This was our second stay with Iola, the first back in 2007. This is a little piece of paradise in the most idyllic secluded location, but only a few minutes drive to the local village, 20 or so minutes to Trebes and only slighty further to the lovely medieval walled city of Carcassonne.
A car is essential and the location is only about half an hour from Carcassonne airport (Ryanair).
We occupied two of the three bed and breakfast rooms - Emerald and Ruby - the rooms are exquisite, fabulously furnished with amazing original artworks and unique furniture -so nice, you hardly want to leave the room! Breakfast is served in Iola's dining room with a gorgeous picture window with a spectacular view over the rolling hills and vineyards.
Our mornings were spent leisurely sightseeing and Iola has plenty of little tips of "must sees" and we can highly recommend her suggestion of the gorge town of Minerve, along with a superb recommendation of nearby restaurant for lunch. Having stocked up on provisions of wonderful breads and locals cheeses (not to mention an odd bottle of the local wine) we returned to Domaine de Palatz to spend our afternoons lazing by the pool. We were often the only people at the pool, sunbeds and parasols provided and a pool house close by. The poolhouse was our evening venue, to utilise the barbeque and sit out on the lovely patio furniture for our evening of leisurely eating & drinking. The poolhouse has a fridge, as do the rooms and all the cutlery and crockery you require to cater for yourselves, if you wish.
A fantastically relaxing place, great hostess and an away from it all location - but not too far from civilisation. Often the only sound was the faint whirr of agricultural machinery harvesting the grapes - apart from that the sound of silence.
We highly recommend and we will be back!

We have recently returned from a wonderful stay with close family at Domaine de Palatz. Our stay was a much appreciated and very generous wedding gift.
We very much like the rural location and peacefulness of this beautiful area.The property has been tastefully restored to offer all modern amenities whilst retaining an atmosphere of rural France. We stayed in the Emerald Room which has a wonderful view through a round window of the vineyards beyond.
The room is beautifully furnished and very comfortable with a huge adjacent en suite bathroom and separate toilet.The salt water pool was spotlessly clean with plenty of sunbeds around. The location is very quiet and peaceful. Our hostess Iola gave us a wonderful welcome and attended to our every need.On arrival the shops were closed so she immediatley made us a lovely lunch .
We would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys a peaceful holiday away from it all. We founds lots to do within a short drive and intend to return next year.

When you reserve hotel, gite, whatever using internet you may worry that pictures are better than reality. Not in this case - domaine de palatz looks better although on the pictures is really nice. We were in Lavender - the smallest gite but it occurs bigger than described: logia was a nice living room connected by stairs with quite big sleeping room on the next floor. Kitchen was very well equipped so we could decide to go to restaurant or to stay home. Also swimming pool oversized our expectations - clean, enough deep and big, with umbrellas and sunbeds. There is a decorated patio, grill area... As our neighbours said: everything is lovely here.
We were also satisfied by location: in the countryside, 2 km from the nearest city but with car very close to several attractions like castles, beaches, mountains.... You need just decide what do you want to do: see great catars' castles, visit nice cities, go on the seaside with wide sandy beaches or to the mountains. There is also great choice of vineyards and restaurants to visit in the neighbourhood. Moreover, it is quite close to Andorra and to Spain. Or you can just stay at place and enjoy it :-) All possibilities are good.
Iola, the owner is a very friendly and helpful person. She suggested us very nice restaurant in Trebes and helped to make reservation as we are not French speaking. We really enjoyed this!
We spend excellent two weeks here and felt like home. We had long way to this place as from Poland we had app. 2 thousands km but it was worth to do!

As at the end small hint for those who are worry how to find domain de palatz: there is a map close to the church in Laure-Minervois and there you will find direction to area called Palas; after 2 km you are there.

This is the second time we have visited Iola and we had a fabulous time. Iola is a fantastic host and made us feel very welcome. Nothing was any trouble and she was happy to book restaurants for us and share a bottle of wine with us all. It is in a great location for exploring lots of areas such as :La Cite, La Grasse, the Minervois Gorge and there are lots of little villages nearby where you can experience truly authentic French cuisine at very reasonable prices. It is also only a 20 min drive from the airport so is easy to get to and great for a mini-break.