Places to visit: Castres

There are so many fabulous places to visit in this area. This month I thought I would introduce you to Castres. Once the capital of the Tarn, before Albi took on that role, it is about an hour and 15 minutes’ drive from us and north of the Black Mountains.

We first visited Castres in February 2020, actually on Valentine’s Day, before pandemic days and lockdowns. The weather then was amazing, so we sat outside for lunch in the main square watching the world go by, little knowing that we would soon be in a very different situation. The only other time we have been to Castres was for a more serious reason, taking Minnie the cat to see a specialist vet. We plan to make another trip there to explore more, hopefully sometime this year.

Castres is situated on the River Agout, which runs through the town. It is the birthplace of Jean Jaurès, the famous socialist politician, after whom many roads and squares are named in France, including where we sat for lunch and later a cup of tea! This pedestrianised square is very grand with impressive terraced buildings on each side and a beautiful fountain at one end. When it was first constructed in the mid-1800s, there were arcades on each side. These have mainly been filled in by shops and restaurants now but one arcade remains at the river end. You can still see some of the arches over the shops, a reminder of what was there. We sat opposite a men’s clothing shop that had a first floor window in one of the arches, providing light to what looked like a workroom for alterations. A fascinating insight into the business below. The square has had a number of names during its history, the first being Place Royale. However before the square was finished it had been renamed the Place Impériale, then the Place Nationale. In 1925 the statue of Jean Jaurès was erected at opposite end of the square to the fountain and the square was once again renamed, this time as Place Jean Jaurès.

The history of Castres can be traced back to the 9^th century. Although the name comes from the Latin castrum, which means fortified place, it actually grew up around the Bénédictine Monastery of St Benoît. The abbey church of St Benoît was a significant stopping place on the one of the international pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and you can see the signs for the camino (route) near the church.

Along the river there are beautiful and colourful old houses whose basements open onto the river. These houses once belonged to the town’s tanners, weavers, parchment-makers and dyers. Access to the river allowed them to move their goods but also provided water for their trades. Castres is known as the Little Venice of the Tarn due to these picturesque houses. On a sunny day the reflections in the water are stunning.

Wandering through the streets on both sides of the river, we saw some very striking architecture. One particularly interesting building is the old swimming pool and baths, now a multi-floor bookstore (worth some browsing time). The building is quite amazing with much of its former history still visible – very art-deco in style and very well preserved.