Camping La Prairie

Follow the flow of the Vicdessos southward for an outdoor adventure centre and organised activities and excursions ranging from hiking to climbing, canyoning, potholing and tree climbing. Horse riding, whitewater rafting, paragliding, canoeing, waterskiing and trout fishing in the area's lakes and rivers are available in the region too. Among the historic spots recommended by the knowledgeable Camping La Prairie team is the Niaux cave, forming part of a wider system that includes the Sabart cave and Lombrives cave in the Cap de la Lesse de Bialac hill. Here you'll get to see Palaeolithic rock art depicting bison, horses, deer and Alpine ibex among one of Europe's most fab underground Palaeolithic galleries, and you can reach it all within 10 minutes by car or 45 minutes on foot. Next there's the spectacularly well-preserved medieval Château de Foix, which presides over the town of Foix from atop a rocky outcrop and was once the home to counts, viscounts and monarchs, or the mountaintop ruins of Montségur – said to have once housed the Holy Grail – 40 minutes' drive away.