High in the South of France

An Ideal Setting

Millau is a typical provincial town of about 21,000 with a long-standing sheep-tanning industry. It has some interesting structures and squares that date back to the Middle Ages, an old covered market and a grand antique public wash house, or lavoir. Its small, old stone bridges straddle the Tarn discreetly, and on nice days hang gliders circle the rock promontories above the town. Before the construction of the viaduct several miles west of town, Millau had its 15 minutes of fame in 1999 when French sheep farmer and anti-globalization activist Jos? Bov? led the ransacking of a local McDonald's. "McDo," as the French call it, still occupies its place on the edge of town.

The truly spectacular thing about Millau is its setting, surrounded by the regional park Des Grands Causses (the causses being the high, sparsely populated limestone plateaus that spread across the region).

It's a land of verdant sheep-country landscapes, small picturesque villages and remote castles. The Larzac plateau south of Millau boasts five fortified villages associated with the crusading orders of Templar and Hospitalier knights. It's a backpacker's haven, and in warm weather, families and sporting types come to rent canoes and kayaks along the Tarn.

Food lovers flock by car and bus to the home of Roquefort cheese, in nearby Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, a tiny village built onto a limestone rock mass known as the Combalou. In fact, to be called Roquefort, cheese must be made from ewe's milk and aged in the cool, damp caves of Combalou, legendary for a naturally occurring penicillium mold that turns cheese blue.

In short, the area has all the necessary elements for the ideal French road trip.

From the bridge, we crossed Millau and set out to the northeast to the region's most dramatic landscape: the Tarn gorges, where the river and a series of villages along it cut a path through the high plateaus.

It was a warm, cloudless day. Just before entering the gorges, we saw a chateau built into the side of a rock peak high up on a hill. We followed a road that could scarcely be called improved, bumping through vineyards and fruit orchards.

We arrived -- the only souls at the Chateau de Peyrelade, an alluring half-ruin from the 12th century that is so obscure it was not even noted in our Michelin guidebook on the region. The principal structure seemed to be built on, around and inside a massive rocky overhang. A sign mounted on a fortification wall out front, from which sprouted some weeds, announced that the chateau is open for visits from June 11 through Sept. 19, so it had closed about a month before our arrival.

The Tarn gorges wind 30 miles through the causses. The river below is luminous green, fed by natural springs. Along the river, villages seem to melt into the cliffs behind them and small, ancient stone bridges span the waterway. Also along the banks are occasional mom-and-pop snack bar/restaurant and kayak rental operations.

For several hours we explored a piece of this country. Leaving the main road at the village of Les Vignes, we crossed the river and took a switchbacking road up what is known as the Mejean Causse. As we arrived on the plateau, we passed hunter after hunter positioned at woods' edge with rifle, dog and fluorescent orange vest, apparently poised to shoot whatever beast emerged from the low woods.

Near a hamlet of houses with rough-hewn slate roofs and chickens that wandered freely in the road, we set out on a short hike to the point that our local map told us was known as the Roc de Serre. Surely, I figured, there would be no hunters to mistake us for wild boar on such a well-marked hiking trail. In fact, we saw no one at all on this 20-minute path, at the end of which we took in a panorama of the gorges with a view that seemed infinite.

Wonders Small and Large

That afternoon, we wound back down the Tarn gorges as the bridge beckoned. I headed toward the north end of the bridge to pick up the A75 highway, which would take us over the bridge to a point on a plateau south of Millau.