Events calendar Pays Lauragais

Free entertainment and shows, from Wednesday to Sunday, on the 3 squares in the heart of the Chaurienne city, await you. A celebration of sharing since 1999, the traditional recipe is served at all hours by the restaurants, gourmet market, brass bands, children's village, parade of floats, water jousting on the Canal du Midi, concerts make this popular event a must. No less than 60,000 people dressed in blue and white in the colours of the city meet in the world capital of cassoulet for this occasion.

This exciting museum bears the ancient name of the city of Bram, which was, in Roman times, the largest city on the Via Aquitania between Toulouse and Narbonne. With more than 800 archaeological items on display - a quarter of which have been restored - the permanent exhibition retraces the history of Bram and the West Aude from prehistoric times to the end of the Middle Ages. Divided into six themes, the exhibition takes you through a shimmering decor where tools, jewellery, coins and ceramics blend together. But the highlight of the show is undoubtedly the lapidary inscription of the Bram theatre. You will also discover the funeral practices used at the time, the organization of the rural area with its Gallo-Roman farms and villas, some of which are still in use today, as well as the medieval habitat of this region, which is distinguished by its circular villages. Note the organisation of temporary exhibitions and conferences, and the possibility to visit the research laboratory during the Heritage Days. For the record, the construction site of this archaeological house unveiled a segment of the Aquitaine way, a capital route of the Gallo-Roman era, around which the city of Bram was built.

It is a festival where twenty designers are invited each year to "work on" a topical theme. Then, all the drawings and cartoons are presented to the public for ten days at a major free exhibition. One of the highlights of this festival is the first weekend, cartoonists are present and meet the public, making, on request and freely, drawings as a dedications. Their works then stay visible during the second part of the festival.

Castelnaudary can't go a year without celebrating its cassoulet! The festival kicks off with the "ronde du cassoulet", a night-time walk and run, and continues on the following days with musical bandas, shows and concerts, a craft market, a cycle tour and the "Grande Confrérie du Cassoulet". Dance to the rhythm of the brass bands during the day, or dance the night away at the open-air discotheque, not forgetting to join in the corso fleuri, a grand procession of floats in honor of cassoulet!