Mini road trip to La Rochelle

Time to leave Barcelona, after a couple of wonderful days spent with our great hosts. Time to hit the road, then, destination La Rochelle. The plan was to stop over near Toulouse for the night, but we had a bit of time to kill before then, so we decided to explore Catalunia a bit before heading back to France.

We started by the medieval village of Besalu. It's one of those places (that thankfully still exist) that seems to be stuck in time - kind of exactly how one would imagine a medieval European city. A bit like a smaller, and less touristy version of Girona, if you will. The location is rather stunning, surrounded by the volcanic landscape of La Garotxa. The entry into the village takes visitors across Fluvia river along a beautiful 12th century bridge. The village itself is very picturesque indeed, with medieval cobblestone streets lined up with medieval houses criss-crossing the town. This being a weekday, not many tourists to be seen either...

We carried on our Catalunya tour with a visit of Figueras. The main draw of this decent-sized town is, of course, the Salvador Dali museum. Neither of us is really a huge fan of Mr. Dali, but we decided to pay the museum a visit anyway. I must say the visit didn't really change my opinion of the man nor his art, but it has to be said that the museum is really made in the image of Dali's art - so hats off for that. So it's a bit more than "just a museum". It sort of reminded me of the Ghibli museu we visited in Tokyo in that sense - except that I'm a big fan of the Ghibli films.

We stayed the night in a nice little hamlet north of Toulouse called Parisot, at a lovely country home that a Parisian couple (who decided to retire from their stressful jobs in Paris and become hoteliers in the French countryside!) had converted to rather charming BnB accommodation. For dinner, we decided to head into Gaillac, the nearest decent-sized town, for dinner at the fanciest place in town (tonight was, after all, valentine's day).

The next day, we decided to take our time driving towards La Rochelle. This part of France is famous for its bastides (fortified villages which were built under Royal authority during the middle ages), so we decided to visit a few of them. Our first stop was Lisle-sur-Tarn, a very picturesque little village located between Parisot and Gaillac (where we had dinner the night before).

Even prettier was Castelnau-de-Montmiral. It's one of the more famous bastides in the region, and quite rightly so, the place is pretty much your perfect French medieval village - perched n a hilltop, surrounded by rolling, hilly countryside (almost reminiscent of Tuscany). The village itself is superbly preserved, with cobblestone streets lining up beautiful, well-restored medieval houses. So if you need to visit just one bastide near Toulouse, you wouldn't do wrong choosing this one!

The last bastide on this visit was Bruniquel, as we were leaving Bastide country and approaching the motorway. Bruniquel is perhaps a bit less picturesque and smaller than the other places we went to as far as the village itself is concerned - but the main draw here is an impressive medieval castle that dramatically overlooks the river in the valley below. Talk about a dramatic place to place a castle! Unsurprisingly, several films have used the castle as a location.

Before arriving at La Rochelle, we decided to do one last stopover. Bordeaux, and the surrounding wine country, is quite conveniently located a couple of hours from La Rochelle, so we decided to pay a visit to Saint-Emillion, one of the more famous wine-producing towns in the region.  There is plenty more to Saint-Emillion than its wines, though, as it's a very picturesque town indeed, with its impressive cathedral perched above the medieval town, watching over its citizens. Needless to say, the surrounding countryside with its vineyards make for a pretty much perfect setting. So the perfect place for a coffee and a quick stroll around, before finishing a long drive.

Quite a rewarding little road trip, all in all!