October 2020

It was October and we still couldn’t accept the fact that the summer – a particularly intense and rich despite all the virus hassle summer, was over. We weren’t ready. For us it meant leaving Pau, moving to Toulouse and starting a new life chapter, which, no matter how exciting it can be on one hand, is always accompanied with a touch of nostalgia and melancholy. It was in this state of mind that we happened to go to Gaillac – a little town in Tarn, in South-West of France. Unplanned and unforeseen, the main purpose of this trip was meeting a friend who lived nearby. However, upon arriving to Gaillac we discovered a charm that matched perfectly with our mood of the moment. Capturing this impromptu escapade seemed important, hence the whole page of our virtual travel album dedicated to Gaillac and its windy autumn vibe.

A cute Airbnb in the old mill 10 km from Gaillac was an excellent aesthetic start of the trip. A friendly host guided us through the mill history. We couldn’t help being charmed by her typical local accent.

Roofs of Andillac

While walking around Gaillac we realized once again how often underestimated the local travel is. Tarn is one of the French départements – this is how the administrative unit within a region is called. And even if Xavier lived here throughout all his childhood and teenage years, the biggest part of it remains unknown and undiscovered. We decided to correct this unfortunate fact as soon as the covid-19 situation allows it.

Details. Again and again.

Noticing small details that make such big difference between towns was something we learnt through exposing ourselves to the art of others and practicing photography. Since then walking in any place became on the verge of overwhelming – when your brain simply cannot take such a workload and process all the doorknobs, signs, frontons, shadows and lights. This is exactly why even “just another French town” seems and feels so special – all these things are never the same even when they are very similar and form a cultural code unmistakably recognizible across the country.

Wine again

Gaillac is locally famous for its wine production. Which means that it totally corresponds to what one might expect from the “the postcard France” – shops, posters, events and talks – it’s all about wine. With some excellent advice in a restaurant (that was so good that we ate there twice!) we picked a bottle for our very own wine collection.

France counts thousands of cathedral of various types, periods and architecture. Nevertheless, the rule “you’ve seen one cathedral, you’ve seen them all” here is not applicable. Not to us at least. While being atheists both of us we are very sensitive to the awing effect of the ancient religious buidings that have been listening to human prayers for centuries.

Voilà.

This was a small collection of the warm memories of this chilly and windy day which we both enjoyed very much nonetheless.

Tarn has a lot of beautiful places in stock and I hope some of them will find their place in our schedule for the following months and, eventually, on the pages of our blog. In a meantime don’t hesitate to see what we already posted about Occitanie and other parts of France.