New guide book to St Antonin

The Guardian loves Bruniquel

The UK newspaper published a list of its 20 most beautiful French villages and included two from Tarn and Garonne, Auvillar and Bruniquel. Also the Aveyron village of Estaing and Lautrec in the Tarn figured in the top 20 with six in total from Occitanie.
The attraction of Bruniquel, apart from its position and chateaux, was said to be its old world feeling of calm. Maire Michel Montet welcomes the classification, saying that many British visitors understand why several of our compatriots have chosen to settle there.

Grotte du Bosc closed

The only managed cave system in Tarn and Garonne is the Grotte du Bosc, under the cliffs above St Antonin. The caves were discovered in 1934 and have been managed by the same family ever since. The present owner, Pierre Régi, has decided that at 77 years of age he can no longer take on the responsibility of the popular attraction.
Last year there were over 8000 visitors, welcomed by a small group of volunteers and staff, but those wanting to go underground have found a terse notice on the reception door "Closed definitely" since last Friday.
The owner says he is willing to sell, but only to a sympathetic buyer. Talks have been held with local authorities but currently no solution is in sight.

Did you miss the giant machines?

Nearly a million people went to Toulouse over the 4 days the Company Les Machines presented its spectacular "Gardiens du Temple" featuring the giant Minotaur and Ariane the spider a couple of weeks ago. If you want to see the machines the new Halle de la Machine in the Toulouse suburb of Montaudran has opened its doors to visitors where many giant and smaller machines are on view. You can even ride on the Minotaur along the "piste de geants". Open every afternoon (except Monday) from 14h - 18h, entry 9 euros for adults and less for other categories. The Halle will be closed from 7th January until 7th February for maintenance.
Details on this link to the Halle's website.  https://www.halledelamachine.fr/infos-pratiques/horaires-tarifs/

Big plans for local tourism

Carole Delga, president of the Occitanie region visited this week St Antonin and the Abbaye de Beaulieu. Recognised as part of the Grand Site de Occitanie in the Bastides et Gorge de l'Aveyron, St Antonin has invested in various parts of the village to improve its touristic appeal to the thousands of  visitors and now there are plans to invest 5 million euros at Beaulieu in an effort to increase its annual visitor rate of  9000 by four fold over the next five years. Caylus will also have up-graded tourist information and visitor amenities.
The overall aim is to make Occitanie one of Europe's top ten tourist destinations with wider appeal than just its Mediterranean resorts and the access to the Pyrenees. We who live in the Gorges area know how beautiful it is - and we want our gites full (but still preserving our tranquillity).
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Tourists "forgotten" in Gouffre de Padirac

Photo Marc Salvet/MaxPPP

One of the regions major attractions is accused of sloppy safety procedures when on Sunday evening three Spanish tourists were overlooked when the underground grotto of the "gouffre de Padirac" was closed for the evening.
Enquiries by the Procureur suggest that the visitors were not to blame for their misadventure, but that procedures for ensuring all visitors had left the site were inadequate.
The grotto, first explored in 1889, has several kilometres of galleries and is one of the most popular sites for tourists in the Lot. The enquiries are proceeding.

Blue flag - for Laguepie

Pic:Foilman

The coveted Blue Flag scheme awards the accolade to communes and ports making the greatest efforts in cleanliness and water quality in their tourist attractions. Normally we associate these awards with seaside beaches, but they can also grace inland waters and rivers.
Locally the lakes at Monclar and Molieres have been sporting the blue flags for some time, but in 2018 two new water parks have been added to the list in Midi Pyrenees - Montcuq (Lot) and our very own Laguepie.
Taglines has featured the efforts made by the commune on the Viaur with inflatables, lifeguards, astroturf covered banks and a brand new toilet block. Now a favourite haunt for the young holiday makers, together with the new picnic tables and safe paddling areas for the toddlers, Laguepie on Viaur fully deserves its accolade.
We also understand two new restaurants will be opening this summer to add to the Deux Rivieres so "Laga" will be more attractive than ever to the tourists.
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Wrecked in Barcares

The beach at Barcares, near Perpignan, attracts many visitors, but when the steamer "Lydia" stranded on the beach 50 years ago few knew that she too would become a landmark visitor attraction. One of the world's oldest liners in the last half century the ship has been re-furbished and used as a discotheque and casino, and now part of the accommodation has been dedicated to a museum retracing the glories of her cruising days.
The maire of Barcares would like to see some of her cabins restored for holiday accommodation, as it was originally intended.

