In this episode of the Join Us in France podcast, hosts Annie Sargent and Elyse Rivin explore the Tarn department in Southwest France, highlighting its rich cultural and natural attractions. They discuss the region’s stunning red brick architecture, medieval villages, and notable cities such as Albi, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The episode delves into the topography of the area, with its small mountains and the beginnings of the Massif Central and the Black Mountains. Listeners will learn about the beautiful forests, the Gorges du Tarn, and the excellent hiking and biking opportunities available.
Get the podcast ads-free Elyse and Annie also share insights on must-visit towns like Cordes-sur-Ciel, Lautrec, Castres, and Gaillac, known for its wine production. The episode touches on the region’s fascinating history, including its role in the Cathar wars and its famous bastides. Additional highlights include the charming towns of Rabastens, Lisle-sur-Tarn, and the unique attractions like the Pont Suspendu in Mazamet. Whether you’re interested in outdoor activities, historical sites, or simply enjoying the picturesque landscapes, this episode provides a comprehensive guide to discovering the many treasures of the Tarn.
More episodes about the Occitanie region Table of Contents for this Episode
Today on the podcast: A Comprehensive Guide for Exploring the Tarn Podcast supporters No Magazine segment Welcome to the Tarn: A Hidden Gem in France Exploring the Natural Beauty and Topography of the Tarn Highlighting Tarn’s Must-Visit Medieval Villages and Cities Museums in Castres The Charm of Lesser-Known Towns and Their Unique AttractionsCarmaux Saint-Sulpice-la-Pointe Rabastens Lisle-sur-Tarn Giroussens Jardin des Martels Soreze and Its Attractions A Journey Through Ambialet and Castelnau de Montmiral Castelnau de Montmiral Lacaune and Its Surroundings The Gaillac Wine Country The Forests of Tarn Copyright
[Music] this is join us in France episode 494 bour I’m Annie sergeant and join us in France is the podcast where we take a conversational Journey Through the beauty culture and flavors of France today I bring you a conversation with Elise Riven of tulo guided walks about the tar Department T RN a wonderful place in France whether you’re hiking through the Gin Forest exploring the medieval Villages like C or savoring the flavors of the gak wines the tar offers a delightful Escape Into the Heart of French country living we share tips tales and insights for what I am sure will inspire your next travel Adventure this podcast is supported by donors and listeners who buy my Tours and Services including my itinerary consult service my GPS self-guided tours of Paris on the voic map app or take a day trips with me around the southwest of France in my electric car you can browse all of that at my Boutique join usinf france.com bootique patreon supporters get new episodes as soon as they are ready and ads free if that sounds good to you be like them follow the link in the show notes there will not be a magazine part of the podcast today because I am scheduling this episode early and it’ll come out when I’m leading the boot camp 2024 Edition and we’ll spend several days in the town as a matter of fact with the boot camp you’ll hear all about that soon and I’ll be back to report on how things went next Sunday [Music] today we’re chatting about the department of the tar I think it’s a treasure Trove of you know cultural things natural things you have all the red brick architecture you have some chatau you have perched Villages you have structures like the pandu in maame lots of high lots of bikes I think there’s something for everyone in the town really absolutely I took a look at a topographical map yesterday because it’s basically for those who’ve never been in this part of France it’s north and Northeast of where we are in too and it’s very interesting because it’s not that it’s it’s a kind of average siiz apartment but topographically it’s got two series of small mountains that kind of cut it east west like two folds it’s very pretty to actually see and part of that is the beginning of What’s called the black mountains and then it goes up into the very end the last northernmost part of Toran is actually the beginning of What’s called the massive s right so lots of hills Forest you have which are gorgeous so so much and we’ve done other episodes specifically about places in the town I’ll list them in the show notes because I of course I forgot to make a note of all the ones but you know it’s always a good bet to search the website for previous episodes cuz we do a lot and of course the the the most famous places that are in the Tarn are places that we have done episodes about because they are that important and one of them of course is Albi sure which is the entire old city center is a world heritage UNESCO site it’s a massive draw for a tourists and I don’t think anybody needs more information about it unless you’ve never been to the southwest of France and it is gorgeous it’s of course one of the famous brick cities on the Tarn River and it is a must right Al is a must in the southwest yeah it’s one of those it’s like going to cassan which is of course in the old but it it is something that is extremely famous and so I don’t think we need to talk too much about it because we’ve already spent time talking about it before right and we also did an episode about cordel and about which are the two cord sorer and L are in my opinion the two most spectacular and beautiful medieval Villages perched up on top of hills in the torn Department they’re not quite the same but they’re both gorgeous right in different ways yeah the lre is not quite as pery it’s not as