for three days and throw one of them away than rent for the two that you actually want (for my last rental via Budget they were offering two days for €150 yet three days for €115).
Chip cards. Even if you have a PIN enabled card (ie a credit/debit card with a chip on it), it will usually not work in automated services in France, notably in train/metro stations and 24 hour petrol stations (the autoroutes are the only notable exception to this rule). Often you will need to show your passport in addition to your credit card in shops. If a machine says that it only accepts Carte Bleue without having a Visa/Mastercard sign as well then if it's a cash machine it will probably accept Visa/Mastercard but if it's some kind of purchasing machine then it probably requires a French card. This situation is slowly changing as the global chip standard is rolled out in France and sometimes a PIN is required for foreign cards.
Debit cards. It's best not to rely totally on a debit card (ie Maestro or Visa Electron) as they don't always work in shops. We've yet to come across an Australian Maestro card that works reliably.
Discover cards. As far as I can tell, these don't work at all in Europe.
Diesel/petrol. Diesel is the same as Gasole. It's definitely not the same thing as Sans Plomb (unleaded)! As noted above, unless you've got a French debit card, your credit/debit card definitely won't work in a 24 hour automated petrol station so bear in mind that almost all petrol stations in France shut on Sundays (except on the motorways).
Euros. It's cheaper to get euros in France than convert it before you go. There's a cash machine about 100 yards to your right as you leave the airport building in Perpignan and there is at least one machine in the airports of Barcelona, Carcassonne, Gironaand Toulouse. Almost all UK banks change about 1.5% to 2% charge with a minimum of £1.50 or £2 for each cash advance plus 2.25% to 2.75% charge to convert the currency, therefore it's better to withdraw €100 or more at a time. The exceptions are Nationwide (no charges for currency conversion and on their debit card withdrawals are free) and "Global Alliance" banks (Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Barclays, Deutsche Bank y Westpac) which don't apply withdrawal charges to customers of other banks in the alliance. There's no additional charge to use your credit/debit card in shops (they usually have a minimum credit card purcase of €10). Personally, I never bother with travellers cheques but if you do, the Post Office don't charge any commission (although they do charge, via the exchange rate they offer).
Mas Camps, Route de Maury, 66460 Maury Tel: 00 33 468 29 10 77; e-mail: web@mascamps.com