 |
| Morning fog in the valley. |
 |
| Quiet morning in Najac. |
Today was our last official day of our walk. Our plan was to walk out of Najac down to the train station, take a short train ride to just outside Cordes-sur-Ciel, then walk into the city.
Again we decided against the fancy breakfast at the hotel dining room and we found croissants at boulangerie and coffee at a bar. There was one tiny grocery open where we purchased yogurt and cheese. Najac was very quiet.
 |
| View of castle from main street in Najac. |
The hotel was at one end of the town. We walked down the slope of the ridge through the town and up the other side of the ridge to get to the castle. The weather was warm and cloudless and there was a bright blue sky. The views of the castle and the surrounding valleys were beautifully clear. We felt very fortunate to have such a lovely day.
 |
| Town buildings and houses on the ridge. |
 |
| Castle's inner courtyard. |
We were the first tourists to arrive at the castle so we had unobstructed views of the interior courtyard and rooms and of the surrounding valleys. We had views from various levels in the castle and René took lots of pictures.
 |
| View of the castle from the train station. |
After our visit we walked back down to the stream, past the campground and to the train station. While waiting we spoke to an English couple who owned a vacation house in Najac. They described the economic difficulties of the region and the departure of the young people looking for jobs elsewhere. It was sad to know such a beautiful town could not attract more tourist traffic to be able to keep the town alive.
 |
| Cordes-sur-Ciel in the distance. |
After a short train trip we got off the train about 6 km outside of Cordes-sur-Ciel. We had originally planned to walk from Najac to Cordes but we were cutting this day short also. Unfortunately, the walk along the 70 km/h road from the train station to the city was a little scary. It was not the route we would have taken had we walked the whole way.
 |
| Welcome sign. |
Cordes-sur-Ciel has much more tourist traffic than Najac and we began to see more parked cars and tourists as we walked towards the city. The community has done a good job in attracting visitors by winning the prettiest village in France competition in 2014, and by renaming Cordes to Cordes-sur-Ciel for the way that the town seems to sit on the clouds.
 |
| Our room. |
Our room had stone walls, large wood furniture and two window seats and it looked like a room in a castle. It also had great views of the valley. There were some restaurants open, but since Cordes is a destination for summer day tourists many of the options were closed for the season. We decided to purchase picnic food and eat at the table in our room. We had supper of baguette, pâté, cheese, carrot salad, wine, gazpacho, olives, crackers and chocolate. We watched a little television on the tiny screen in the room.
 |
| Najac to Najac Castle to Gare Najac |
 |
| Gare Cordes-Vindrac to Cordes-sur-Ciel |
No comments:
Post a Comment