Northward bound

Saturday, April 25: Albi and Cordes-sur-Ceil 

One "problem" we expected with having travelled so much in France is finding a road less taken. So we have chosen a route toward Paris a little east of our route south, but with no well known sites along the way, at least not well known to us. The first town along the way was Albi... we thought, OK, maybe something to see there. Well, indeed there was! In addition to the largest brick cathedral in the world, a town with many narrow medieval streets, vibrant markets and the river Tarn with old bridges, mills and locks.

We considered staying the night, but couldn't find a spot in the camper parking, so moved on to find a spot in maybe a peaceful boring little village. One likely suspect was on the map, Cordes sur Ciel, but boring it is not! As we approached, we saw an ancient looking hill town, and indeed it is "sur Ciel" means above the ceiling, or above the clouds. We found a nice little camping park below the town, and will hike up in the morning.

Sunday, April 26: Cordes sur Ciel, Laguépie, Villefranche de Rouergue

A crazy night! All nice and peaceful til about 2:30 am when somewhere above the campsite someone started blaring rap music at huge volume and it went on til about 4:30. Not much we could do about it, but surprised no-one in the community called Les Gendarmes.

The good news is whenever something unpleasant happens like that, the serendippity bunny comes to the rescue, and showed us an amazing hill town of Cordes sur Ciel. 

We drove to the centre of Cordes, below the hill town, and set off on foot up the very steep narrow cobbled road. As we ascended, there were some closed up galleries (Sunday morning at 8:30 am) and some interesting old medieval frontages.

It was quiet and peaceful, and we only expected a couple of closed up semi ruins at the top, but we began to suspect more as we entered some archways and passed a few more shops.

And much to our surprise, we found a significant medieval town at the top, with a cathedral, town square, magnificent ducal homes and a market square. The town came to life as we wandered around, with mostly tourists, but also some townsfolk, and some of the shops and galleries opened up with some surprisingly high quality art and craft works.

And of course some incredible views on the way back down.

We spent about three hours there, including the trek up and down. We both agree that it was a highlight of our trip, equaling Rocamadour and Carcassonne. Surprising that it seems to be a well kept secret on the must do list of France.

We set off northward shortly after noon, planning a bit of a drive before a picnic lunch in the van, but we soon found ourselves driving through the small town of Laguépie where there was a flower market happening. It was a bit hard to find parking nearby the popular event, but we soon managed to park and walk back into the market. We spotted some delicious looking pastry thingies stuffed with potatoes and a  goat cheese sauce... and right beside it, an artisnal local beer tent... so much for the van picnic!

and a little stroll down by the riverside...

And, later in the day, a stop at Villefranche de Rouergue. 

 quite as excting, but certainly a very interesting and unusual square of covered galleries attached to the large cathedral.

And after a rough night, but a busy and delightful day, we have found ourselves almost alone in a sweet campground alongside the Dordogne river... and they have showers!