The Causses is a limestone plateaux with green fertile canyon valleys. It is at the southern end of France's Massif Central. It is a vast and largely unspoiled territory with amazing scenery. For us there were 3 highlights: Millau Viaduct (world's highest bridge), Gorges du Tarn, and the Roquefort cheese caves. Millau Viaduct Loving most bridges and being fans of Lord Norman Foster's other architecture (British Museum, Hong Kong Airport, Bundestag in Berlin) we were excited to visit the world's tallest bridge in Millau. It has a structural height of 343m and is a 7 pylon multi-span bridge. It is not only beautiful with its needle pylons reaching for the sky but is also considered an engineering marvel. Gorges du Tarn A canyon formed by the Tarn River near the beginning of its journey to the Atlantic Ocean is nearly 53km long and 400-600m deep. Over millennia the river has eaten its way through the limestone plateau. The gorges are flanked
Our absolute highlight was the Basílica de la Sagrada Família or simply La Familia. Construction started in the 1880’s and it is scheduled for completion in 2026. It is the masterpiece and life’s work of architect Antonio Gaudi. The building is organic, audacious, crazy and brilliant and almost every detail came out of one man’s imagination. The eastern façade was completed early in the construction and is more traditional in its appearance depicting 3 events from the life of Christ: Birth, Death and Resurrection. The western facade is modern with sculptures depicting the passion of Christ. These sculptures are the work of artist Josep Maria Subirachs and his team. They began in the 1990's and took over twenty years to complete them with each figure carved in situ. The Familia is hard to photograph from the outside due to obstacles such as fences, trees, roads and people. Inside I found it impossible to capture the scale and feeling of light. I am not religious but