Dans le "Midi" :  Aveyron, Tarn, Lot & Lozère

Millau by vandessel.marc@tiscali.be

More pictures of Tarn Valley.

Between Albi, the pink city - with its beautiful old brick-built centre, the Toulouse-Lautrec museum and its Cathedral - and Millau, in the center of Parc des Grands Causses, you will be walking or biking alongside the Tarn river in a steep sided valley. Down in the valley  between two hilly plateaux which rise up to 700m height, you'll get the feeling of being up in the mountains. The river flows swiftly to the West through the valley, also called "La Vallée de l'Amitiée", a very friendly place in which to stay and hike and a bit more to the East the Raspes du Tarn. You'll see and visit old castles in Brousse-le-Chateau, Coupiac, St.Izaire and  pitoresque villages like Ambialet and St.Rome de Tarn. For centuries life and local trade  has centered around these places.

From Millau, a pleasant small Mediterranean alike city, also the gateway to the better known canyons of the Gorges du Tarn and a centre for activity holidays, you'll start the Tarn Valley walk under the worlds highest viaduct from where you will be heading further downstream.

From the second half of june the chirring sound of cicades will go all along with you as if in Provence.

More pictures on Pays de Roquefort.

South of the Tarn river, water acting on the limestone plateaux created caves, subterranean rivers, gushing springs.The most famous of the caves is now still used for the ripening of sheep cheese: Roquefort, king of cheeses, cheese of kings.

Pays de Roquefort also includes the Causse du Larzac with its restored Medieval Templars garrisons from where crusades set oput in 10th-13th centuries, and the Redlands of Camarès with its Cistercienzer Abbaye de Sylvanès. St.Affrique, a small Southern town, is the starting place of many walks in this walking area. The landscape exudes peace and unspoiled natural beauty. Shepherds will be your only company during hours of walking.

More pictures of Gorges and Causses.

East of Millau the Tarn river and its tributaries carved out 4 canyon like Gorges: Gorges de la Dourbie, Gorges de la Jonte, Gorges du Trèvezel and the most famous of all the Gorges du Tarn. These Gorges are at the heart ofthe most spectacular walking and cycling area of the Grands Causses Natural Parc. Steep crags of 400m and the typical scenery of limestone plateaux dissected by rivers.You'll  see the Grotte Rose of Dargilan, the unusual scenery of the Causses (Le Chaos de Montpellier le Vieux and Roques Altes). Your walk begins and ends in Millau or at Château de Creissels.

The Causse Méjean       The Cevennes Mountains In the eastern part of the territory of our walking and cycling tours you'll find the Cevennes and the Mont Aigoual. This part of the Massif Central is well known by Stephenson a Scottish hiker who passed this region a century ago and left his traces in the form of a well known GR.

Causses & Gorges

South of Aveyron

St.Félix-de-Sorgue at Sorgue rivir in Sud-Aveyron

Nant in Sud-Aveyron

Paysages d'Aveyron

Gorges du Tarn & Jonte

The Tarn at Le Rozier at the entrance of the Gorges du Tarn

Aveyron Gorges du Tarn

South of Aveyron &
St. Affrique

Every year a
Festival International de Musique Sacrée
http://www.sylvanes.com

This year the XXVth Festival

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