 Le Lydia

NB -interesting to note that although in English ships are one of the few inanimate objects to be assigned a gender (ships are feminine) in French she is masculine - despite her name - because paquebot is masculine.
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Alpacas come to Villefranche

We have recently started an alpaca farm in the Aveyron, just outside of Villefranche de Rouergue, and have transported our alpacas over from the UK last summer.  We breed and sell our alpacas as well as selling their fibre, wool and beautiful alpaca products.

We are just about to start our birthing season, which should last until the end of September, and it is a fantastic time of year for visitors to come and see the farm, the alpacas, and their products.

 We are open for farm tours, a charge for adults of 5.00 euros per person with children under 12 are free.  Visits to the boutique are complimentary.

For details contact Paul Beswick at dupremalpacas@gmail.com

Here's a bridge worth seeing

Many years ago we were taken by French friends on a picnic outing along the Viaur valley and we stopped to see an amazing railway bridge: the Viaur Viaduct. This fantastic structure was designed by an Albi engineer, Paul Bodin, in a competition which included Gustave Eiffel. Opening up the area to commercial rail traffic between Albi and Rodez in the early 20th century the bridge is a unique construction in France.
The structure made from steel with millions of rivets forged on site had as a principle arcs held in equilibrium by the weight of the train itself - a revolutionary concept which at first even train drivers were afraid to cross.
The villagers of Tanus have formed an association to restore the forgotten treasure and it will be revealed in its splendour later this year.

Viaduc du Viaur

A new Unesco "Geopark"

The Causses de Quercy natural park has been designated a "Geopark" by Unesco. There are 119 such parks in the world, distinguished by their particular geological structure, important on a world scale.
The Geopark is designed to help integrate the communities in the area in efforts to preserve the characteristic environment and to develop its tourist potential.
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25 years of losing money

One of Europe's most popular tourist attraction, visited by millions every year, has consistently lost money since it opened 25 years ago.
Disneyland Europe, just outside Paris, makes money but is obliged to pay royalties and loans to its parent company in California, leading to losses. Disney has forced the European park to invest in infrastructure without making any capital available, leading to a reduction in the stock market value of 77% in the last 5 years. Now the minority shareholders are demanding that Disney buy them out rather than suffer any more losses.
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New Lascaux replica to open today

The famous Perigord grotto at Lascaux has been closed to the public for many years and there have been replicas to show what the 18000 year old caves, with their stunning paintings, actually should look like. Today, 10th December, President Hollande will inaugurate the latest version - called Lascaux 4.

Lascaux replica

Four years of work by artists and sculptors have been needed to create this replica, which will open to the public from 15th December.
There is a 360° view on YouTube which you can view from this link Lascaux 4 view
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Nearer to the stars

The observatory on the Pic du Midi, at 2877 metres the highest in the Pyrenees, is a well known site for visitors, affording incomparable views of the mountains as well as other astronomical attractions. It is undergoing a 4.5 million euro renovation, the first part of which will offer a planetarium allowing daytime visitors to see the universe beyond and should open before the year's end. The auditorium will house 45 visitors in special inclined seats and offers as well as the star view a film showing how the scientist Serge Brunier photographed the entire visible galaxy.

