By a fast train we live only about 45 minutes from Toulouse yet we decided to spend a few nights there to make a couple of day trips centered around the “Pink City” so named because of the color of its bricks. That way we didn’t have to start out as early, we could spend the day at a destination, and still get back to the hotel in time for an apéro before dinner. Taking some of our own advice, we clicked on the tab above marked “Topics & Tags” then “Destinations in France accessible by train” and scrolled down to “The Beautiful Small Towns around Toulouse” to find a list of 20 possibilities, including our own Carcassonne. Of the remaining 19 towns, we’d already visited 8 of them and we didn’t want to spend much more than an hour on the train so that left us with Gaillac at 40 minutes and at 67 minutes a town that wasn’t even on this list, Castres.

If you’ve been to Florence, Italy, you are probably familiar with that classic view from the bridge, Ponte Vecchio: the Arno River flows into the distance lined on both banks by colorful, multistoried apartment buildings. That was the image that came to mind when I first saw a tourist brochure about Castres. It mentioned that its “pastel-colored houses, suspended above the river Agout” as one of the city’s highlights and that’s today’s featured photo across the top of this post.

Classified as a French “Ville d’Art et d’Histoire”, its Goya museum has the second largest collection of Spanish art in the country, only surpassed by the Louvre. This is housed in the former Episcopal palace, a work of art itself, and is complemented by the sculptured Bishop’s garden created in 1700. 

On the walk back to the train station we stopped in to see the cathedral that legend says was founded around 640 AD although documents place the date as 812 which still makes it ancient. The city’s brochure said that there were several private mansions to admire including Hôtel particulier Jean Houlès – de Nayrac and that the theater from 1899 was worth a stop.

After a day of investigating some of the “lost, hidden, and secret” Toulouse we traveled out to the town of Gaillac known only to us for its wine, but we weren’t the first to discover that. The Romans were here 2000 years ago producing large quantities of wine, especially red, transporting it to the coast for shipment across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy. The perfect place to discover this history was at the 10th century abbey St. Michael that now serves as the Maison des Vins de Gaillac with dozens of local wines for sale. The tasting notes for each bottle were easy to understand and made selecting the right ones simple.

Moving away from the river’s edge took us into the center of town and into the 13th century featuring brick buildings that were gradually enlarged over the next 200 years. A typical house on rue de l’Anguille (photo in the first paragraph above) might include the original wine cellar, 14th century offices above that, and an upper staircase enclosed within a 15th century tower. A notable building covering the same spread of time is the Hôtel Pierre de Brens, now the Gaillac Archives, that was built as a private mansion to demonstrate the family’s wealth and influence in the town. 

On our way to the final stop of the day we walked through the market square Place du Griffoul that is surrounded by 15th century brick arcades that originally protected merchants and shoppers and continues to shelter diners at the numerous cafés and restaurants. Five minutes later we were at the 17th century Château de Foucaud, built in the style of an Italian villa that includes an orangery and a rose garden in its manicured park that on its own warranted the visit. Now, back to Toulouse!