Exploring Aveyron

After visiting the workshop of Andre Debru Xander and I wanted to see a bit more of the Aveyron area. It was a beautiful day and we loved the scenery on the drive there so much, we thought we’d make a bit of a day of it.  Now that I have my license it’s a lot more fun for both of us (OH! Mental note, I must write my 101 List entry about that!).

Since I was driving, there weren’t a lot of photos, but  Xander did take a video!  There isn’t a lot of scenery, other than road and trees, but you do get to listen to us gabbing… if you are into that sort of thing.  Of all the amazing areas we drove through, he decides to take video on a boring tree lined stretch.  I guess he was too busy looking around otherwise?

When we stopped I did try to get photos when I could.  I had only my mobile phone with me and I had just learned about the new panorama feature so I was a little obsessed with it.  Like when we stopped at this little church and I tried about a million times to get a nice panorama photo without the wood in the fence getting completely screwed up.  Didn’t work.  I do like what happened with this one, though.  Looks a little space age, like I have some kind of holographic image of the landscape.

It was actually really cool.  The sign had all of the different towns and landmarks marked so that you knew what you were looking out at.  Otherwise, it’s just a lot of hills and tiny little specks of villages.

What a beautiful sight it was.  Like most places you visit, photos really don’t do it justice, especially when using a mobile phone that ended up in for camera repairs just a few weeks later!  Here is another panorama photo I tried to get of the view.

The Church was small and cute, on a corner that made me wince as I tried to get out of the parking spot.  I really wonder how many accidents happen on these roads. So many blind corners!  Oh, and they also love their Mary statues.   If you ever want a road trip drinking game (although I’m not sure this is the best idea!) try driving around the countryside in France and take a shot every time you see a statue of the virgin Mary.  Trust me, you’ll be blitzed in no time.

We had no real destination in mind, rather we just turned when we felt like it and saw where we ended up.  At one point we came across a sign with different things to see and Xander decided he wanted to see a Menhir that was supposed to be in the area.  We drove and drove, finally reaching the spot, only to find this…

I’m not sure how big these Menhir thingiemabobs are meant to be, but we couldn’t find the darn thing anywhere.  It looks like there should have been something on that blob of cement next to the plaque but was that it? Who knows!  When I Google them they seem pretty big, but we walked all over and couldn’t seem to find it.

Xander was not a happy camper, but I had fun looking for little mice in the ground on the path.  We had seen loads in the field at Andre Debru’s and there was no shortage here either!

There was also a nice view, which lead to even more obsessive panorama-ing!

Don’t worry, I’m sure my obsession with panorama will wear off soon.  I bet there are about six billion mice out there, judging by all the holes and how the mice were going from one to the other, I’m surprised the ground didn’t just collapse beneath us.  I’m pretty sure mice are the cause of sink holes…

We even got to see the Tarn again, which was nice.  Our little side trip to the Gorge du Tarn is still one of my favorite bits of all our trips to the south of France.  We visited because I saw Chateau de Castelbouc in one of those books on places to see before you die and I really wanted to go there and get some photos.  It was nice to see a bit of the rest of the Tarn, even just for a little bit!

We ended up going full circle in our drive and ended up back in Roquefort , which is where all of this began.  We decided to stop there for a late lunch before heading back to my in-laws place.  After looking around a bit we settled on a restaurant in a hotel, as Xander was keen to try their salad with smoked duck and Roquefort.  When in Ro…quefort and all that.

If you look closely in the photo of the restaurant, you can see the cook waving to us from the window.

Seeing as I’m a rebel and all, I went for duck wing and goat cheese.  I’m not a huge fan of Roquefort cheese unless it’s on pizza, so the salads with Roquefort didn’t appeal to me at all.  Xander, as usual, gets the best of both worlds since he gets to eat his meal and whatever is left of mine as well!  He said the Roquefort salad was better, but I’d have to disagree.  Regardless of the food, which was good anyway, I really liked the atmosphere in there.  The service was nice and it wasn’t very busy when we were there as lunch had already passed.  I really liked the cave atmosphere, which I’m sure they are counting on considering the location!

We had a nice day out exploring together but we still didn’t see even a fraction of what there was to see in the area.  We’d like to go back and properly visit some of the villages we drove through, like Saint Rome du Tarn and a few others.  I guess that’s the beauty of having family in the area.  We don’t feel like we have to fit everything in since we know we’ll be back again soon!  It just gives us things to look forward to the next time.

Only next time I’ll bring a proper camera!