Occitanie
Occitanie’s food festivals: the Fête du Cassoulet in Castelnaudary each August, five days of free concerts and cassoulet dinners, and the region’s specialities.
At a glance
- Home of the Fête du Cassoulet in Castelnaudary, five days in August
- Cassoulet, the bean and confit dish of the Lauragais, between Toulouse and Carcassonne
- The Canal du Midi crosses the region from Toulouse towards the Mediterranean
- Toulouse and Montpellier are its two big cities
- 1food festival
Food festivals in Occitanie
Cadaques31, CC BY-SA
Cities and towns in Occitanie
Map of Occitanie
What to taste in Occitanie
Cassoulet
White beans slow-baked with confit duck, pork and sausage in an earthenware cassole. Castelnaudary calls itself its world capital.
Toulouse sausage
A coarse pork sausage, one of the meats of the cassoulet.
Roquefort
The blue sheep’s-milk cheese aged in the caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, in the Aveyron.
Blanquette de Limoux
A sparkling wine from Limoux, in the Aude, poured at the gala dinner of the 2026 Fête du Cassoulet.
Occitanie’s cassoulet has its own festival: the Fête du Cassoulet, five days each August in Castelnaudary, a town that calls itself the world capital of cassoulet. The region covers the south of France from the Pyrenees to the Rhône, with Toulouse and Montpellier as its big cities.
Occitanie, cassoulet country
Cassoulet belongs to the Lauragais, the farmland between Toulouse and Carcassonne, where three towns each claim their own version.
- Castelnaudary: the self-styled world capital, with its festival and its brotherhood.
- Carcassonne: the walled city to the east.
- Toulouse: the regional capital, which lends the dish its sausage.
The dish takes its name from the cassole, the glazed earthenware bowl it is baked in.
Along the Canal du Midi
The canal links Toulouse to the Mediterranean and runs past Castelnaudary, whose quays hosted games on the water during the 2026 festival.
- Castelnaudary: the Fête du Cassoulet in August.
- Carcassonne: the walled city, further east along the canal.
On 7 December 1996 the canal, the work of Pierre Paul Riquet, was inscribed with a buffer zone on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, recalls the State’s press kit for the region.
| Canal du Midi | Figure |
|---|---|
| Navigable length | 240 km |
| Structures (locks, aqueducts, bridges, tunnels) | More than 330 |
| Départements crossed | Haute-Garonne, Tarn, Aude, Hérault |
| Communes along it | 90 |
Roquefort, the first AOP
The Confédération Générale de Roquefort calls its cheese the first AOP in history: the appellation dates from 1925, and its centenary was marked in 2025.
- The cheese: the only blue-veined AOP made from sheep’s milk, a raw-milk cheese ripened in the cellars of Roquefort, in the Aveyron.
- The trade: 2,640 sheep farmers, 8 dairies and 7 cheesemakers, with 2,000 people at work on the cheese.
- Visits: the confederation lists tours of the ripening cellars and of farms, and tasting circuits.
The Fête du Cassoulet in figures
| 2026 edition | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 19 to 23 August |
| Edition | 25th |
| Visitors the year before | more than 80,000 (2025) |
| Concerts | free, on three squares |
Before you go
- When: the Fête du Cassoulet is held in August. The 2026 edition ran from 19 to 23 August, and the 2027 dates are not yet published.
- Airports: Toulouse-Blagnac and Montpellier serve the region.
- Trains: the line between Toulouse and the Mediterranean coast runs through the Lauragais.
- Alcohol: the minimum legal age to buy alcohol in France is 18.
Frequently asked questions
When is the Fête du Cassoulet?
In August. The 2026 edition ran from 19 to 23 August in Castelnaudary. The 2027 dates are not yet published.
Where does cassoulet come from?
From the Lauragais, between Toulouse and Carcassonne. Castelnaudary, Carcassonne and Toulouse each claim their own version.
What is the capital of Occitanie?
Toulouse.