Foix Voyage Tips and guide

Contents

Foix is a medieval town at the foot of the Pyrenees in Ariège. It is surrounded by its castle which dominates the town. Perched on its rock, you cannot miss seeing it and, if you have a little time, visiting it.

• Tourisme Foix

Foix is on the TER Toulouse - La Tour-de-Carol line, with approximately one train per hour during the day. Foix is just over 1 hour  from Toulouse.

• 42.971.6066671 Foix Train Station (Gare de Foix). The train station is a 10-minute walk from the city centre. (updated Nov 2017)

From Toulouse via the N20 or the A66 motorway to Pamiers then the N20; exit Foix Nord from Toulouse, Foix Sud from Spain, the road runs along the Ariège and enters the city centre at a roundabout "l'hippodrome", made up of two bridges over the Ariège. Since the opening of the Foix bypass tunnel, for the transit of the N20, traffic at the entrances to the city has been made easier.

The city centre is congested on market days, Monday mornings, and especially Friday mornings.

There are plenty of parking options. The easiest paid parking lot to find is on Allées de Villote, which you'll inevitably find as it's the city centre's main artery, but it's not available on Mondays and Fridays (the market is held there).

There is free parking in the south of the city, near the cultural centre, a 5- minute walk from the centre of town. It is usually possible to find a space there. 

The castle of Foix is the main attraction of the town. A visit to the old town is complemented by a tour of the old town, but the 18th- and 19th-century houses, often poorly restored, have lost most of their character. There are still several pleasant alleys and beautiful half-timbered houses.

• 42.9655561.6051 Foix Castle (Chateau de Foix). A centre of the Cathars, it dates back to at least 987 CE. The castle houses the collections of the Ariège departmental museum. Sections on prehistory, Gallo-Roman and mediaeval archaeology tell the history of Ariège from ancient times.  

• 42.96691.606342 Saint-Volusien Abbey (Abbatiale Saint-Volusien). Founded in the 12th century.  

Ariège is a land of history, some centres of interest: caves like the Niaux cave, south of Foix via the RN 20, a cave decorated by our Paleolithic ancestors, reservation required, or the prehistory park in Tarascon-sur-Ariège,the castle of Montségur, towards Lavelanet, or others less known but equally interesting like that of Roquefixade,the Forges de Pyrène in Montgailhard, 3 km south of Foix, which is a museum of old-fashioned trades in Ariège.

For the discovery of wildlife and the mountains, the Orlu national hunting reserve, a paradise for marmots and chamois, and nearby, the mountain observatory or the wolf house,the Ariège Pyrenees Regional Natural Park which covers the entire west of the Ariège departmentmany hikes in the Pyrenees.

There is no shortage of restaurants in old Foix, between the town hall and the Saint-Volusien abbey. During the summer season, the pedestrian street of Faurie, where the restaurants are now elbow to elbow, becomes a vast open-air terrace where the onlooker must squeeze between the tables, chairs and parasols. The cuisine is more or less the same everywhere, it is honest but without much originality. In winter, some restaurants remain open, the clientele then being made up of civil servants and employees of the city prefecture.