Over the Rivers and Through the Woods

Step out the front door of VillaNoue and turn right. Walk about 100 yards and you come to a lovely bridge that crosses the pleasant Noue River. A graded gravel road continues along the meadows skirting the river. To your left - well wooded hills. To your right - meadows filled with wildflowers, poppies and occasional grazing animals.

Follow the path to its end about a mile along and you reach a path that leads right over the hills and drops you down into St. Martory village. On the way, you pass beside a castellated fortress, still lived in. Or, for a less wild pathway, take the road immediately uphill from VillaNoue that serves the old castle and its current occupants. The views are mighty!

If instead, you leave VillaNoue and turn left then you wander through the small village of Mancioux. At the bottom of the town, the mighty Garonne River surges past. A weir has been built across the river to generate electricity. The ground shakes with the fury of the dammed river as it spills through and over the man-made restraints. It's elemental and exciting. And you can walk along a river path through lowland woods.

Alternative walks include walking the lightly travelled road to Aurignac. Or, hop the bus and head downstream to Martres Tolosane or upstream to the many lovely towns that sprang up along the Garonne during its heyday as the main canal and watery highway between Bordeaux and the Mediterranean.

History abounds, nature reigns and the views which open around every bend are well worth the venture.

St. Martory Chateau on the Garonne	St. Martory
Little Views	Longer Views

A view of St. Martory

The Bridge at St. Martory

Ponies in the fields at Aurignac