A rose between the thorns

Monday 29th May

Today we headed for another of the beautiful villages in France, a village called Camon. The road took us through (or just around) the town of Mirepoix. No idea what was happening in the town, but there were hundreds of cars and campers parked everywhere. We made ourselves scarce and continued to Camon. What a beautiful village! It's claim to fame is a rose festival in May. There were roses everywhere; gardens, pots, climbing the walls of houses. Most of the larger roses were labelled. Its close to the end of the roses but I imagine a couple of weeks ago would have been wonderful. 

We loved the village - definitely a rose between a few thorns (beautiful villages that have been a bit ho-hum) .

Chateau Lagarde - not open to tourists.
Just a pretty impressive ruin on a hill.

Camon - beautiful. 

The old abbey and Chateau at Camon.

Coffee time - resting before lunch.

Next up a visit to the Cascades de Roquefort. This was a lovely spot. Again, driving in, we thought this was a little known spot, but got to the carpark and it was chockers.  Don't know if its always like thIs, or was a result of the bank holiday. Set up at the foot of the cascades was a food and drink caravan. They would make a killing in nice weather (no icecreams left apart from 4 magnums).

Passing through another village and this sculpture caught our eye.

Cascades de Roquefort.

Great shot!

Tuesday 30th May

Just a quiet, relaxing day around the area. Drove down to the larger town of Foix - on the motorway. Think it's about the first time we have used a motorway this trip. Visited the tourist information  centre to get the lay of the land. We have found the tourist information offices to be excellent across most of France. There has been a tendency to close these offices down in Australia as everything is available online, but you still need to know what you are looking for. And not everyone is tech savvy - I'm one that likes a map in my hand with the touristy stuff marked. There is a fabulous looking castle in Foix - we may visit it tomorrow. 

A few photos around the town of Foix.

Tonight's dinner was at an Italian restaurant - le Don Camillo. We both had a delicious pasta/gnocchi dish with a creamy sauce, chorizo and petoncles, followed by panacotta with strawberry coulis.

Walking in the door of the restaurant and there is a glass floor that you hesitate to walk on.
And down below, the cellar. 

And for those who haven't done Google translate - petoncles = scallops.