Aigues-Mortes, Montauban and the Quercy

Time for our French roadtrip for 2014 then. Our destination this year was La Rochelle, where Joel and Francoise relocated to from Angers this spring. I was quite looking forward to visit - form what I've seen so far, La Rochelle seems to be a pretty cool place!

We did plan quite a few stop overs along the way - La Rochelle is, after all, rather far away from Nice. Our first one was Aigues Mortes (which means stagnated waters in Occitan). I've seen plenty of evocative photos of Aigues Mortes and its imposing medieval city walls, and have wanted to visit the place for quite some time. So I was quite keen to explore the place first-hand.

Our hotel was located outside the city walls, by a peaceful canal, next to a rather eccentric-seeming automobile museum. After dropping of our stuff at our room, we headed into town - we had a bit of time before dinner to walk around the place. The town walls were as impressive as the photos suggest, but alas, apart from that, the place was a little bit disappointing. It just didn't have a particularly medieval feel to it - could be partly due to the tourist hordes besieging the place...

Thankfully, we found a rather nice gastronomic restaurant called Le Particulier, just off the main square (which was filled with eating establishment feeding the tourists hordes). Everything was pretty much spot on - great service, tasty & inventive food and an atmospheric location. After a bit of Aigues Mortes by night (the city walls looked particularly enchanting after dark...), we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep to prepare for our long drive the next day (not easy, considering the dodgy mattress...).

We headed off early the next morning, hoping to avoid the inevitable traffic jams around Montpellier (plenty of Parisians pass by Montpellier to get to Spain...). We didn't entirely succeed, being stuck in pretty bad traffic for an hour or so, but thankfully once we got off the A7 and struck westwards towards Toulouse, things got considerably calmer...

We made a rather random lunch stop at Montauban, south of Toulouse. An excellent random choice! The first impression of the place is impressive (and that positive impression was confirmed later) - the view of the bastide, sat on its plateau, overlooking the Tarn river is quite stunning (the medieval bridge in the foreground adds to the effect)...

The town, built mostly in red brick (reminiscent of Toulouse), is actually the second oldest bastide in France (bastides were constructed on the order of the king during the 13th and 14th centuries in the south west of France, as a means to strengthen his hold of that part of France). We really enjoyed walking around the harmonious, well-preserved town centre - such a contrast compared to Aigues-Mortes (Montauban has managed to stick to its historic heritage, but seems at the same time to be a vibrant, modern place). We found a nice little cafe/restaurant, where we had Reuben sandwiches followed by some nice cake for desert. Pretty much the perfect lunch stop, I would say!

Our next stop was in the Quercy - a region we visited and very much liked a couple of years ago. It's very similar to the Perigord, where we are heading next, but perhaps just slightly less picturesque, and also less touristy. It's kind of how one imagines idyllic French country side - a bit to France what Tuscany is to Italy, or the Cotswolds to England, if you will.


We stopped at a ridiculously picturesque village called Lauzerte, a medieval village located on the Santiago de Compostella pilgrimage trail. It's the picture-perfect French medieval village - if it wasn't for the odd car and tourist, one could almost imagine having been transported back in time...

Our next stop was Château de Bonaguil. This part of France, apart from having amazing medieval villages, also has amazing medieval castles, and Bonaguil castle is a prime example of one. Perched on its hilltop, it could be considered to be the culmination of medieval military architecture in France (according to Wikipedia!). Not that I'm an expert in the matter - but during our visit, it was certainly easy to imagine what a daunting task storming that castle must've been. Now that's what I call a proper castle!