pery but I mean yeah Hills it’s a hill it’s a hill but not as pery it’s not as per L is a bit bigger actually I think in the amount of buildings and everything it’s all beautiful well restored medieval and Renaissance houses it’s famous for being the center of the huge garlic growing area you know yeah in the summer if you drive through this region especially in August and it you won’t be hallucinating if you smell garlic as you’re driving your car yeah yeah and on the top is a windmill that actually still functions that grinds flow that grinds wheat for making flow I’m not sure that’s true I was inside it doesn’t look like it’s working well it does I think maybe in High season okay so it they can operate it it it will they they run it to demonstrate it but I don’t think they make flower there well they do but I don’t think they’re allowed to sell it when I was there with my husband they they showed how it worked but it it’s very beautiful it’s relatively big it’s very beautiful and then of course Sorel is very very famous it’s closer to Albi L is actually closer to the second biggest city in the T which is cast but court SEL is famous first of all for being the first of what is known in the southwest as the famous basid these medieval Villages that were built specifically to protect people after the war between the the French and the Qatar but uh it’s famous for having what are now basically remnants of five sets of Ram parts and it is like looking at a kind of spiral it goes up up up up up you know to the top it’s kind of impressive yeah and that one is very hilly and very hilly to be warned and it’s all Cobblestone and stone you can actually do a walk up or you can take in High season there’s this kind of little choo choo train and then will take you up yeah and the other thing I forgot to mention in my introduction was too brief is that they also have wine in T gayak is a major wine producing area so you have it’s really everything it’s everything of the things that’s interesting about the Tarn and I was for those of you out there I was just saying to Annie that it’s actually a department that I’ve visited a lot because number one it is very close it begins very close to to it begins with a Gak region and that’s what about 25 kilometers away but also there are lots of different things to see and do there so it’s a place where you can say oh if I feel like going on an Excursion for the day what you want to do you literally have a choice between visiting a beautiful Old Village visiting Vineyards doing a hike in the forest visiting a town and the three cities basically of course are Albi gak which is relatively small but it’s still considered a city and castra and I’ve just been to castra again for actually twice in the last couple of months because it’s actually very Charming I have to admit that my original opinion of it has changed since going back yes it is way better than it was what I remembered as a kid you know I think they’ve really improved the city a lot and the City Center is charming it’s absolutely charming and it has two very interesting museums one is called the Goya Museum and of course those of you out there may know that Goya was in fact a Spanish painter but it is a museum that is dedicated to his work because there was a very rich industrialist who was from Casta who had collected a lot of his work and gave it to the city of Casta when he died and so it was originally I guess just considered to be a Fine Arts Museum but they didn’t name it after the person who gave the work which I think is interesting they named it after Goya the painter and so they have a huge huge collection of his prints which are he did series of Engravings an enormous complete series of Engravings that had to do with things like war and things like that that are very famous and then a few very huge paintings of his and they’ve just redone the museum modernized Iz that it’s air conditioned on the inside it’s really nice now on the inside have you been have you seen it since they reopened yeah I was just there a few weeks ago and it’s really lovely it’s easy to go through and figure out where you are and you can even do something that’s sometimes hard to do in other museums which is sort of Backtrack on things that you want to go see again and not get yourself confused about where you are so I personally think that they did a really good job of of modernizing it on the inside very nice yeah and then there’s the small uh but very interesting Museum about Jean Jes right and we did an episode about that as well yeah who was a native son you know and of course it’s a museum that’s basically about his life and his politics but it’s very interesting and I agree with you they’ve spiffed up the old city center yeah and the river which is the auu which is actually a big tributary of the tan River cuts right through it am the houses along it are very colorful and it’s got a very very nice very small but very nice old city center yeah so I actually printed out the population by city of the town so Ali is the biggest city in the town it’s got just under 50,000 cast is second with more like 43,000 not that much yeah gayak is almost 16,000 grer which is as far as I remember it not not very interesting well it’s this is another place that’s changed a lot in the 10 years in the last 10 years so it is one of the I in in part of the show notes that I wrote I mentioned the fact that the t is very interesting because it has two or three places that are known for crafts ah and gu is one of them because it was for several centuries the center of leather work ah and so it is still where they do make beautiful like bags and gloves and things like that but not on a high mass industrial volume