FRANCE 2015 Chapter 15

This week I have published a batch of pictures separately so that those of you who kindly print this out for other friends can possibly print only the text which will save a few sheets of paper

It was Thursday before we thought that the weather was settled enough to go for a day’s outing. In fact, it was one of those days that just get better and better. We hadn’t really planned a route but settled for something in a more or less southerly direction, avoiding, as far as possible, places that we had already visited. For anyone who wants to find our route on the map, we left here, Vabre Tizac, went on to la Salvetat Peyrales, then to Crespin, followed by St Just sur Viaur. Here we made a short detour, which put poor ‘Jane’ into a dreadful state and she kept imploring us to ‘turn around when possible. When it became quite obvious that we were not going to turn around, she tried to recalculate the route but couldn’t and insisted that the road was closed. And still we went on. She was right, of course. The road was closed, but this is what we had detoured to see. A few years ago, the road would have dipped down below an impressive railway bridge, before descending into the valley below and up the other side again. However, that part of the road is now closed for two reasons – one is that there is a wonderful new double-lane highway a few kilometres away, and the other is that the railway bridge is undergoing major repairs and driving under it could be quite hazardous. And the repairs are not before time either! Built in 1902, this steel  girder bridge was the first steel bridge built in France. As modern bridges go, it is not very long, being only 460 metres across with the central cantilevered arch making up almost half of that distance. The River Tarn rushes along over numerous small rapids, 116 metres below. After more than a century of use, the steel is showing signs of rust and other decay and is due to be out of action until the end of the year. Meanwhile, passengers wishing to travel from Rodez to Albi are transported by bus.

After admiring the bridge we returned to the route ‘Jane’ had planned for us and continued on to Requista where we had lunch sitting in the shade of an umbrella at a pavement café. We got talking to an elderly person whom Neels thinks was a woman and I think was a man, but who was quite entertaining for a short chat. We will have to think about that one for a while!

Having finished our lunch, we debated whether to start the return journey from there but eventually decided to carry on a bit further, to Brousse le Chateau. This is listed as one of France’s most beautiful villages and we can certainly see why. It is a beautifully restored and maintained medieval village set in a horseshoe bend on the banks of the river Tarn. The chateau is set on the highest point of the village, inside a wall, with a row of houses forming an additional wall outside that. The whole village is absolutely spotless and several houses have brilliant red roses climbing up the outside walls. In fact, the flowers everywhere were just wonderful. It is really remarkable how every inhabitant of these villages does his or her part in keeping the place clean, tidy and full of pretty flowers.

We walked around the village admiring it all and taking lots of pictures before deciding that we should think about turning for home. With the idea that going there and back on the same road gives one two different views of the passing countryside, we decided to just retrace our route and see what we missed on the outward trip. This time we didn’t make a detour to the old railway bridge, so instead found ourselves whizzing over the new concrete road bridge. We rather wondered if this was an ‘anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better’ project. The new bridge is 570 metres long and 120 metres above the river for a start, but where the old railway bridge is solid and black, and is supported by a latticework of steel girders, the new one appears to float across the landscape, supported on the thinnest of pillars. It is quite beautiful actually.

Shortly after that we came to a turnoff that I had noticed on the way ‘out’. It said ‘Castelmary’ and had the Heritage Site logo on it. So we turned off to go and investigate.  What a strange sight met us! A small hill was at the top end of a rough loop that ended at the bottom of the hill in a magnificent fortified tower. The sides of the loop were houses that had probably once formed the protective walls around the small community. On the hillock were the ruins of a once-great castle, complete with turrets and battlemented walls. Nowadays though the ruins are almost completely overgrown and are obviously neglected. However, in front of the old ruins, is a more modern building and quite the most extraordinary one we have seen in a long time. Because the hill is fairly steep, it is built on several levels but it was the roof and the wall decorations that really amazed us. The roof is a peaked roof covered in split stone as is the style around here – nothing unusual in that, except that the roof was also covered in extra little four-sided peaks dotted all over it like horns or spikes. Each one was tiled in the same materials as the main roof but on a smaller scale, and because the stones shine in the sunlight, it looked for all the world as if the roof was wearing medieval armour. The walls, too, were decorated with various big and little sculptures and plaques. At the front of the house was a portico over nothing, with a little wooden train on a ledge inside it and a plaque honouring someone but it didn’t say what for – perhaps something to do with the train??

We walked up the driveway which was the only way up to the ruins behind the house, and to our surprise, there was another, smaller house hidden away there also with spikes on the roof. They are the strangest looking buildings I have ever seen.

Friday was another very good day, because apart from being really good weather, we received an SMS that we have been waiting for, for a very long time. It was to say that our new permits are ready for collection so we are planning to go down to Auch some time soon to get them. I won’t be entirely over the moon until I have them in my hand, but the news itself was very welcome.

I think I have mentioned from time to time how much Neels enjoys driving along the really twisty roads and lanes which abound in this area. To show you just what he enjoys I took a picture of the TomTom (Jane) while we were going down a hill recently. The road we were travelling on is indicated in red, so one can easily see what is coming – in this case a couple of really tight hairpin bends.