A quick tour round Galié

Galié is the tiny village we drove into on a whim last Sunday. I was drawn by its ruined castle standing just below the church, and surrounded by the village houses. I just couldn't get a snap of the castle, surrounded as it was, and a quick search on the internet indicates that no one else has published a photo of the ruins either!

However, once we were there, we found plenty more to satisfy the camera...

The charming vintage Singer advert (as you may know, I have an even older Singer), was on the corner of this road:... the Road with 13 Bridges - the village is on the side of a valley, and this road runs along the base of the valley, parallel to the main road and the stream, which must be a tributary of the mighty Garonne.

This was clearly the way up to both the church and the castle - you see what I mean about the castle being completely surrounded by buildings...

Ben loved the pride and workmanship which had gone into making even a barn entrance absolutely beautiful.

And on the other side of the courtyard, clearly once part of the same farm, this one's For Sale! Any buyers..? The phone number's there...

Just down the hill from these ancient and very practical buildings, the 19th century inhabitants had clearly had enough money to copy the balconies in style in the bigger towns nearby... Note the initials 'BB' on the one above.

And the star on this one:

... which is a repeated theme in the village, as you can see in the balcony I showed you yesterday.

And that was all the time we had to spend in Galié! Partly we were pressing on because it was just the end of a skiing day, and partly we didn't actually want to spend ages walking round and photographing what was clearly a quiet but living community - it didn't feel like a tourist site and we didn't want to turn it into one. It made us realise, though, what un-noticed treasures we often drive by, on the way to 'somewhere else'. We have resolved to notice them a bit more from now on...