With the compliments of the Times Newspaper - Author Rupert Wright

Provence has the glamour, the celebs and the high prices: but unspoiled Languedoc, a budget-airline magnet, is catching up fast, says Rupert Wright

At one time, the two giants of 20th-century painting lived at different ends of southern France. While Picasso was painting around Antibes in Provence to the east, Matisse was in Collioure, close to the Spanish border in Languedoc-Roussillon. Matisse was mesmerised by the beauty of the fishing village and the quality of its light.

Before the first world war, the two places — like the painters — were evenly matched in popularity. Then Provence pulled ahead. Everybody travelling to the south of France followed the Rhône to the Mediterranean. On hitting the sea, they all turned left. Eventually, even Matisse gave up the struggle, abandoning Collioure and moving to Nice.

Languedoc remained a backwater, left to winemakers, a few brave souls and the wind that blows through the olive trees. When we moved here five years ago, it was still relatively unknown and inaccessible: Norman Foster had not yet completed his stunning bridge across the Tarn gorge.

However, a number of low-cost airlines were beginning to open up the place to north Europeans, and this continues to expand. Ryanair must be credited as the main catalyst for change in Languedoc: you can now fly every day from Stansted to Carcassonne (dubbed Cork-assonne by grateful passengers of the Irish-owned budget airline), Montpellier, Nîmes and Perpignan. British Airways flies from Gatwick to Montpellier. There is also the TGV, which whizzes from Paris to Montpellier in three hours.

In contrast, Provence was always accessible. And fashionable. Ever since Lord Brougham stumbled upon Cannes in 1834, Brits have been flocking to the Riviera. In the 1960s, St Tropez and the Riviera became the coolest place in the world to spend the summer. There was Bardot on the beach — what did Languedoc have to match that? Mainly mosquitoes and cheap wine. By the 1970s and 1980s, London’s media types had moved inland and discovered Provence. And Peter Mayle wrote that book. Now Elton John has a house there, as have David Beckham and George Michael.

On the Riviera, house prices match and outstrip those in London. Languedoc’s coastline cannot match the Côte d’Azur for people, style or scenery, but neither do the property prices. Fifty years ago, there was hardly any development between Sète and Collioure, just miles and miles of empty, sandy beaches, where mosquitoes bred. The development of the coastline began in the 1960s with the spraying of the beaches with DDT. Parisians decided that the working man needed to go to the beach, and they did not want them on their beaches. So they created places such as La Grande Motte, full of high-rise developments, and Cap d’Agde, Europe’s largest nudist colony. It’s a curious place, full of grim buildings and people whose idea of a good time is to go to the bank naked. However, you can pick up an apartment at either place for less than €100,000 (£67,000). The same on the Riviera would start at about £150,000 and keep rising.

Inland, property-price comparisons between Provence and Languedoc are closer. The rural charms and the lack of housing stock in parts of Languedoc have created a mini boom. In particular, the eastern part of Languedoc — Gard and Hérault — is filling up fast. Prices around Montpellier have soared.

The Gard and Hérault are still about 35% cheaper than parts of Provence.

Go further west towards Carcassonne in Aude and property prices get considerably lower. You can still buy a small village house without a garden for £50,000. However, transport links with London are not as good and, for some people’s tastes, the weather and landscape are less attractive.

When we first came to Languedoc, house prices were four times lower than they would have been in most parts of southern England. We were looking for a large, isolated house with a swimming pool and some land. Something like this would have been out of our price range in Provence. We looked at more than 30 different properties. If I had been thinking clearly, I would have bought them all. House prices have more than doubled since then.

There are two distinct parts to Languedoc- Roussillon. There is the plain, which stretches about 20 miles inland — this is the low Languedoc, full of vineyards, a couple of large cities and smaller medieval ones. Continue inland and you start climbing up savage mountains to find chestnut trees, meadows and river gorges, and villages such as Pont-de-Montvert in the Cevennes national park. The landscape is sublime: it makes the Lake District look like Hyde Park. This has traditionally been a place to hide from religious oppression, taxes and first wives.

Many writers and artists have been attracted to Languedoc, in search of cheap housing and cheaper wine, including Lawrence Durrell, who described his “calamitous intake of scarlet Fitou and red Corbières”.

Simon Fletcher, an artist, moved to a small town in the high Languedoc more than 20 years ago. “When we arrived, we were the only English speakers within a 20-mile radius,” he says. “Now even the local geologist is British.” Journalist Frank Johnson is a neighbour of ours; novelist Christopher Hope and publishing guru Carmen Callil live not far away. Languedoc has been dubbed the “thinking man’s Provence”. Beautiful landscape without the crowds or the hype.

As well as writers, it is also attracting young families, who are able to work from here via the internet and the occasional visit to London. In contrast, Provence is for people who think it is important to live in Provence. A designer friend of mine found the perfect house for an American client in Languedoc. She came to visit, fell in love with the place, but concluded that she couldn’t live there, because none of her friends would have heard of it.

Five years ago, every village had large empty houses that had been used for the grape pickers. Since the coming of the mechanical pickers, they had lain idle. You could go to the town hall and see them advertised on notice boards. Now the estate agents have moved in to cater for the estimated one in 10 Ryanair passengers that is looking to buy a house in the region.

Old customs are changing. It is much more profitable to sell vineyards and turn them into lotissements, cheap housing estates. Our closest village, about two miles away, has suddenly introduced parking spaces and tickets for offenders. Anarchy is being replaced with order.

Our house is now worth many times more than we paid for it. But our children are happy at school, I have a good bunch of cycling friends and I like the food and wine. If we sold up, where would we go?

Rupert Wright is the author of Notes from the Languedoc, published by Ebury Press, £7.99

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