Central France - Auvergne
In the heart of the Cantal Mountains, Anjony Castle, a magnificent square building with four round towers, keeps watch over Tournemire, a delightful leafy village. Around the 12C Romanesque church, the 14C and 15C houses with their tufa stone walls and "lauze" stone-slab or slate roofs are typical of traditional Cantal houses.
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Salers stands at an altitude of 950 m in the "Parc Naturel Régional des Volcans d’Auvergne" Nature Park and is a site not to be missed in the region. It is a unique 16C architectural whole and its old houses made of dark lavastone and topped with turrets give the village an austere charm. Among the wealth of treasures to be found in the fortified town are the Church of Saint Mathieu with five 17C Aubusson tapestries, an entombment and a polychrome lectern.
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Sainte-Eulalie is on the right bank of the River Lot and the village is laid out in a succession of arcs around the church square, a church which is a masterpiece of Romanesque and gothic art. In the narrow streets paved with stones from the Lot, the houses date from the 15C to 18C and are lovingly bedecked with flowers by their inhabitants. The mills along the River Serre are a particular feature of the village and bear witness to the former crafts of tanning and drapery which used to use the water for power.
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On the slopes of a canyon cut by the gorges of the Tarn, Sainte-Enimie sets out its massive limestone houses in tiers at the foot of an old Benedictine monastery, all that remains of which is a chapel and a chapter house. At its feet is Burle spring which is said to have cured the Merovingian princess Enimie of leprosy.
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In the Aveyron département but on the banks of the Lot, Saint-Côme-d’Olt was built behind the ditches of the old fortified town. The flamboyant gothic style church with its crooked spire, the Penitents’ Chapel and the Manor of the Sires of Calmont dating from the 12C stand alongside the old medieval stalls and the fine 15C and 16C houses to make a delightful combination.
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High up on the Causses du Larzac plateau, La Couvertoirade has several stories to tell : the tale of the Knights Templar who built the castle in the 12C, the story of the Knights Hospitallers who, in the 15C, took over from them and enclosed the village in a ring of ramparts and finally that of the village when its economy and population was at a peak and it boasted fine 16C and 17C houses.
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At the foot of the Aubrac Mountains, not far from the gorges of the Lot and Truyère, Estaing bears the name of a family of Lords one of whom became famous by saving the life of King Philippe-Auguste in Bouvines. The king then gave the village the right to display the royal fleurs-de-lys on its coat of arms. Shale stone houses with their "lauze" stone-slab roofs are nestled around a keep and castle dating back to the 12C and 15C and some of the finest town houses can still be seen.
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A small village that is labelled a Grand Site de France. In the heart of the Lot Valley, this key stopping place on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela conceals a wealth of treasures : half-timbered houses, the 11C and 12C abbey church of Sainte Foy, its 250 capitals, its contemporary stained-glass windows by Pierre Soulages and its tympanum with 124 sculpted figures depicting the Last Judgement, but also THE treasure, that of Sainte Foy, a golden statue covered in gold and precious stones.
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In this former stopping place on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, by the banks of the Aveyron, stone-built houses and roofs tiled with "lauzes" stone slabs rise in tiers at the foot of the fortified castle that was remarkably well restored in the late 1970s by architect Fernand Pouillon.
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Blesle owes both its existence and its expansion to the Benedictine abbey founded there in the 9C. Although all that is left of the stronghold built by the Barons of Mercoeur is the keep, the towers and the outer walls, half-timbered houses and carved doors still bear witness to the village’s medieval past.
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 Estivales Du Larzac _ Ot La Couvertoirade.jpg "Couvertoirade (La) Estivales Du Larzac _ Ot La Couvertoirade.jpg")
