A lone Canadian arrived one day last week, professing to be a long lost cousin (once removed), looking for a room at the inn. Gullible chaps that we are, we took in this itinerant traveller and, instead of favouring him with a few coppers, took him instead on a tour of the local sights.
Adam, for this was his name, had travelled all the way from Canada, via Portugal and England (his sense of direction being a little suspect) to spend a week with us. He was brave enough to try out some of the local delicacies, although I managed to persuade him to try the food instead. This did come as a shock to him, as previously duck had not rated high on his favourite food list.
We started our touristic adventure locally in Montauban itself, which he thought quite quaint.
We then moved east to Bruniquel, a small hilltop village and castle overlooking the Aveyron. It’s steep streets and colourful cafés make for good photography…
…and then on to Penne, which has the most stunning hilltop castle ruins perched way up over a precipice. Building this must have been done by some really insane Frenchmen, although I bet they never worked on bank holidays or in the month of August, and probably took two hours for lunch…
Adam seemed constantly amazed at the beauty of these old villages, but then we took him to spend a day in the superb Saint Cirque Lapoppie, north of Montauban overlooking the valley of Aveyron, which has to be one of the most picturesque villages in the world…
It is packed full of many and varied old buildings, stuffed with good restaurants and cafés, and (unfortunately) overflowing with souvenir shops selling (even more unfortunately) some pretty good quality stuff.
Having been overdosed with too much ‘quaint’ we thankfully then moved on to the Pyrénées, where the weather made Adam feel more at home (piddling with rain etcetera). I’m sure that he will return to the colonies full of memories of beautiful places, and grateful for the chance of a decent hamburger.
For a slideshow of all the many photos taken in these quaint villages, click on any photo below:
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