France : Bruniquel Castles and Le Vieux Fusil

France is a country with hundreds of castles. Some of them are worldwide famous, while other ones are hidden in small villages in french countryside. Two years ago, I visited my brother who was working in Toulouse, south of France, and we decided to visit the Bruniquel Castles (because there is actually two castles) which were not far from Montauban . This visit was full of surprises.

When we arrived in Bruniquel, we had to park our car outside the small village. The small old pedestrian streets were really beautiful and you could feel at that moment like in 40 years ago or in one of those black and white movie made in south of France. I was really not expecting this! Even if you need only 10 minutes to walk around the village, the atmosphere there is a paradise.

But Bruniquel is mostly famous for its castles. Why ? Because this is the place where was made a very famous old french movie called "le vieux fusil" (the old rifle) which should be considered as one of the best french movies made so far. Le vieux fusil, it's the story of a french doctor during the second world war who tried to revenge his family who was assassinated by german SS soldiers. If you watched the movie, you will probably recognized several parts of the castle.

But Bruniquel castles should not be visited just for this reason. Originally built for by a rich family, the castle was divided into two parts, facing each other, during religion wars in the middle age. It s really funny to think about those catholics and protestants who refused to share the same roof. But the best memory of this visite was definitely the amazing balcony and the view on the valley.

I really appreciated Bruniquel, a typical and wonderful souhtern France village and castle. But I really liked to visit this place without crossing almost any toursit. This is the kind of quiet place that you will enjoy withtout being distrubed by three buses of asian tourists ;). If you want to visit or reach Bruniquel, you can visit these links: this one, this one or this one.