Yet there was another important anniversary to celebrate, which was the main reason of the trip – ten years have passed since the day Xavier met Valeria in Paris, and ten years since their (our) lives took a turn none of us expected. This site is the best witness of the adventures and beauty we crossed together and  going back to Aveyron to celebrate this date couldn’t be more symbolic.

Every time we visit a town so perfect I can’t help thinking about people who built it. How did they develop the plan, who curated the construction, how did they manage to maintain the harmony and blend in the landscape? And most importantly, how to bring modernity and sustainability into such places to keep them libing but to make them comfortable to live?

Belcastel was the second most beautiful village of Aveyron on our way and despite it also being stunning (no less and no more than Najac or any other town from that list for that matter), it definitely required some motivation to climb its narrow steep roads and pathways. We are not ashamed to say that we spent a so much better moment just lying on the grass, swimming and chilling while contemplating the beautiful architecture of Belcastel.

Here comes the third village of the trip. Even though we keep a memory of the camping as blissful as of the town itself. Every time I get to stay in such campsites I think about how I would have enjoyed it if I had experienced such activity as a kid. But to tell you the truth, even as an adult it’s still awesome.

We stayed here two nights, wandering around the village, cycling, swimming and even holding a book club meeting – it was almost like living a little life that lasted two days.

On August 21th we took our bicycles to Espalion – another fairy tale town in several kilometers from the camping to celebrate our 10th anniversary. As it was already dark, we didn’t take the camera and that was a mistake – Espalion definitely deserved its place on the blog. Let it stay in our memories then.

Sainte-Eulalie-d’Olt was the fourth village from the list. If you started getting tired of them, it’s okay, because we also reached our saturation point and were mentally preparing to the road back home to Toulouse. However, Aveyron still had something in store for us.

Even though I hate the comparisons like “French Maldives” or “French Canada” because it’s not Canada or Maldives, it’s France, I couldn’t help thinking about the pictures of the images of the Great Canyon. There was one thing I couldn’t comprehend – out of dozens of famous places in France, how come this one is so modestly known even among people from the same region? The mysteries of tourism marketing.

And that was it. Four days of intense beauty in just two hours from Toulouse, and we saw only a small part of one department of one region of France. This country never cease to amaze me and I’m so very happy that now I am also a part of its lucky population. We might stay in Toulouse longer than we thought, so more trips about Occitanie are planned for 2022. We’ll see what the future has in store for us all. Fingers crossed for the end of the pandemic. 🤞🏻