level so not like Mio no but it’s known for that and so what has happened is because I remember in fact about 15 years ago driving through there going oh like everything was in Rune and depressing and everything and again maybe because it’s kind of halfway between Alby and TW a lot of people have gone to places like that to live because at the time I bet they were less expensive so what they’ve done is they’ve fixed up the old medieval city center and spiffed it up and really fixed up all of that part and made a beautiful little Museum of the history of the work in leather interesting so that that’s kind of the sort of town that I think is the sweet spot for a lot of people who are looking for a place to live in France that’s not too expensive because grer has 13,000 inhabitants more or less which means it’s going to have all the services I mean it won’t have a major hospital or anything like that but it will have a little bit of everything so it’s a good place is it more populated than lavor it sure is lavor is just over almost 11,000 inhabitants that is very surprising and where my godson is establishing his new uh dental practice and lavvo which we’ve been to together is a very Charming small Brick City really yeah has a fabulous fabulous huge Market on Saturdays and has a very interesting old Cathedral called santen all made out of brick it’s one of the brick cities and has a very interesting history connected to the cathar it’s a kind of bedroom City for a lot of people who work in Todo but it’s really quite Charming yeah yeah and then almost the same population is maame which I visited recently and I thought was a cute little town I mean it’s not very big the city center but it’s fine and it’s got a Friendly Market one guy yelled at me in the church because I didn’t genuflect in front when I walk seriously yeah when I walked past the the center of the church whatever that’s called I didn’t genuflect and he was not happy with me maame is basically the beginning of the Black Mountain so it’s a good place to stop if you’re going to go and do some walking or hiking up in the mountains or in the area called the Sidra area right right that’s really for a great place for for bike rides hikes you have the Pasa pis bike ride which uh goes between man maame and somewhere in the OD near bizier it ends it used to be a railway and it’s now transformed into a bike path oh that sounds good yeah yeah and it starts in mazam well one of the ends is maame and you also have the suspended Bridge yes which is fun I went with David and he walked it I was too chicken to walk it I’ve never I’m afraid of heights I’m just afraid of heights I wonder if I would be afraid I don’t know does it move yeah it swings a little bit yeah yeah yeah but I mean it’s metal it’s perfectly safe it’s just that I’m a I’m I’m I’m afraid so I didn’t want to do it but we do you kind of take a hike up there you can park a little closer if you park as close as you can it’s not very much of a hike this is back when my knees were hurting a lot we tried to start the hike from the parking lot in the city and it was the start of it is really really Steep and I I did like 100 met and I was like okay I can’t do this my knees are going to die so then we got back in the car and drove up to another parking lot that’s a little closer and there you I mean you have a bit of a walk but when you get up to the top on the one end you’re in this cute medieval village I’ll find the details and put them in the show notes because that wasn’t interesting day and when we got there we just walked around I mean it’s a tiny little village medieval village up there and then I waited until my husband went across the bridge and back took photos of him I just I was like I’m not doing this so there you go then the next town is Kahu which is not quite 10,000 people this was a industrial town with mines coal mines there are no more coal mines there but there’s a museum there’s a museum it’s actually in what’s called kyak dein which I think is an extension of caro to be honest I’m not sure I think it’s just on the outside and that is where there is a museum that I haven’t been to that I would really love to visit because apparently the museum includes a visit to some of the tunnels so you actually see where the coal miners worked and some of the places that obviously it’s been secured because of course there were lots of dangerous things and it was of course one of the reasons that Jean Jes became very active as a politician was because this region around Caro was famous for being one of the places one of the parts of France that had a lot of minds and the conditions were abominable in the 19th century you know and now of course there are no more it’s a city that uh lives on basically its past in in that sense you know yeah so going down less than 10,000 PE inhabitants you have S La yes which I don’t know anything about it’s very pretty oh is it it’s very pretty yes and it has a ruin of a chateau which has an underground I don’t honestly don’t remember now if it was cut out to be a place for people to hide in the Early Middle Ages or if it’s just natural formations in the Rock there are certain times of the year when it’s open and you can go in and it’s kind of spooky but it’s kind of a fun thing to do huh see I I don’t recall ever going there another one that I don’t remember think about if I ever went it’s called San oh that one I don’t know yeah laugier is next which is much more of a suburb now than anything else okay so that’s 5,000 people more or less rabans now RAB I love okay I love I’ve guided there I’ve actually taken groups there rabbit stance is very interesting it’s bigger than a village it’s built right up on the river yeah