Au revoir to the Averyon region and Najac

It's with much sadness that we bid au revoir to Najac, which has made a wonderful home (or, as they say here, a pied-a-terre). The many faces of the town, its people and the region will stay with us forever. Whether it be taking our ease in the town square of St-Antonin-noble-Val, ambling through the quiet village streets in the evening (and making friends with the local cats, of whom there are quite a few), gazing out at the castle in varying light and still being spellbound after a month, walking through the hills and valleys of the surrounding countryside, visiting our favorite local market (at Villefranche la Rouergue), bidding a bonjour (or bonsoir) to our fellow-villagers....it all adds up to a rich and relaxing month. Anyone thinking of visiting this area: we'd encourage a minimum of two weeks, and let us know if you'd like the contact details for where we stayed as we can't recommend it highly enough.

Kayaking the Gorges du Tarn

We decided it was time for some adventure, so headed off for the day to the Gorges du Tarn (about 2 hours from Najac).  These gorges are dramatic to say the least and are some of the deepest in Europe, some of the limestone cliffs reach to 500m high.

Our adventure starts as we were taken by van, with 4 other thrill seeking adventurers and our kayaks, 23 km up river.   The drive in itself is spectacular and winds around the gorge, through short tunnels bored into the cliffs and with the occasional picturesque village and castle.  Along the route is La Croze, a beautiful hamlet nestled against the side of the cliffs.  It is completely inaccessible by car and can only be reached by boat, walking or flying-fox.

Once we finally hit the water in our double kayak, we reached our first very minor rapid within metres.  The winding river was a mixture of gentle rapids and calm stretches with limestone eroded cliffs, rock pinnacles and pebble beaches along the way. In many spots the current is strong enough to drift you downstream at walking pace, which makes rubbernecking at the fabulous scenery easier.

The first village we passed was Saint-Chely-du-Tarn, and this is one spectaculr sight from the water. A graceful bridge spans the gorge leading to the town, slightly downstream of which are two cascades emptying into the river. Fabulous, and tempting enough to drag the camera out of our waterproof tub for a few on-the-water shots.

The journey took us close to 6 hours with some time to sit on shore for some lunch and a bottle of wine (we did rough it).  It was also hot enough (somewhere over 30oC...hot) for a dip in the river at a couple of spots along the way. The weather may have been hot but though the water certainly wasn't but it was nice to cool off.  Our biggest rapid of the day wasn't actually a rapid but a weir, a little unnerving but lots of fun.

As you travel downstream it's not too strenuous a journey (the only real issue of the day was the sunburn, both of us neglected to put suncream on our legs and Andrew on his chest).  We'd highly recommend kayaking the Gorges du Tarn to anyone.  It was a memorable experience. Guessing that it gets really busy in high season, so this time of year was perfect.

Caves and Cathars in Gascony

Gascony, in the SW of France, is frequently written up as a beautiful gourmand's paradise at the foothills of the Pyrenees. Stretched for time we could only manage a day trip, in which there was much to see and much reason to return. Unfortunately we can't vouch for the food - we had a nice enough lunch in Foix, but the town was full of pizzerias (which appear to have conquered the world but we're not interested in until Italy) and offered limited options of interest.

Some highlights of the day:

• The underground river (Riviere Souterrain) at Labouiche. You travel (are pulled along by your guide) in a flat-bottomed boat.  The trip takes about an hour below the earth, traveling through a series of limestone caverns complete with waterfall - a wonderful experience, though not for claustrophobics.
• Meandering along windy roads in the foothills of the Pyrenees under glorious sunshine. Pierre's top came off and we soaked up both the sun and the setting.
• A great old bridge Pont de Diable (Bridge of the Devil)  - named from an old legend - someone did a deal with the devil in order to get to market.  The devil would build the bridge but in exchange take the heart of the first person who crossed it.  Apparently no one would dare cross so they sent across a cat (heathens) but this made the devil so angry he fell into the river...yes really.
• The old Cathar fortress of Montsegur (also called the Cloud Castle), which was the setting for the Inquisition's ultimate putting-down of the whole Cathar faith in 1244.   Astonishing location & you can see how 150 Cathars held out for 12 months against 10,000 Catholics.  It certainly wasn't easy to get to, the walk up was a climb of around 200 metres altitude up steep steps and rocks...at least we didn't have catapults aimed our way.  

Of geese and Cro-Magnons

Sarlat-le-Caneda is a charming medieval city in the Dordogne, and is touted as the home of geese and foie gras. We'd stopped in briefly a few weeks ago and were sufficiently charmed to travel the couple of hours to check it out more closely. On the way we stopped at Montfort, which features a chateau perched securely up on a clifftop. Very striking, and far more interesting than the over-sized garage sale going on in the village.

As with most medieval cities the old centre of town of Sarlat is small. However, a couple of hours strolling through its thin streets, lanes and the near tunnel-like arcades beneath buildings was most enjoyable. Within the  old town is the Place d'oie (Goose Plaza), where we found some bronze sculptures that reminded us of Boston's Central Park and its duck sculptures.

Nearby Payrignac boasts a most marvellous limestone cave (Grottes de Cougnac), in which you can get far closer to the formations than any we've previously visited (Jenolan, Yarrangobilly, Hastings). There is a long cavern filled with almost glowing white wax-like stalactites and stalagmites. That in itself would be enough drawcard for us, but within the caves are also Cro-Magnon paintings dated at 25,000 years old (with some partially obscured estimated at 40,000 years old). Pictures aren't permitted in the caves, but one of our cameras appears to have gone off by itself ;)

Thoughts at the end of Spring

You don't need to be told that it has been spring here, you just need to look around to see the new life that's surrounding you everywhere. Spring (le printemps) in France has been varied and full of surprises. From the beautiful blossoming trees and shrubs in a multitude of colours to the fields of bright yellow rapeseed, wildflowers everywhere to the new fledglings calling for their next feed of grubs and eventually taking their first flight.

Nearby our little village in Burgundy we saw numerous foals, but none as young and closely-guarded by its mother as this one.

Walking home from dinner on our first night in the Auvergne we passed a paddock of cows, literally 50 metres from our front door. To our delight and amazement a calf was being born before our eyes. It was a first and a big thrill for us both, as was seeing it the next morning on wobbly legs (see pic).

On a walk around the countryside near Najac we got within 50 metres or so of a youngish deer - taking our tally to about fourteen spotted over the past couple of months.

We've now entered a new season (l'ete).  Summer has arrived.    We've had some glimpses of what it's going to be like....hot, but more on that later.

A family day out to Carcassonne

Pierre got the day off when we two plus Debbie and Charlie headed off in their car (nicknamed Flatulence) to Carcassonne. Pierre's back seat is enough to contain a few cases of wine but unfortunately not suitable for people (you could perhaps fit a single Oompa-Loompa).

This wonderful medieval city is one of France's biggest drawcards, so we were all keen to see and judge for ourselves.

It's certainly amazingly well-preserved (though many of the businesses - such as the museum of torture and the innumerable souvenir shops - are less than authentic), and definitely has the largest crowds of sheeple that we've seen since Paris. Well worth it, and the day was perfect.

Of course we also had to find time for a game of Carcassonne (we've got a travel version) in Carcassonne. And what family day out would be complete without a rousing chorus of "I'm Henry the Eighth" in the car?.