Places to visit: Castelnau de Montmiral

This month’s place to visit is Castelnau de Montmiral, another bastide town, of which there are many in this area. We found this pretty hilltop village while we were staying at the house that we went on to buy. (Try before you buy – great idea as it gave us the chance to see if we liked it and the area! Seemingly we did – both). We are really spoilt in this area for places to visit and this one did not disappoint.

Castelnau de Montmiral was built as a fortified village in 1222 by Raymond VII, count of Toulouse and overlooks the Vère valley and is surrounded by the Gaillac vineyards. Along with Cordes sur Ciel it was built to protect this area. The castle that was built was destroyed during the Revolution but several of the rampart gateways still exist.

The main square is very special, surrounded by houses, some half-timbered, some brick faced, some stone. There are arcades (covered walkways) under these medieval houses created by overhanging first floors supported by stone pillars. We sat a while at the café in the square, watching the gentle life of this village unfold, as well as spotting a hummingbird moth busy at a plant nearby.

The meandering streets took us past stunning architecture, beautiful houses and courtyards.

Turning a corner revealed some lovely independent shops for a moment’s browsing. We also spotted some interesting metal signs for local artisan businesses.

The Notre Dame de l’Assomption church is home to the Counts of Armaganc Reliquary Cross which is studded with 310 jewels. Some of these have been replaced with crystal as the jewels seem to have disappeared over the years!

The views down to the Vère valley and the Forêt de la Grésigne are stunning, lending an understanding to the strategic advantage of this place all those years ago.