it says it’s about 6,000 it gives the impression of being bigger than that see this is very what I find very interesting about some of these places it’s a town I wouldn’t call it a village it’s built up a high up above the river it has a beautiful beautiful old medieval section that’s been well restored and taken care of that’s absolutely lovely it’s built more or less as a based in other words it’s built more or less on a grid system and it has this really gorgeous Cathedral that they in the process of restoring and it has this funky Museum when I was there with a group which was maybe about a year and a half ago but I’ve been back since just to walk around there was this old lady who is probably a native of rabastan you know who was delighted to be able to chat us up you know and talk about things and it’s one of these museums that has a little bit of everything it has stuff from prehistory up through some very bad art local some local artist but it really kind of gives you an idea of of what’s going on there but it’s a Charming Charming place and honestly me who is a real big city girl if I could ever imagine living outside of too it’s a place I would go to live is that right because it feels like a nice place it feels like a nice place it’s mostly brick the older part I love the old medieval section and there’s a path because most of the city is built really high up on one side of the river and I discovered last year when my stepdaughter was here she and and a cousin of hers they had discovered that there’s a kind of beach down by the river ah and with they have little kids and you take this walk that’s about like a half a mile walk and it takes you right down under the big bridge that goes across the river there and there’s this beach I didn’t go in the water it’s still it’s running water I mean it’s not swimming full water sure but it’s a river swim but it’s a river swim and it’s also I think the other reason I love it is because there’s a road called the d18 which is a departmental road that you take from Rabbi stance and takes you through a bunch of the chat of the gak wine oh so you can go right from there to gak by going through Vineyards so it has everything for me except the fact that it doesn’t have massive public transportation right right well obviously and of course this is a sort of town that’s really Charming but if you go in the debt of the winter it’s not going to be that interesting so if you’re planning a visit it’s best to go on weekends or during school Vacations or when they have some special event going on because it is quiet much of the year of course I think some of these places are places to do like if there’s a day trip where you do three or four of them in the same day like if you’re going to visit GAA going to visit some of the Vineyards you can make a stop in a place like ravans or leoan right so that one was so after I have o which I don’t know anything about also around 5,000 people it’s it’s just under 5,000 sleepy little town it’s it’s very pretty it’s another one of these classic beds that’s built on a grid system and still has maintained a lot of the old Medieval houses it’s a nice place to do a short stop you can get something to eat there’s actually a little chocolate Museum there of all things is there yeah there’s a chocolate maker who decided that I maybe I don’t know I’m conjecturing that he wasn’t making enough money selling his chocolate so he decided to turn his chocolate into sculpture and so now he makes money because people come in groups to go see the sculptures he’s made out of chocolate well that’s fun that’s fun but it’s also a place I’ve been through there on a Saturday it’s another one there are lots of towns that have Saturday markets and they it fills up the huge Square the Central Square is famous for being very big it’s got galleries that are covered galleries all the way around it but it tends to be one there that it’s mostly local producers do you have zero sounds on the list I don’t the next two are Lura which I don’t know with about just under 5,000 and then Sykes sex s AI with a tria and an X which I know nothing about just under 4,000 and that’s all my list has well there’s another town that’s very close to which means it’s basically between guier and la so it’s about 35 kilomet from tus and I was again just there because we went to visit one of the other things that you have in the TN which is they have some very beautiful what are called remarkable Gardens yeah and one of them is the jardan de Martel which is a private one we were just there two weekends ago it’s very beautiful I think it’s about 5 hectar I’m not sure I think that’s about it it’s a a horiculture center that was been turned into a beautiful landscape private garden with a part of it that’s got pagodas part of it that’s got a mini farm with animals and it has a huge like most of these Gardens every time of the year there are different things in bloom so sure we were there with the aelas and the red dendrum and unfortunately I think if I went back this weekend I’d see most of the Roses is a huge part that’s Rose Garden that was you could see the flowers were just about to open budding and it was like I wish you were open now but it’s very lovely and I even bought a couple of plants there you can do that they have a little cafe and they also sell plants that they grow there that is technically in ziros which is really close to Lavar but ziros sance is famous for its Ceramics aha it’s a town that’s perched up on top of a big hill and it’s been famous for Ceramics for almost 500 years and now there’s a ceramic Center there that I’ve been to two shows there it’s free to go in beautiful Ceramics by different artists different Artisans