Other improvements envisaged include an interactive astronomical activity, improved access and transport as well as restauration. Most of the works will be finished in 2017.
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Roquefort: more holes than gruyere

The Aveyron village of Roquefort has used its geographical position with natural caves to refine the eponymous cheese for centuries so it should come as no surprise that there is the occasional landslip.
On Friday (1st July) workers were on their lunch break at a building used by the Societe brand to store cheeses, when 5 storeys collapsed into a hole in the ground.

Streets closed: pic France 3

The resulting damage to infrastructure caused widespread telephone and internet cuts in the village and the mayor ordered the roads in the vicinity to be closed. Repair work is suspended pending a geological survey.
The mayor says that the village is now just  a "concrete crust" covering a network caves.
Some locals worry that tourism could be affected as visits to caves is a major earner.
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After Paris, the French love the coast

French holiday makers love to go to the seaside (unless it's to Paris for a break) and you would assume that the Mediterranean departments would top the list - and Var and Herault are certainly popular. But it is Charente Maritime which is the number one destination. With 34 million nights sold last year, 600000 beds available and 23000 jobs the tourism industry earned 1.6 billion euros in the department. The presence of the replica ship Hermione is thought to have boosted visitors as the department climbed from third to top. The Med is also closely challenged by Atlantic departments Vendee and Finisterre, so three of the top five destinations are in the west and north.

La Rochelle old port. MaxPPP

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Stroll along the Champs Elysees

If you've tried this you will know that dodging the traffic can be a hazard. But from next month one day each month will be traffic free. Starting with the 8th May, then the first Sunday of each month the road will be closed to all traffic. It was going to be 1st May until someone remembered it is a holiday and town hall staff would not be available to put up the barriers etc.

Arc de Triomphe along the Champs Elysees: AFP

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Snowy up north

If you are travelling via Nord or Pas de Calais en route to England or Holland beware of snowy road conditions. Meteo France has issued an orange warning for snow in these departments today and as far south as Picardy.

Snow in Nord  January 2015. Pic MazPPP

Today a delegation of businesses and politicians from Calais is going to Paris, not to complain about migrants, but to point out that the town is a welcoming tourist location, not infested with roaming migrants, who are largely confined to the camps around the ferry and tunnel terminals. Businesses say they are suffering from the unfair image being portrayed and their town remains the attractive city it always was.
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Going skiing this holiday

The next couple of weeks sees the French winter holiday break (half term in the UK) and many families will be taking to the mountains for skiing holidays. The resorts have been praying for snow in this mild winter but ski material hire shops are worried about competition from on-line sources. They call it the "uberisation" of the industry (after the disputed taxi service) and are having to find new marketing methods - striking and blocking the ski pistes does not seem to be an option.
The resort of Piau-Engaly in Haute Pyrenees has built the area's biggest parking for camping cars at 1700 metres high, with spaces for 120 vehicles. The emplacements all have power, water and toilets plus, of course, WIFI and cost 15 euros per day. No doubt local hoteliers are worried about the "AirBnB-isation" of accommodation, but the holidaymakers will be hoping for decent snow however they hire their skis or wherever they lay their head.
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Lourdes losing its appeal

The town of St Bernadette has seen its visitor numbers falling by about 25% in recent years with loss of jobs and income for its commerces. A study has suggested that it is appealing to a "low-cost" clientele who have been hard hit by the recession, especially in Spain and Italy the main source of pilgrims, consequently without some changes it is envisaged that 60 hotels could close in the next 3 years.

photo MaxPPP

Whilst keeping pilgrims at the centre of its appeal, Lourdes is aiming to widen its attraction to include the whole region especially the Pyrenees. Some hotels have up-graded their standards and the commune is looking to make it easier for wheel-chair users, though the maire's call for cafes to clear the pavements caused some friction.
With over four million tourists a year Lourdes is France's 12th most important site, but some have the impression that its 220 religious gift shops give it a tacky look to more modern tastes. Some visitors Taglines spoke to recently said of their visit to Lourdes that is was "a dump".
Of course a visit by Pope Francis would provide the kind of commercial miracle that would give some impetus to the town's renewal.
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