Rodez and Aveyron

Rodez, the birthplace of Pierre Soulages, has been home since 2014 to a museum holding the largest collection of his work. A short walk away, the Fenaille museum displays statue-menhirs more than 5,000 years old, and the pink-sandstone Notre-Dame cathedral watches over an old town best explored on foot.

Markets, restaurants, summer festivals: the capital of the Aveyron offers everything a human-sized city can.

A major stop on the via Podiensis (GR 65), Conques clings to the hillside above the Dourdou. Its abbey church of Sainte-Foy, a masterpiece of Romanesque art, holds an exceptional treasury of goldwork and stained-glass windows designed by Pierre Soulages.

The village is listed among the Most Beautiful Villages of France: best discovered early in the morning or at dusk.

High plateaus, stone shepherd huts and herds of wheat-coloured cattle: the Aubrac is the home of aligot and the Laguiole knife. The Aubrac regional nature park protects these open landscapes, crossed by pilgrims on the GR 65.

In spring, the transhumance festival sees the herds climb to their summer pastures.

The Millau viaduct crosses the Tarn valley in a single, strikingly elegant line: with one pylon rising to 343 metres, it is the tallest bridge in the world.

Below it, Millau, the glove-making capital, opens onto the Tarn and Dourbie gorges and the limestone plateaus of the Grands Causses regional nature park, a playground for paragliding, climbing and canoeing.

Perched on a spur above the Aveyron gorges, Najac stretches its single street up to its royal fortress. Further on, the bastides of Villefranche-de-Rouergue and Sauveterre-de-Rouergue tell the story of the new towns founded in the Middle Ages.

Stretchy aligot, tripoux, farçous, fouace… The Aveyron is a feast at every stop, from village markets to Michelin-starred restaurants.

In Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, Roquefort cheese is aged in the natural caves of the Combalou: in 1925 it became the first cheese to receive a designation of origin.