Page 14 - DreamScapes Magazine | Fall/Winter 2023

À LA CARTE
The Occitanie
Tourist
FOR FOODIES + ART DE VIVRE
BY ILONA KAUREMSZKY
Teetering between heaven and earth,
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In the Albigensian walled town of Cordes-sur-Ciel that appears to float in the clouds, mysteries and legends of this 800-year-old hilltop hamlet are chockablock.
Wander the steep storybook cobbled laneways passing whimsical timber facades and Gothic stone houses adorned in gargoyles and stags, and spot clusters of artist studios and craft shops. Out- side these stone structures, medieval tin knights greet passersby as original artworks of sleeping dragons hover by blue pastel shutters, a hue that is as common as the pink shades sprucing up Toulouse, Montauban and Albi, a trinity of pink cities nearby.
As one of France’s highly lauded Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (meaning most beautiful vil- lages), a title bestowed only in 2021, day-trippers come for the scenic vistas, architecture, gallery hops and shops, and to savour the laidback living of escagoter (a local Tarn expression for “lounge around”). Of course, ice cream from Yves Thuriès, Cordes-sur-Ciel’s beloved son and renowned master chocolatier, is a must. His tiny ice cream stand abuts his confectionary shop and his sugar and chocolate musée happens to be in one of the oldest medieval houses in the city. I wonder if this foodie encounter meets art de vivre is by design.
there’s a rocky medieval mountain village
that crowns one of southwest France’s
valleys of riches. It’s a region where Harry
Potter would feel right at home.