Our recent trips out have been on the motorbike and we’ve ticked off another two of the ‘Plus beaux villages’ from our ‘virtual’ sticker book and these are probably our favourites to date. Travelling on the bike means we can get right up into the centre of these hillside towns without worrying about parking, as you might have to with a car.
Puycelsi
The first village, Puycelsi, about 30 kms to the west is one we passed on another day out and were intrigued enough to go back. It’s a medieval walled village perched right on top of a large rocky hill and surrounded by the Grésigne forest. The village is encircled by rampart walls with former prison towers and arrow slits built into them, as well as open areas where events such as jousting apparently took place. A walk around the ramparts gives you a stunning 360 degree panorama of the surrounding countryside.
Inside the walls the village has beautiful stone, half-timbered and wattle and daub houses, most of which have been restored over the last 70 years. The church was also a surprise, with bright lapis lazuli blue ceilings – part of an ongoing restoration.
The other surprise was how few visitors and tourists (whether French or other nationalities) there were in the town, given the number we’ve seen at other similarly classed villages. There are about 3 or 4 restaurants and only a few other shops with an absence of the artisan craft shops you usually see. Perhaps those are the draw for tourists, but it gave this village a much more authentic feel. Although we hadn’t planned to, we decided to have lunch at one of the restaurants. Our meal was enlivened by an accordion player and some impromptu dancing by some of the lady diners!
Najac
Another ride out took us about the same distance to the east of Saint Antonin, to Najac. We saw this amazing hilltop castle last year but didn’t get up into the village as we were in a car, so it’s been on a list to go back and see. Our route there took us via villages of Laguépie and Saint-André-de-Najac and we arrived at the top of the village from the east, with its key features hidden from view at that point. The village is set along a ridge above a bend in the Aveyron River Our first view was of the main esplanade surrounded by half-timbered houses and shops – no doubt the site of the market on market day.
From there we started to wander down the cobbled village streets from where we got our first glimpse of the amazing Château de Najac, built in 1253. It’s what we would all recognise as a ‘real’ castle. Similar to Puycelsi, the town has a few shops and restaurants but is not overwhelmed by them. When we left the town later, more views of the castle were at every turn as we made our way down to the river.
A different route back took us through more picturesque villages including Espinas which is known for its annual display of traditional hay-making and harvesting techniques (fenaison) when hay is harvested in the middle of August. We had missed the event by about a week but there was evidence in the fields of a Covid-19 year not having dampened their spirits!
