Cordes-sur-Ciel

Cordes-sur-Ciel is twenty-five minutes northwest of Albi and worth the drive. Founded in 1222 by the count of Toulouse, it sits on a small steep hill in four concentric rings of walls and gates, and on a misty morning the top of it floats above the valley — which is where the “sur-Ciel” comes from.

The whole town is one street that climbs and turns into a staircase. Along it stand the Gothic merchant houses of the fourteenth century: the Maison du Grand Fauconnier, the Maison du Grand Veneur, three storeys of pale stone with rows of arched windows and carved friezes of hunting scenes. The gates — Portes des Ormeaux, de la Jane, du Vainqueur — frame the climb at intervals and each one is a ready-made picture.

Because the street is narrow and north-south, direct sun reaches it only in the middle of the day; the good hours are the first and last, when the light comes over the walls and the stone glows against a dark valley. Autumn and winter mornings give the mist.

The upper town is closed to traffic. Park at the bottom and walk up — it is steep, roughly fifteen minutes, cobbles all the way — or take the seasonal shuttle. Flat shoes, and allow more time than the map suggests.