This is a story I filed for Postmedia a few years ago. Air Canada on June 1 will begin direct flights from Montreal to Toulouse, a large city in the lovely Occitanie Region of Franc.
CIRQUE DE GAVARNIE, FRANCE – My tour guide is whipping along a narrow mountain road that overlooks a steep canyon at what seems like Formula One speeds. There’s only the bare minimum of a guard rail on my right, and we’re close enough to the car in front of us that I’m pretty sure I can see what radio station the driver is listening to.
Suddenly we swoop around a corner and it’s right there; a massive, grey, craggy circle of stone and ancient rock rising up at the end of a deep green valley. There are jagged edges and smoothly worn bowls and patches of snow in shady pockets in mid-summer. Just for good measure, there’s also a wide ribbon of water spilling down the left side of the rock and falling hundreds of meters toward the valley floor; one of the prettiest waterfalls I’ve seen and also the highest in mainland France at an impressive 422 meters.
I’d seen pictures of this area of the Pyrenees mountains in southwest France, but the size and majesty had escaped me, as can often happen when one peers at miniature photos on an electronic computer screen to try to get a sense of such a wide and thoroughly impressive world. I forget all about the cars on the road and my speedy ride and fix my slack-jawed gaze at the mountains rising in front of me.
The Cirque de Gavarnie is a majestic spot in the French Pyrenees. Pierre Meyer Photo supplied by Occitanie Tourism and Atout France.
A few minutes later we park our car in a small lot set among an alpine village filled with old stone buildings and a sizeable number of visitors and set out on a two-hour walk, which is sadly all the time I have to check out the area. We walk an easy trail alongside a grey river of cool mountain water, with kids splashing about and folks sunning themselves on rocks. We admire small farms dotted with pasture land and rolls of hay and clamber up a wooded trail before reaching a wide meadow filled with deep green grass and pale lavender wildflowers. I’m very much a sun and beach person, but something about being around mountains like this is more enthralling, more deeply emotional. Walking along the sand at sunset is romantic, but hiking among ancient, folded, spindled and towering mountains that pierce the sky are more akin to a religious experience.
We hop back in the car and head down the hill to the small, pretty town of Luz Saint-Saveur, where we watch bungee jumpers dive off a bridge over a deep mountain valley. We also take a dip in the warm waters of a thermal bath made popular by Napoleon III.
Even better is a brief visit the next morning to the tiny, hillside village of Saint-Savin. It’s not on the main road into the Gavarnie region, so it’s a place most tourists never see. I’m only there for a few minutes but I find the old church enchanting, with an organ that reportedly dates to the mid 1500’s. Even better is the old timber home across the street and the wooden arcades along the main street, where I spot perhaps four people on a still, quiet Thursday in August.
The village of Saint-Cira-Lapopie in France. JIM BYERS PHOTO
The Aquitaine region of France is sprinkled with dozens of other hilltop towns, many of them packed with tourists in summer. Saint-Cirq-Lapopie is a beautiful village that spills and tumbles down a hillside overlooking the Lot River, offering tremendous views and narrow streets packed with restaurants and shops. Much larger but still charming is Cordes-sur-Ciel, northeast of Toulouse.
One of the major attractions in the area is the city of Lourdes, where I watch thousands of religious pilgrims wait in line to see the site where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared before a young French girl.
More than six million visitors a year from more than 140 countries visit the city, which they say has more hotel rooms than any city in France outside of Paris. I spot folks from around the world praying at the various shrines or shopping for Virgin Mary figurines and holy water from the town.
On my way to the city of Cahors I stop for a chat and a few sips of wine at Chateau de Cedre. Co-owner Pascal Verhaeghe explains how it’s an organic winery that grows mostly Malbec grapes, used to make the famous black wines of Cahors with their deep, dark colours and full-bodied, spicy flavours.
The Pont Velentre in Cahors, France. JIM BYERS PHOTO
From there it’s on to the city of Cahors, a lovely spot on the Lot River with a Romanesque/Gothic Cathedral with a classic, lovely cloister and a very Instragram-worthy, medieval bridge called the Pont Valentre.
“The bridge was built as a means of defence but it was never used to defend the town,” my tour guide, Virginie Seguin, tells me with a laugh. “We’re very good at things like that.”
I love her sense of humour and admire the town and the river, which is popular with canoeists and kayakers. The area also attracts cyclists, wine enthusiasts and foodies who admire the fresh meats and wide variety of local cheeses.
For more info:
http://www.tourisme-occitanie.com/, http://www.tourisme-lot.com/, http://www.tourisme-hautes-pyrenees.com/, http://www.tourisme-tarn.com/
