Villages of Southern France

Dear fellow bloggers, sorry for the delay in getting this blogs on the net, here is a blog that has had  a gestation period of quite a few weeks!
We wound our way up from Spain through Andorra and into Southern France.
Along the way there are some beautiful villages, especially those with large verandahs on the shops. Two villages that we found with these large verandahs were Mirepoix and Millau.

Photo of the underneath of the shop verandah at Mirepoix (Photo number 327)
This village we found by taking the wrong turn at a roundabout. The houses in Mirepoix were built in the middle ages. The locals found that if they built the first floor larger than the ground floor and with an overhang at the front then they could gain protection from the weather and have more room in the first floor. As it was raining the day we were there, we totally agree.

One side of the village square at Mirepoix (Photo number 325)

The next day we travelled further on up the middle of France toward the French town of Millau to view the worlds highest bridge, on the A75 motorway.
Millau was found to be a beautiful village in itself, with a well signposted parking area for camping vans as well! We parked the van correctly in the parking place and then toured the town on foot.

Street scene, the shops around the central square in Millau (Photo no 355)



Some of the original streets in Millau were quite narrow, as is evidenced by this street through a gate in the walls of the old town.
Hope the next instalment/blog is not as long in gestation.