2 Best Restaurants in Prades, Toulouse and the Languedoc

Run by four entrepreneurial friends just down the road from the famous Abbaye de St-Michel de Cuxa, this hip bistro serves fine locally sourced fare in large portions, like pork tenderloin in corriollette (fairy-ring mushroom) sauce. Like the food, the setting is stylish: its sleek glass-walled building and steel-framed terrace were constructed by the village specifically to house this Bistrot de Pays (a government-subsidized network of village restaurants promoting commerce in rural areas).

In a quiet mountain village just outside Prades, chef Gilles Bascou's semisecret gourmand restaurant serves classic five-course meals that locals swear by. The ambience is refined yet relaxed, and the market-inspired menu changes seasonally.