Brousse le Château

Travelled : 128km
Stay: Pont de Salars- Aire, free parking and services N44.27810 E2.72837
Visited: Brousse le Château, Broquies

Another day of scattered showers, so we continued on the back roads through Lacaune and menhir country.

 Our main destination was to one of the 'pretty villages of France' - Brousse le Chateau. 

It did not disappoint with its 9th century castle perched on a rocky spur at the confluence of the Tarn and Alrance rivers and the stone dwellings surrounding it. 

The 15th century church 

View of the village from the castle 

 Got to have a door knock of the day.

Great use of of scrap metal.

 Middle Ages telephone box!

The 1366 romanesque bridge completed the picture. 

At this time if year the castle can only be visited in the afternoon so after our explorations we went to have a look at Broquies and parked in the lovely aire which had all services for free including electricity. 

 After a cooked lunch of spaghetti marinara we walked around the small village to help the digestion and read about its history on the information boards located at various points. 

Some buildings had been well renovated, while others still needed tender loving care and lots of work!

Old grape press ...The areas great vineyards had been decimated by disease in1956.

 By now it was 3pm but the weather had not improved so we decided to keep heading north passing a few lakes along the way which may have been tempting if the weather was hot and finally stopping in Pont de Salars. We managed between showers to have a quick walk through the village and we were once again amazed at the well equipped tourist office in such a small place, but we think that the nearby lakes would attract many visitors here in the summer.