The village of Caylus

Yesterday, (Tuesday) Wendy drove us to the village of Caylus which is not far from St Antonin. Richard had come here often to fish and Myles and Elspeth brought the children here for a drive one afternoon but I hadn't been before.

The big items to see were the 14th century church and the new and old castles. The church was lovely, but it was difficult to get a photo of the outside because it is all so built up around it. This was about the best I could do.

The church is renowned for its stained glass windows, said to be the best in the area - I took photos but they didn't turn out so well and I am not sure why they were thought to be the best - and for a very modern sculpture of Christ which I took a photo of but I wasn't impressed by it either.

We had collected a map from the tourist bureau telling us how to get from the church to the old and the new castles. Well we all started off but had difficulty following the map as it didn't have any street names marked on it and as it is all tiny lanes it was difficult to see where we were supposed to be going. With the high walls you couldn't get any idea of where the castles were that you could actually see as you drove into the town. After several false starts, we lost Claire, Lyn and Angela who all decided to make their way back to the car and perhaps find somewhere for a cuppa on the way. Wendy and I persevered up and up and around and around and got quite exhausted and then having followed this path got to a locked gate saying private property and we couldn't enter. This is Wendy showing what she thought of the map.

And this is all you could see of the old castle built in the 12th century over the fence.

The map then sort of petered out and indicated that we should walk back the way we had come. Bugger that, said Wendy. It seemed to us we had walked a full circle so we decided to keep going. We then came across the new castle which again had locked gates but this time they were made from wrought iron and I could take a photo through the bars. The new castle was built in the 18th century.

We continued down past the new castle and ended up where we had started and then realised had we ignored the map, and followed our instincts it would have taken us less than 5 minutes and a far less arduous walk than the way we were directed which took at least 30 minutes up very steep inclines.

We did see an interesting little garden on the way down and I wondered what the owners were expecting to sprout from the pottery.

We then made our way back to the car, finding the others in a bar in the market square where we joined them. This is the market square and Wendy, Lyn and Angela at the bar having partaken of coffee and teas.