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

Monday 24th April 2017 and ‘Day 6′ cont…

A bit of background on Conques:

“Conques is a former commune in the Aveyron department in Southern France, in the Occitania region. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Conques-en-Rouergue.”~Wiki

“Conques has a documented history that goes back to the year 500. Charlemagne gave some money for the building of an Abbey where hermits had been. This was a really secluded place, surrounded by woods. Then in the 700s Louis, the Pious gave money for a bigger Benedictine Abbey.” ~Join Us In France

“Conques, listed as one of the most beautiful villages of France, is about 30 kilometres east of Figeac and 35 kilometres north of Rodez, in the Aveyron department in the Massif Central.

Conques sits on the edge of the gorge of the River Dourdou, in a beautiful setting surrounded by mountains and forests. The approach from the south is along an especially attractive stretch of river.”~France This Way

Our Thoughts on Conques

One glimpse and Conques was up there as one of our favourite villages on this trip. We wrote little bullet points of why we liked it so much so I’ll share those with you below:

• A stunning, hidden valley location made the treacherous drive worthwhile – thanks Sat Nav.
• There was the remarkably well-preserved abbey ‘Church of Saint Foy’ that was built in 1041 that was embellished with beautiful and interesting stone carvings over the main entrance.
• Apparently, this village provided inspiration for the 2017 version of Beauty And The Beast film.
• This beautiful village has largely been untouched since the early 1800s thanks to its inaccessibility and a few very protective locals. Hallelujah!
• There are less than 300 people still living in the village.

We parked slightly above the little village but it’s only a short 3-minute walk to reach the heart of the village and its beautiful abbey. I’ll add a Google Maps screenshot image of where we parked. There was also parking at the other end of the village, it’s just out of shot on the left-hand side of the map below.

What I saw of the village was beautiful but I couldn’t go any further than the abbey as I was in agony with my knees.

Apologies for the large photos, the very dodgy videos, and the total butchering of the village name ‘Conques’. It’s meant to be pronounced like ‘Conk’ but I didn’t discover that until my return home.

All photos and videos are the property of myself and Amanda.

Thanks for visiting.

Touch of Cinnamon