The whole region between the Massif Central and the Pyrenees was unknown to me before I spent a wonderful couple of weeks there recently. It's really like the France you read about in school books in the 50's and not at all like Paris. The pace of life is slow-moving, people still take two hours over their lunch and there's hardly a foreign tourist around. We visited the mediaeval cities of Carcassonne, Albi and Toulouse and it was as if they had been opened just for us! (mind you, this was in May). Most exciting of all was the stay in a spa town - Bagneres-de-Bigorre - which I would highly recommend. We went with an agent - France a la carte - who arranged everything: I suppose you could go on your own but if you don't speak french then you'd be better using an agency. There's even winter sports in the Pyrenees but i'll have to go back another time for that.