Arrondissement de Montauban

Today we had an early start as we wanted to visit the medieval town of Cordes-sur-Ciel (Ropes to the sky) situated 21km northwest of Albi. We caught the modern local bus, which cost only 2 euro, with school children making up most of the other passengers.

As the weather was predicted to get to the low 30’s, we thought it best to climb to the top of the town early, and this turned out to be the right decision. Because it was early we only encountered a couple of people as we climbed and explored the narrow streets and lanes to reach the top, and it was still relatively cool.

Cordes-sur-Ciel is a beautiful town full of artists and lovely galleries and stores. There is a delightful chocolate and sugar museum that was fun to explore. Yves Thuries, the master chef/chocolatier who created the museum, was so talented and many of his “sugar” creations were amazing. He was a real pioneer in this area and a contemporary of other famous French chefs such as Paul Bocuse.

There is a beautiful covered marketplace in the centre of town and a lovely square with views out across the surrounding countryside. On our way up we also discovered what is left of the ramparts, which afforded us beautiful views looking south.

There were so many stores and galleries to explore and, much to Ian’s relief, I showed some restraint, although it wasn’t total. I could have gone crazy, but carrying stuff is a real pain and our bags are already heavy enough.

We had lunch at a lovely little restaurant located near the covered market, and again indulged in the local Gaillac wine. We then started our descent down, with the intention of catching the the 2.10pm bus back to Albi. Unfortunately, I had misread the timetable as this bus only ran on Wednesdays! This meant a 2 hour wait for the next bus. We found a lovely brasserie and settled into the warm afternoon sipping on rosé, well I did, Ian had American coffee (Pepsi) and Brigitte had a Belgian Coffee (a shandy) - this is what the waiter called our drinks, and mine was French coffee.

Finally, it was time to head to the bus stop and await our ride back to Albi. We were pretty tired after our early start so had a few hours to refresh before we had dinner at the hotel on the Terrace, with the best views of Albi.Read more