Our friend Wendy lives in Castelnau-Montratier, 75 miles North of Toulouse, with her 4 children.
Castelnau-Montratier sits on a rocky hilltop: originally a fortified village it sits like the prow of a warship above the valley. A beautiful hilltop like this in Britain would be forever protected from development but in France they are a little more practical.

The local stone is grey and forbidding in the surprisingly cold winter (this is meant to be warm, it's near Toulouse!)

Much of the architecture looks military, and they have retained the look-and-feel of the village (no boxy estates sprawling across the countryside)

I like the counterpoint of the ancient forbidding stone buildings and the cars parked randomly (as the French do).