What a week! Monday was a blur of shopping, cleaning and
getting ready for our guest who arrived the next day. We had to move the
furniture around a bit to make a little corner of privacy and we think it
worked fairly well. So bright and early next morning we were again on the way
to Rodez airport, feeling that, as we had done that route twice there and back
already in the not too distant past, we would get there in double quick time.
However, not listening to ‘Jane’ often proves to be the wrong course of action,
and once again we took a scenic route but luckily still managed to arrive
before the plane did.. How excited I was at the thought of seeing my sister
again after so much time. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally
appeared through the ‘Arrivals’ door and we flung ourselves at each other
hugging madly. Then it was back to the ‘gite’ to dump her luggage etc, have a
quick lunch and go off to visit and show off ‘our house’. She was suitably
impressed and immediately started imagining various pieces of furniture in
their places. All in all we spent a couple of hours there wandering back and
forth through the five rooms that it consists of, talking all the time!
The talking continued until quite late at night but we
eventually got to bed not too late which
was good as we had decided that the following day would be a picnic day at
Belcastel, one of our favourite villages. The day turned out sunny if a bit
gusty at times but we still had an
excellent day out. This time all the flowers were out and there were a lot of
other visitors to the village so it seemed more ‘alive’. Carol was entranced
with the whole place and was sorry that she had not got a small pocket-sized
camera that she could have brought with her, but she made up for the lack by
taking a mass of pictures on her phone. After enjoying our picnic lunch eaten
under a willow tree on the banks of the river, we went up to the top of the
hill and found that the chateau was now open for visitors. We were a bit
dubious about going in, thinking that it was really quite expensive, but Carol was very keen and ended up by treating us to the tour. We had no guide, but we
were given a folder in English which led one from area to area in the chateau,
following the numbers shown on the walls. What we might have missed!!! The
interior of the chateau is not lavishly furnished, in fact there is very little
furniture in it, but what there is, is quite magnificent. As one ambles around
following the guide book, one proceeds through room after room; up and down spiral
staircases, and across terrifying wooden planked walkways. As the current
owners of the chateau are also the owners of a large art gallery in New York,
it is not surprising that there are three galleries devoted to exhibitions of
art. Two large rooms make up the armoury with a number of suits of armour on
display, together with two life-sized statues of horses in armour complete with
armoured riders. One suit of armour, which is kept behind glass looks as if it
is gilded or made of highly polished brass, and is covered in wonderful light
relief carvings. It was obviously a ‘dress suit’ as no-one would wear such a highly
decorated suit into battle.
All in all we must have spent about two hours in the castle
and had to hurry back as we had invited our hosts down to have drinks and
snacks with us. One way and another, it turned into another late night, so it
was just as well that we could have a lie-in the next morning, while we waited
for our hairdresser lady to show up and give us much needed haircuts. As we had
had an early lunch before she arrived,
we could dash off as soon as she left to go into Villefranche de Rouergue.
Carol wanted to get a few things to take back with her and then we took her
into the centre of town and showed her the medieval part around the cathedral
and the Town Square. Once again we took our time about it and then had to
scurry before going upstairs to have dinner with our hosts. Oh dear! Another
late night!
Friday, and Carol’s last day with us and the weather just
wasn’t playing fair. After several bright but cloudy days, this last day
started off cool and rainy, but we had planned to take quite a long drive north
to the town of Conques. Started as a Benedictine monastery, around which a
small town grew, Conques has now become a major stop-over point on one of the
many Routes to Santiago de Compostela .
We have a friend who works in the accommodation section of the Abbey who tells
us that at the height of the season, they can have as many as 1800 people per
night in the dormitories. There are still monks who live there and who carry on
their normal monastic life and duties while a
number of lay people work with, and around them, seeing to the needs of
the pilgrims.
By the time we arrived there, the weather had cleared a
little, so leaving all our wet-weather gear in the car, we strolled down to the
town where we decided to have lunch straight away as we knew that going around
the cathedral alone, would take quite some time. By now it was quite hot in the
sun and the kind restaurateur lowered the canopy over the outside tables to
afford some shade. As we ate, we watched the people passing, many of whom were
displaying the scallop shell of St. Jacques, or striding along with the help of
pointed steel walking sticks and sturdy hiking boots which identified them as
possible pilgrims.
The cathedral, as is so common, is colossal, and sturdy,
built as much for defence as for worship. From front to back it measures 56
metres with the dome above the nave soaring to 21 metres. Why should such an out-of-the-way village have such a
huge church, one might ask. It is all due to a little girl called Faith. As a
fifteen year old, she was martyred for her Christian beliefs along with her
sister and a handful other adults. Up until that time she had become renowned
for her miraculous powers and her
beheading caused some discontent among the locals. Soon after, she was declared
a saint and the original chapel that had stood on the site was demolished to
make way for the grand building we see today, dedicated to St Foy. ( Foi in
French, is Faith) Relics of St Faith, or St Foy if you like, can be seen in the
crypt of the cathedral. There is little interior decoration to be seen,
although according to Benedictine rules, there is nothing to prevent it, and there
are no stained glass windows. The
windows which had been put in place after WWII, which were mostly diamond
shaped pastel coloured glass were replaced in 1994 by a renowned artist Pierre Soulages. who designed all 104 windows. Not to everyone’s taste, the windows are
composed of stripes going in different directions, of pale shades of blue to
grey. From outside, it appears as if the glass Venetian blinds are drawn, and I
personally, would prefer traditional Medieval style windows in glorious colour.
When we came out of the cathedral, it was just starting to
drizzle a bit but we persisted in our walk around town until the rain became
too heavy and we had to head back to the car and home. We will definitely go
back again.
We finally got home again at about 7 pm but none of us felt
like a meal due to our large lunch, but it didn’t stop us from talking. We
still had SO much to talk about and in the end, guess what? Yes………it was
another late night! Not a good idea when the alarm clocks had to be set for
6.30 the following morning, but we managed to rouse ourselves at the appointed
hour and get Carol to the airport in time for her flight back to the UK. It has
been such a special few days and we will treasure the memories of them.
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