Extreme-Ariege offer quality organised adrenaline sport holidays, including Skydiving, Paragliding, Bungee Jumping, Mountain Flights, Karting, Jet skiing, Hot-air balloon flights, Quad Biking, Mountain bike descents, White Water Rafting, Water Skiing, Kayaking, Canyoning, Canoeing and Hydrospeed.

There are a large number of walks in easy reach. For a stroll, just leave the property on foot to see the village. You can go up into the hills for a variety of woodland walks, ranging from 30 minutes to several hours.

The Lake at Montbel has a footpath all the way round so you can set your own distance. The full circuit is 10 miles and there is a café at the end for a welcome drink!

A 15 minute drive gets you to the castle at Montségur or at Roquefixade, both of which may be visited by walkers. Montségur is the slightly more strenuous of the two, but remains within the capabilities of most of our visitors.

There are some lovely summer walks slightly further afield. For example you can follow a large number of marked tracks up into the mountains to visit lakes, wildlife and spectacular views.
One walk we know of has so far produced a 100% success rate of seeing Griffon Vultures soaring in the sky!

You can also enjoy the mountains from your car (4x4 recommended). LandTreks offer guided tours either in their vehicle or as a "tag-along".

There are two man-made beaches nearby, at Montbel and at Puivert which are popular and convenient.

If you would rather go to the Med, we would recommend a day trip to Narbonne Plage or Perpignan. Narbonne is about an hour and a half away and has some great beaches and an old town which is good for a browse. The drive will take you past Carcassonne too, so you may want to stop off there (although Carcassonne can easily fill a day on its own!). Perpignan, although closer, actually takes longer to get to, as the road heads through some spectacular scenery in the Upper Aude Valley.

The skiing season generally runs from the start of the Christmas holiday through to the end of Easter. The closest ski resort is at Les Monts d'Olmes which is about 45 minutes drive away (allow slightly longer for going up, especially when snowy!).

There are several other skiing resorts within reach, the largest of these being Ax-Bonascre which takes about an hour to reach the cable car and about 15 minutes to get to the top. You can also drive to the top for which you should allow an extra 20 minutes or so.

For cross-country skiing, the Plateau de Beille resort is a very popular choice, and can be reached in about an hour and a half door-to-door.

There are local shops within a 15 minute walk, and the baker comes to the village every day. There is a lovely market every Monday morning in Mirepoix and other local towns also have their own market - Laroque d'Olmes and Lavelanet being the closest.

For a larger choice of shops, Pamiers is 20 minutes away by car, and has some nice pedestrianised shopping streets, as does Foix, the county capital which also has an interesting castle and some good museums.

A day out to Toulouse is worth considering. As well as shopping, there are museums, cinemas and a theatre, as well as more unusual attractions, like the Cité de l'Espace, or Space City.

For the more adventurous, a day out to Andorra will provide a memorable high point. The drive across the mountains is truly spectacular, especially on a sunny day, and takes about an hour and a half. Shopping is tax-free in Andorra so you should find some great deals.
Don't forget that you will need to (in theory) declare your purchases at the customs post and possibly pay import duty on them, but even with this, you will save money.

There is a lot of history apparent in our region, the most evident being the influence of the Cathars. According to Bernard Simon, in his book The Essence of the Gnostics, the last surviving ruins of the Cathar Gnostic school in the south of France [...] are now a tourist attraction. The so-called sacred mountain of Montségur, and the meadow beneath, the Field of the Burned, were the places where the remnants of the Cathars (Greek for 'pure'), branded heretics by the Catholic Church, were brutally disposed of in 1244. [...] 205 parfaits (priests) marched singing to their deaths on the sixteenth of March. It seems that four of the initiates escaped that night - they took treasure with them including, it is said, the Holy Grail.
Another site of Cathar interest is a short drive away at Ussat-les-Bains where you will find the Cave of Bethlehem, the most important of the Cave Churches of Ornolac.
Judith Mann's web site has an interesting page about the Cathars.

There are many historical monuments and museums to visit, including Montségur, Roquefixade, Foix, Lagarde, Puivert and Carcassonne, amongst others.

La Fontaine is just a few miles from the Chemin de Piemont (see also this site in English), a pilgrims trail that runs from Narbonne right through to Saint Jean Pied de Port, passing through Carcassonne, Fanjeaux, Mirepoix, Pamiers and Lourdes.

The Ariège region is justifiably proud of its heritage and an enormous variety of cultural events are staged during the summer season. Some of the events local to La Fontaine include the Jazz Festival, Puppet Festival, Apple Festival and Medieval Festival, all in Mirepoix. There is a son et lumière extravaganza in Foix each summer which depicts the strong points of local history from the prehistoric right through to the modern age.

Artists of all backgrounds should find something to interest them in the region, from prehistoric cave paintings to modern-day painters. This site (in French) contains some links to local artists.
If you're coming to paint, sketch or photograph, then there is a huge variety of terrain, texture and colour to draw your inspiration from.

Ariège cuisine is typically of the mountains with lots of rich flavours and hearty meals, ideal for coming home to after a strenuous day out. There are several good restaurants within easy reach of La Fontaine with a good range of prices and menus. As always in France, vegetarian travellers may find the choice somewhat limited!

Although Ariège is not a great wine region, we are 5 minutes from the border with Aude and the Languedoc-Roussillon region which has some fantastic vintages. AOC Corbières, Coteaux du Languedoc, Minervois, Saint-Chinian, Faugères, Minervois La Livinière, Fitou, Cabardès, Malepère, Clairette du Languedoc, Limoux and Les Muscats are some of the main wines produced locally. There are many web sites about wine, here are some we find useful: wine-searcher, wine anorak and the wine doctor.

The range of different activities and reasons for coming to Ariège are far too numerous to list completely here. Canoeing, rafting, visiting caves, karting, cycling, flying, fishing, horse riding, animal parks, walking, orchids, painting, photography, etc. - you name it, we can do it!

For an excellent web site about the region, in French and English, have a browse through Ariege.com, which has information about just about everything! Another interesting site can be found on About.com which mentions lots of things to do based around Tarascon which is about 35 minutes away by car.