Getting there

Planes

From the UK | Ryanair flies from Bristol and London Stansted to Montpellier (www.ryanair.com); EasyJet flies in from London Gatwick (www.easyjet.com). You can access the west of the region via Carcassonne from Bournemouth | London | Leeds | Liverpool | Edinburgh and East Midlands with Ryanair. Air France flies from Paris Orly to Montpellier (www.airfrance.com).

Trains

The TGV goes from Paris Gare de Lyon to Perpignan via Nîmes, Montpellier, Béziers and Narbonne (www.tgv.com). UK passengers should take the Eurostar from London St Pancras to Lille and change (www.eurostar.com).

Automobiles

You’re unlikely to need a cab in the smaller cities | since the streets were made for strolling; in Montpellier there’s a shiny tramway linking the station | Place de la Comédie and Eighties-built quartier Antigone. If you do want one | you’ll need to ring; if it’s a ‘late-night return to the sticks’ scenario | book through your hotel.