Road Trip 2

Le Vigan is midway, more or less, between Six-Fours and E and G's place in Ginals. That's where we were heading, but we were so close to le Cirque de Navacelle that we took a little detour.  The first time we saw this sight was more than 30 years ago. Then, cars stopped just at the viewpoint and it was crowded with cars. Now, they've created a parking lot about a kilometer away and you walk across the plateau, past a restaurant and boutique to a path that takes you from the main viewpoint (still the same magnificent view) to another and on to a third, which we decided not to hike to.
After some detours, we managed to find the roads to La Couvertoirade, another place we had visited the year we spent our vacation in Dourbie. La Couvertoirade is a fortified village founded by the Templar Knights. There are several in the area. This one still has its ramparts intact. We did not venture up along the ramparts this time; we stuck to the village, which involves a pretty steep climb. I think what is most beautiful is that every building was built from the same gray stone. It's harmonious. It was also quite windy and much cooler than when we had visited the Cirque de Navacelle, earlier. After lunch, we headed for Ginals, just two hours away, according to the GPS.
Our route went alongside the autoroute for a while before we had to get on to the autoroute to take the viaduct de Millau going North, this time, with Millau down in the crux of the valley on our right. A few years ago, we were on the same autoroute going south to Montpellier. And the first time we saw the viaduct it was from a café in Millau. No matter what the viewpoint, it's an impressive bridge.

E greeted us with a still-warm-from-the-oven plum pie. These are plums from one of their trees and she needs to empty the freezer for defrosting. A couple of days later we had some peaches -- still defrosting so it was like eating peach sorbet. All yummy. I helped weed the potato patch. She hasn't planted this year's crop, yet, but some potatoes that were left in the ground last year have started growing. There are also some mushrooms, but we can't figure out which kind, yet: edible or non-edible. When in doubt, assume non-edible.
The gite is coming along, slowly but surely. They still have the second floor (third in U.S. terms) walls to finish. But it's manageable.
One day, we decided to go to the bastides in L'Aveyron. Leaving Najac, we started with Villeneuve en Aveyron, having simply driven through Villefranche. We've walked around Villefranche enough times to be more depressed each time as we notice the empty shops. Villeneuve is much smaller than Villefranche. Its history is slightly different. It was founded a couple of centuries earlier as a sanctuary city (salvetat) for peasants escaping cruel lords. They became the peasants of the monastery, instead. Then, as the Cathare war between the Comte de Toulouse, Raymond VII, and the French king's generals, the Montfort brothers, was winding down, the Montforts attached a royal bastide (fortified town) to the sanctuary. The whole town is tiny and an easy walk. We would have liked to see the inside of the church. One half is Romanesque and when Villeneuve was added to one of the main routes to San Compostelle, a Gothic transept was added on. Unfortunately, the church was still locked up and the tourist office, where we went to find out when the church would be open, didn't open until 2:00 p.m. It was 10:30, so we left.

We followed the signs for Peyrusse-le-Roc. This is a major town dating back to the 8th century. The leaflet handed out by the tourist office is not helpful and the booklet they sell for €3 is not much better. We drove up to the top of the hill and found a parking lot from which we started our meandering. There's not much to see in this hilltop town. The arrows led down to a viewpoint of a solitary pointy rock pillar with a couple of towers on it -- quite picturesque. The arrow led down a steep path to the medieval town, where the interesting ruins are. It was too steep. We headed back uphill and asked if there was easier access. The nice lady told us how to drive there -- really pretty far before tacking back along the stream. We parked. There are a chapel and a "hospital" (des Anglais) dating from the Hundred Years War. From there, there's a steep hike uphill to the medieval town. Again, too steep. So we didn't get to visit the ruins. Among the ruins, there is one called "the synagogue". I was wondering if there had really been a significant Jewish community, but found out, in the booklet we bought, that it was a rock that was called the synagogue because there was a story that Jews had taken shelter beside that rock. This was an important administrative center with a population of around 3500, but the booklet does not say what the economy was based on and the lady at the tourist office couldn't tell us, either. Only reading the Wikipedia article, later, did I find out it was silver.
By the time we left Peyrusse, it was time to find some lunch, which we did on our way to La-Bastide-l'Evèque, which we could have skipped. This bastide was founded by the Bishop of Rodez who was jealous of the Bishop of Villefranche. The tiny church is the same shape, with a covered porch front, as the gigantic church in Villefranche.
Our original idea had been to also visit Rieupeyroux and Sauveterre-de-Rouergue (another word for sanctuary city) but we gave up and went to E and G's to relax in the sun.