and it’s famous and every year people come from all over Europe to show their work there and like gr it’s very interesting because it it it’s uh there at Ceramics you have leather Ceramics it’s very interesting because they’re very close together and it’s the kind of thing if you go to stop and lavore if you’re interested in Ceramics it’s a wonderful place to stop and there are a couple of restaurants where you can just get a bite to eat so it’s very small but the ceramic Center is really wonderful huh I see I never heard of it so and it it’s very close to lavor we did that and we did the Jan de marel in the same day and it was very nice so you had made a list that we haven’t gotten to yet shall we get back to your list sure well we’ve talked about all the towns and pretty much all of the towns and Villages except for sorz you didn’t mention sorz which is kind of I don’t know whether it’s considered to be a village or a town it’s got to have le fewer than 5,000 people because it’s not in my list it probably does it’s small but I’m not sure how small to be honest but it’s also very pretty and it is famous for the school there that was once a big military school that is now the do Museum of tapestry it used to be a royal college and part of it is visitable as a museum you can we walk through the entire building which is quite big and you can see the history of what was considered to be a royal college and then they have pictures or names of the various people through the last few centuries who have gone there including a couple of people like pop singers who won’t admit to the fact that they grew up in a military family and stuff like that because oh like Hugo F who is now very old but who apparently went through his entire scholar and this military school but it’s very interesting to see he’s a hippie he’s a hippie right he’s a hippie he left the school he went I’m going somewhere else I’m going to push my I’m going let my hair go and it it’s been turned half of it’s turned into a tapestry Museum there was this monk named Dom Rober who became an fabulous tapestry artist I don’t remember the story of how that happened but anyway it’s got an exhibit of his work and and it’s absolutely gorgeous and there’s also in this very small town got a glass Museum that’s weird for I mean like SZ I’ve barely heard about it how can there be all these things there I I don’t know they’re just are you know and it’s also this is what you do you listen to join us in France so we tell you about all these places that you’ve never heard of basically it’s very close to the road that takes you up into the the black mountains it’s very much on the edge of the mountains and the forest there one of the times I was there I don’t the Glass Museum obviously is only open I think at high seas and maybe on weekends or certain times of the year but it’s small but it talks about this is how I found out the whole thing about what they’re called the gentleman glass makers that were the Protestants that went to hide in the forest during the war of religion and wound up becoming glass makers they have a whole history of that and a collection of these very cute little old pieces of glass it’s kind of nice it’s just I don’t remember even paying anything I don’t know if I had to pay anything to go into it maybe a EUR or two but both of those things are in sorz which is really very very pretty actually sounds like I should check it out someday yeah you should check it someday right and then of course you know Wine Country we know we we’re in gak Wine Country wait wait wait before you move on we didn’t mentioned Elle oh Elle okay Elle is a place I would never have known about except that my husband this is already going back a couple of years one day said we’re going to amb and I went you know I was like why yeah why it’s just beyond Albi so it’s really not something that you would know about unless you’re in the Albi area people in Albi know a lot about it it’s known for two reasons it’s a tiny little medieval town that has uh a beautiful Abbey that’s still more oress intact but it’s down the region right around Alby is hilly you know I mean if you go in One Direction you go towards cord and you keep going up and up and up well this is a part where you go down and it’s this road that takes you down to the very bottom of the valley and ambiel is famous for being on the tightest Meander of the Tarn River it’s like a teeny almost little Peninsula kind of thing and half of the village is on one side and half of the village is on the other and there are these little hikes and bike rides and so it’s really something that’s more known by the people around Albi than anything else but I have to admit that I have a booklet at home about the Tarn and they talk about it in the booklet and they mention the fact that if you want to do some interesting biking and Hiking it’s a place that you can go to for that go to and then the last one you mentioned here is cast de yes yeah I don’t think I don’t I know this one well yes you do but you don’t realize you know it oh okay it’s on the road when you’re in gak one of the roads that takes you to cord you have two roads that will take you up towards cord one that veers off a little bit to the Northeast and then the other that goes a little bit towards the Northwest that will eventually take you to prel and Pen which we’ve podcasted about precel and Ben yeah right and we’re not talking about them because they’re technically not in the department of the darn you know they’re just a little bit further up but castl no is the first of the medieval Villages that you come to before on the same road if you keep going Winding Road you keep going up oh and it’s about SE I remember now