Sautadou Camping

You've got a couple of further options if you've found your forays on the river just fab: stay on it, and sail 100 or so kilometres east to the Mediterranean, or perhaps more practically, take a 40-minute car trip to the Raymond Chesa leisure park at Cavayère lake, where there are inflatable obstacle courses, slides and flumes in a waterpark, waterskiing, swimming and suntanning on the lake and its beaches, and treetop zipwiring thrills in the surrounding forests. To explore the history of the area, you can't get much better than a day spent up at Lastour (40 minutes) whose craggy hills are dominated by not one but a quartet of Cathar strongholds from the 12th and 13th centuries. Heading back further in time, visit the Roman baths at Rennes-les-Bains, or go back a few million years before at Dinosauria Museum, both an hour away. Further off, but very doable in a day and definitely on the list for Dan Brown fans, Cathar seekers and those just into castles and cracking scenery, the high fortresses of Peyrepertuse and Quéribus and the Gorge of Galamus are all about an hour and a half's drive away.