We are staying in the south of France in the département of Tarn-et-Garonne which is part of the region called Midi-Pyrenees. It is a region of rolling farmlands and bastide towns. Bastide towns are fortified villages built in the 13th and 14th centuries in the Southwest of France for purposes of colonizing the wilderness and allowing the land owner to extract taxes from the new inhabitants and farmers. Nearly 700 bastides were built between 1222 (Cordes-sur-Ciel, photo below) and 1372.
Cordes-sur-Ciel
Many of these villages are now classified amongst the 152 Most Beautiful Villages in France (Les Plus Beaux Villages de France), an ingenious designation which brings tourist revenue to these picturesque little settlements, which might otherwise be on the verge of dying out.
Two of the Beautiful Villages: Najac and Cordes-sur-Ciel
Najac and Albi, a large town with an impressive brick cathedral from 1282
Albi on the river Tarn
We've spent our weekends visiting some of these lovely villages but there are tons of them and one can easily get "cute, little village fatigue". So we've limited the number of bastide towns we've visited and tried to take lots of back roads to see the countryside. Though we can often say of the landscape, "This is pretty," we don't have the feeling that this area is one in which we'd like to settle down...which is why on Wednesday we are moving south - closer to the Pyrenees.
Natural granite boulder sculptures of the Sidobre
