Offbeat Occitanie towns in South West France

France has so much to see for the tourist that wants to go beyond Paris and Antibes and the regular touristic locations. Going beyond takes you to see those hidden parts that most people don’t really visit.

For example, the Occitanie region is in the South West of France and is famous for many medieval villages and castles. But it’s also filled with some amazing small towns and villages that are usually off radar.

I’ve had the opportunity to visit Aveyron and Lozère in the Occitanie region of France. No, it’s not the famous L’Occitane en Provence, the world-famous producers of parfums and beauty products that come from that region. Although I wish I had had enough time to visit their factory too. Would have got me some amazing perfume, the only one I got to visit was the Parfumerie in Grasse.

The Occitanie is an administrative region in France that’s about 6 to 7 hours drive from the French Riviera towns of Nice, Menton, Antibes, Cannes, and others. It was created by the amalgamation of the earlier regions of the Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon on 1^st January 2016 when I was there. Well, we was just leaving on way to Nice, but same difference. 😉

SMALL TOWNS IN LOZÈRE, OCCITANIE
Saint Énimie
Quezac
Ispagnac
SLOW TRAVEL AVEYRON, OCCITANIE
Eglise Russe & Sylvanes Abbey
Château de Montaigut
Le Village de Salmonac
Viaduc de Millau

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SMALL TOWNS IN LOZÈRE, OCCITANIE

Lozère is an Occitanie department that was earlier part of the Languedoc region. It covers four mountain ranges and a few rivers, the main one being the River Tarn that starts in Mount Lozère. Part of the Cévennes National Park is in Lozère, while the rest of it is in Aveyron, Ardeche and Gard. The famous winter skiing destination Mont Lozère is also here, being the highest peak in the area at an elevation of 1699 metres.

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Saint Énimie

Near Saint Énimie in the Lozère region of Occitanie, is La Source de Burle, a spring of water in the Gorges du Tarn quite close to the Cevennes National Park.

This famous water source was supposedly a cure for leprosy found by Saint Énimie, the pious and chaste princess and daughter of the King of Franks.

It appears that Saint Énimie did not want to marry her suitor, but wanted to devote her life to caring for the poor. So she was granted leprosy, and whenever she was away from this region she was leprous. But every time she came back to La Source de Burle she was made clean.

So she was finally allowed to live here taking care of the poor and soon started a convent near Saint Énimie.

The water here from La Source de Burle is such a gorgeous blue, it’s so and clear and tastes amazing too. Yeah, there are steps going down to the water so you can drink from it.

There are a number of small hotels, bed and breakfasts, and camping and rafting sites situated along the river nearby that can be visited for stays of hours, days, or weeks.

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Quezac

Saint Énimie was almost as amazing as the home of the Quezac water springs, natural iron-filled water that is bottled here in the Cevennes in the village of Quezac near Ispagnac, and reaches all over Europe. So famous and so quietly hidden from the world. Perfect!

The village of Quezac is the home of these famous water springs whose history dates back to the Celts who established villages on the banks of the River Tarn around 500 BC and believed the bubbling mineral water to be sacred.

Later the village of Ispagnac was founded nearby in 50 BC by Hispanus, one of Caesar’s legionnaires who naturally named the village after himself. A statue of the virgin in black wood found in a field in the middle ages turned the Quézac area into a site for pilgrimage. The mid-nineteenth century saw cholera being treated by this mineral water.

And soon the sparkling water sources were purchased by a number of different owners over time. The waters that were once trademarked by Perrier Vittel, then Nestle and are now owned by a group called OEGU. The factory can be visited for a tour for hardly 4€.

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Ispagnac

And finally reaching that town that’s hidden in the hills, Ispagnac. This quaint town is almost like a stroll back in time! Ispagnac is a small sheep farming town that people hardly visit, with a handful of stores and a few holiday homes. It’s gorgeous.

The holiday home for rent was quite close to the Cimetière Communal D’Ispagnac. I think that was the name of the cemetery. I didn’t realise it was there till Christmas Day when I was looking out of the window after breakfast and saw the graves. Talk about morbid. But everyone else seemed to know they were there, and it actually felt very normal.

The village church is a 15-minute walk away, and should be visited. We visited and stood behind while the Christmas mass was on.

And there was another church nearby that we visited the next morning, but it was closed. It’s always lovely to visit these quaint and simple old churches reminding you of how simple life can really be.

I thought I had taken pics of the church, but I can’t find them. As for the other places. Well, it was Christmas. I didn’t think of carrying my phone or camera while roaming around. Oops! The only time I remembered to take a pic was just before leaving, but that’s just a pic of the holiday rental homes and parking lot.