I’ve been with a beautiful Central open Square and Galleries and the guy that was at the tourist office was pleasant to look at ah oh I wasn’t there that day yes I remember that yes it’s also interestingly because I now know personally two people who live there it is a village that is more than half English-speaking people now so much so that the local elementary school had to adjust I don’t know how they did this because obviously it’s a public elementary school in France but they because it’s not just retired people but younger families that are from the UK that moved into the area that they had to make some kind of language adjustments in terms of the school but it is famous for being one of the first of the beautiful bases that you go up that area yeah and they’re famous for their pilori that’s is just right off of the main Square the main square is cute no it’s I I totally remember it now yeah yeah and we’ve even talked about it on the podcast and laon laon yeah so laon is really in the black mountains it’s really almost the extreme edge of the Tarn you mean the north Edge yes the north North Northeast I’m pretty sure it’s there’s Mount laon which is right there it’s really in the middle of the the mountains on the forest and it’s a place that people go if they want to go hiking up Mount loone but it’s also famous thanks I know this for my husband not me for its shakery aha they’re famous famous for the quality of their shaku there oh I wonder if my dad worked there cuz he he did a lot of work in the black mountains installing industrial lines for the shaku makers I bet he did yeah he might have possible I bet he did yeah interesting and it’s on this famous auu which I don’t know if they the locals pronounce it auu or aut because we’re in the Tarn I think it’s auu but who knows the Tarn is a very big river which empties into the garan just before it arrives in Bordeaux I mean it’s a very big big big river but the goo is actually relatively big as well and it’s the big tributory I’m not sure exactly where but it’s somewhere close to Albi that it becomes part of the Tarn but this is laon is like laor is actually on the auu it’s not on the Tarn directly as a river interesting so I interrupted you you were about to talk about the wine which just going to say that yeah for those who are interested in wine I’m sure many of you have visited lots of the wine regions in France and of course there are many but if you come to this area here around too it’s really worthwhile to visit the wineries in gak they’re really interesting wines it’s a small region compared to the bordeau to the burgundies and all of that but personally I really like them a lot and it’s a very old historic wine growing area and it’s very interesting because it’s just about halfway between Albi and too yes so last year for the boot camp we had a visit at the chatau D and of course that name is very common there’s also shat in the OD which is a ruin Kar ruin this is not what I’m talking about here this is the winery near gayak and this year we’re going to a different one and can’t remember the name of it but we’re going to a different winery near gayak kind of a small family very very small familyowned this time but there’s a bunch of them and in the city center of gayak which it’s not really a city it’s a village well it’s a big Village they have a kind of a wine Discovery store so you can go and you can taste wines from different producers and you can arrange for wine tastings and things like that and I tried to arrange that for one of the boot camps but the lady wasn’t very responsive and so I just gave up but it’s probably a fine thing to do cuz when I stopped they had a big group of French people who were enjoying tasting there so why not who knows but you know sometimes they just don’t have somebody available who’s going to be able to do it in English and that’s why they don’t really want to do it you never know you never know yeah it is a a very nice place right by the river in uh gayak which is a cute little town it’s cute it’s Another Brick Town in the it’s it’s very much Another Brick town and with a good train so that’s one where you can get two on the train and then walk around and enjoy the winery I mean the wine store and if you go on Market day it’s cute you know yeah exactly and then the other thing that we mentioned very as a really at the beginning but it is really there are two forests that are really wonderful in the Tarn I mean the forests don’t end exactly I guess when the lines of the Tarn Department end you know I mean you know it’s not like you oh I have to stop my trees can’t grow anymore you know this is the other far but one of them which is very close to cast de is the very wonderful beautiful Forest of GRA which was for centuries Royal Forest filled with these beautiful oak trees that were used used and made into the ships for the king for the royal family and you know the story of Royal Forest is such that if you were caught as a peasant cutting down a tree you could get executed for that you know the trees belonged to the king everything in the forest belonged to the king however now you can hike I’ve done this uh they won’t kill you they won’t kill you you can even pick up a few of the leaves and dead branches and nobody’s going to bother you it’s a gorgeous mixed Forest it’s you know not just Oak but it’s very very big and there are lots of trails lots of hiking trails lots of I think people who have you know VT who really are adventurous can do some of that too it’s a bit up and down it’s not particularly flat it’s very close to some of the medieval Villages and it has a couple of parking lots so you can come in from a couple of different sides and walk around