Our man in Conques
Conques is certainly a village which knows how to hide itself. Perched on the steep-sided hillside of a river valley, it is completely invisible from the road below. Successive signs may welcome drivers along that valley road to the village first in French, then in English, and then in German, but if they want to get a look at the village itself then they must leave their car in the car park and climb up the hill on foot or by shuttle bus. Or by bike... My two-wheeled approach to Conques involved a fair amount of getting slightly lost, such that when I first glimpsed Conques I was in fact already above it. Always nice to end a ride with some freewheeling, although maybe not on Conques’ slippery medieval cobbled streets… My first view of Conques, peeping through the trees I was arriving in Conques (following a week spent with my family) to work for two weeks as a volunteer tour guide in the village’s 11 th century abbey church as part of a scheme run by CASA – Communauté...