Les Plus Beaux Villages de France – The Most Beautiful Villages in France Tour

Thursday the 27th of April 2017 and ‘Day 9′ Cont…

We visited so many towns and villages but I couldn’t walk so I only saw most of them from a distance and to be honest, I can’t remember which photos go with which village anymore. There’s a good chance I’ll post photos out of sync and maybe they’re even from the next leg of our trip but I’ll pop a few pics in here and name a few of the villages I know that we passed through. Some we stopped at but some we just drove through.

The names of towns and villages I know for sure that we passed through:

Caylus, Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, Najac, Lagarde Viaur, Villefranche-de-Rouergue, Martiel and Gaillac.

Below are the very brief notes from my travel journey about the various locations we visited on this leg of the tour. Unfortunately, most of my memories of them are lost to time so I can’t really elaborate further but here goes…

Caylas: A lively centrepiece church but very little else…I feel sure that it’s far better than this, so forgive me. I was copying from Amanda’s journal so we’ll blame her. 😀

Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val: A fairly large town with lots of winding streets with very old buildings. We chose not to stop as it was very busy with loads of traffic, so we took a few shots from across the river looking back at the town. See the main photo a the top of this post.

Najac: I’d had high expectations of Najac but I was underwhelmed. Again, this was probably due to being in so much pain and the weather not being great. Najac is dark and medieval with a grand cathedral but it’s very high up and seemed to have limited access and parking. We did manage to park at the top of the town and had a quick look around before dashing into a cafe for a drink and a loo stop, and to avoid the weather.

Lagarde Viaur: A minor SAT-NAV setback meant that we nearly missed this place but I’m so glad we didn’t. It’s a sprawling, hillside village with an ancient stone bridge, and wide river and valley views.

Villefranche-de-Rouergue: Another town I was looking forward to seeing because I knew it had lots to offer but it was far too busy to attempt to navigate or park. Instead, we visited a Carrefour for food and petrol. I will be back one day though. 😀

Martiel: I just have ‘Meh!’ written. :O Oh Amanda! *Shakes head*

Gaillac: Very small, barely half a dozen houses, one of which was an occupied Chateau. We saw several kites circulating the valley as we wandered along its short street.

One other very notable point from this day was our journey down/up probably the worst road EVER. Barely a car width wide. We couldn’t work out if it was unfinished or if it had simply been washed away, either way, it was seriously dodgy with rocks strewn everywhere like a dry riverbed. There were bits of fallen trees partially blocking our path, and potholes big enough to hide a small chateau in. It was both terrifying and hilarious. We emerged intact though and miraculously, so did the car. Oh the joys of SAT-NAV!

All photos and videos are the property of myself and Amanda unless otherwise stated.

Thanks for visiting.

Touch of Cinnamon