there and the part that I know about the entrance lot I’ve been to is close to what is actually a Horticultural Center where they do experiments with making new varieties of apples and pears interesting I was only there once at a time of the year when they actually had stuff available because you know just show me an apple and I’m a goner you like them yeah I like them you know but other times of the year it’s they don’t have it really open to the public but it’s very interesting to know that that’s one of the things that they do there they have this experimental station and then the other which I’ve been to several times is the do yes that one’s that one I’ve been to and they have these beautiful little well not even little big big big boulders very round beautiful shapes yeah this is the equivalent in the south of parts of Fontan Blau in the north it’s a forest of granite and according to what I was reading yesterday it’s one of the areas that has the most Granite which is left from the last ice age these huge Boulders that are Granite because a lot of the the stone around here is either Limestone or Sandstone or things like that I don’t understand why this place is granite and the others aren’t I’m really don’t but what you have is these incredible formations you know with Boulders that are one on top of the other or next to each other and so it’s become an enormous hiking area it’s in the middle of the forest there it’s very well marked and you can find your way through the trails and then there are some signs that indicate you know maybe there’s fantasy names for things and stuff like that but it’s kind of a fun place to go with kids yeah yeah that’s for kids it’s great because you have easy paths and easy walks to something interesting and you can climb the Rocks I mean this is a place you know you can scramble I think that’s the right word you know you can go up and down on these Boulders and it’s really quite impressive to see I have to admit the last time I was there was in the fall I don’t think it was this year I think it was maybe last year with my husband and it had rained GED a b a few days before and I was a little prissy I didn’t really want to go it’s muddy it gets a little wet and muddy and then lots of fallen leaves and stuff like that but it’s wonderful wonderful in the summertime especially if it’s been hot out and you go into this forest and it’s refreshing yeah is it on a hot day it’s lovely yeah so those are two really great farest there’s a lot of hiking and biking in these different places oh and I should mention that if you want very granular details about hiking and biking you need to know about the kamut k m o o t it’s a webs I think it’s an American site but French people use it a lot and they create kind of destination so they Mark the path and they will tell you okay to do this you park here and it’s well marked or it’s not well marked you have this restaurant or this and that along the way and you can decide if you want you know how challenging you want it to be if you want it to be a loop or not kamut is very very helpful to find bike rides and Hiking paths in France oh good to know very good to know there’s the Cascades of the Arafat that my husband wanted us to go not Arafat arifat it sounded like you were talking about a Palestinian leader yes that’s true that’s true that’s true my husband was there a long time ago and he said it’s these beautiful waterfalls and everything but what I was reading about it made it sound like it’s a kind of place to go when it’s a bit dry because otherwise it probably be very slippery I don’t know it looked very pretty the pictures I saw of it look very very beautiful but I’ve never been there so I don’t really know yeah yeah I haven’t either I mean let’s face it you have Villages you have Vineyards you have Forest you have I don’t know there just about everything you want yeah it’s just a one of those places where it’s fun to go for a week or two if you want to take it easy this is not for people who want to go from Museum to museum to museum this is more for people who want a relaxing vacation take a bike ride take a hike perhaps go swimming you know just easy things like that and especially very very good for people with kids because kids do love a good you know they don’t want it too long too arduous but they would they love to do something a little bit every day and there’s plenty that you can do every day in the town and there are people who decide to spend a few days staying in Ali I’ve met people like that who you know not just people who stay in t you can stay in Alby you can rent an apartment or a Jeet in one of the villages that’s in the central part of tar and then you can go and do lots of different visits and you can spend the time in history part and you can spend time in the nature part and interestingly enough I find it in that the fact that it has two or three villages that are concentrated on crafts which you don’t find all the time in France you know so you really have something for everybody and we have this all listed in the show notes for this episode because you know we like to chat so this is a conversation but if you want to see it written down it’s all in the show notes for this episode thank you so much Elise that was a very fun conversation and again you told me about places I didn’t know even though they’re right next to me oh but you know so many things Annie yes I know so many things yes mer bye the join us in France travel podcast is written hosted and produced by Annie sgent and copyright 2024 by addicted to France it is released under a creative comment attribution non-commercial no derivatives license [Music] mon [Music] one [Music] [Music] another pap [Music]