Cordes-sur-Ciel

About this place

Cordes-sur-Ciel is a fortified hilltop town in the Tarn department of Occitania, southern France, about 21 km northwest of Albi in a straight line. It belongs to the «Most Beautiful Villages of France» association. The town was founded in 1222 by Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse, and received its charter that year as a «bastide», a planned new town; many historians consider it the first bastide of southwest France. Until 1993 it was simply called Cordes, a word thought to mean rocky heights; «sur-Ciel», «above the sky», was then added to reflect how it rises above the clouds that sometimes fill the valley. Pink and grey stone houses pile up on the hilltop within rings of old walls and gates, reached by very steep cobbled streets. Gothic houses with carved facades and arched windows line the main street, and on some mornings mist wraps the hill so the town seems to float in the clouds. Visitors climb through the successive gates to the top of the hill and wander the lanes among craft workshops and the old covered market. The streets are steep, and misty autumn mornings give the finest view from the valley.