Ispagnac is also the perfect staging area if you want to go hiking in the nearby Cevennes National Park, or spend a day at a sheep farm, or just do nothing. I loved it!

While walking back to the village, we pass walnut farms and pumpkin farms with the pumpkins so huge, I’d never be able to carry them alone.

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SLOW TRAVEL IN AVEYRON

Aveyron is another department in the French region of Occitanie that has deep gorges carved by the River Tarn. Boasting a number of Castles, Chateaus, Abbeys, Caves, and stunning scenery, it’s also a great place to go hiking and climbing. There’s so much to see!

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Eglisse Russe and Sylvanes Abbey

At some distance from Millau in Aveyron is the Sylvanes Abbey that is now a cultural centre famous for international music concerts.

About 15 minutes away from it is L’Eglisse Russe, a beautiful wooden church constructed in the middle of the forest on a hilltop as a symbol of co-operation between the French and the Russian cultures. The solitude makes it even more striking.

The church was actually built in Russia, then taken apart and put back together here in France.

And then there are the not-so-off-the-beaten-track locations in France that we visited. But they felt like a must-visit to me. If you get a chance, try to visit them, even if it’s just to say you did 😉

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Château de Montaigut

And how can I forget the Château de Montaigut? It sounds so much like the Montague from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. This 10th-century castle is perfectly placed on the edge of a hill.

Ah, right! I shouldn’t say castle. I should say Château, because it’s not big enough to be a castle. But it’s lovely. It’s actually a small medieval castle built in the 10th century on a middle-age Merovingian necropolis from the 7th century.

Over the years the castle was reinforced to protect the city of Saint Affrique from attacks from the South. After passing through several hands over the centuries, the Château de Montaigut fell to ruin in the 1920’s till it was rescued by l’Association des Amis du Château de Montaigut with help from L’Union Rempart.

Visits cost a handful of Euros with or without the guided tours, and one can see the rooms and also the old Merovingian rock-cut graves.

There are a number of graves on the outside that make it a sombre place with the setting sun. On the left as you exit the castle, is a display of carriages and equipment used in ages past.

After that is a display in an old two-story house with exits at both ends, the ground floor with the home on the ground floor and stable equipment on the top floor. There is also a push-button recorder that tells you about what country life was like in Aveyron back in 1914.

Different bits of the house light up when the guy in the recorder is describing them. The recording in French was at least 20 minutes long and with my basic French, I couldn’t understand much.

There are a number of walking trails around the Château de Montaigut with different levels of difficulty. Of course, I don’t go off on those trails this evening. I hang around outside the farmer’s cottage taking in the surroundings while my friend was listening to the lengthy audio in French inside.

I watched the beginnings of a picture-perfect sunset. The pinks, purples, and oranges were beautiful! Tried to take a few pics like the one above, but they didn’t do justice. So I just went back to watching the sunset quietly.

There are dorms and rooms available for stay at the Château de Montaigut in their erstwhile Presbytery. They also rent out some rooms in the Castle for events and celebrations. Would be a lovely place for a wedding. We’d probably have invisible Merovingian attendees from the 7th Century as well. 😉

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Le Village de Salmonac

There’s a small village called Salmonac in La Commune de Vabres LAbbaye that lights up every Christmas. Visitors from neighboring towns come just to walk around and see the lights that are crafted into the shapes of reindeer, elf, Santa Claus, and even some fairy tale scenes. I even saw some giraffes and seals when I was there.

The entire village forms a very pretty picture, and one can also buy snacks and drinks from some stalls nearby. It’s a good way to spend an evening. If you’re planning on going, best check with the locals first, as they don’t put up the Christmas lights every year.

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Viaduc de Millau

Anyways, the next week we stayed in a town close to Millau. It’s home to the famous Millau Viaduc bridge which spans the gorge of the River Tarn.

It’s the tallest bridge in the world at 343 metres and is an amazing cable-stayed bridge whose construction was completed in December 2004 for around 394 million Euros.

The rides on it and near it are just amazing and well worth the few Euros you spend to get onto the bridge. I still have a few videos of them 😉 There’s also a viewing point created some distance away for all the tourists that come here just to take pics. 😉

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There was a lot more to see like visiting the dolmen, those ancient graves from centuries ago, and taste the original sheep milk’s cheese in the villages of Roquefort, or visiting the artist who turns waste matter into art, or spending hours in the libraries and the churches. But all that I’ll leave you to discover on your own.

Oh, and if you have been to these ‘not the average tourist destination places’ yourself, tell me, wouldn’t you rather spend more time visiting these hidden gems than any other place? But if you’re one of those people who like some of my friends think I’m a fool for preferring these places, leave a note anyway. My friends will be real happy.

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