One of the "Plus Beaux Villages de France," tiny Turenne is clustered around the ruins of a castle at the top of a hill. Many of the "Plus Beaux" towns have been ruined by success, having succomed to cutification and crowded with tourist shops, but not Turenne. Quiet, with very narrow streets (many too narrow for cars), it is a village lost in time. The day we were there, the one sliver of a street from the main road into town was dug up for a water-main repair, and there were no detour signs. But having studied the map before we went there, I knew that a 5 kilometer detour would get us around the "barrage" and into town.
Copyright 2009 by William Tenney. All photography, artwork, images, and sound recordings on this site are the property of William Tenney.