After the original single room and chapel were built a round lookout tower was added to give a 360° vision over the countryside. As you can see from the photo below this tower was eventually dwarfed as the castle was extended
Exit from stairs to top of the tower | Standing on top of the tower Top of the tower well below roof level |
Our view from the top of the tower was marred by the poor visibility but even so I think we would have spotted an advancing army. The tower is equipped with gargoyles to shed the rain water.
The latest owner has done well in restoring lots of the older building and his tops to the tower don’t look out of place.
The castle even looks down onto the village church it stands so tall. The church tower is not a ruin, they were built like that with just a wall and not a tower with the bells hung in openings in the wall so the sound travelled in all directions.
Today you can get married in the castle or even hire it for a family holiday, it boasts a swimming pool but we didn’t see that or a modern kitchen, but then we couldn’t visit the south end. The guide who showed us round lives in rather grand buildings in the grounds
Following our visit we made out way back down the hill that the castle is perched on and went to Valence where there is a rather splendid communal laundry. There are several of these in France but this one with three pools and circular in construction is outstanding.
We didn’t spend long there before heading on to the old town of Auvillar,
We entered the towm via the old town gate, it was here that we would see the first pilgrim on a small shelf, high on the wall, these are all over the town.
The Town Gate | Some pilgrims were much simpler than others. We were to see lots of people walking the Pilgrim Trail | A more ornate Pilgrim |
The town has been greatly restored and preserved as the bricks have eroded badly in places.
The town is one of the few that can boast of still having a corn exchange right in the middle. This is a round building with a central island where the grain was weighed out in a tipping metal drum. Each segment of the building traded a different grain.
A lot of the houses are of the timber frame construction with the first floor covering a greater area than the ground floor
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Like lots of the towns it stands on a hill and the view out over the river Garonne was quite spectacular looking down on one of the bridges crossing the river. We would
By the time we had got back to the Barge the cloud had lifted and the sun was out so we were able to enjoy lunch on the top deck, it wasn’t to hot so we didn’t require the umbrellas while we ate. As usual Dominique our chef came and described the meal to us.
Our destination for the night was Moissac, here the canal passes right through the centre of the town hemmed in by walls each side. A low bridge crosses the canal
We didn’t moor on the canal but took a very sharp right turn to drop through a staircase lock onto the river Tarn, from here we went upstream a couple of miles so that guests could try steering the Barge on open water.
To see Wednesdays adventures please click HERE
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