Details

Today was an architectural detail kind of day. I didn't take any exceptional photos; it was more a matter of thinking about composition, what to include, what to leave out. We started out in Villeneuve sur Lot and ended up in my favourite bastide town in this area, Clairac. We paid a very brief visit there last year, and I took this photo, so I didn't want to repeat it this year.

Matters have not improved in Clairac since then. There are even more houses for sale or rent, more sagging rooflines and crumbling stonework. It has some splendid buildings; it's sad to see them so neglected when villages just a few kilometres away that are no more spectacular have been primped and restored to within an inch of their lives. I actually prefer the unkempt look of Clairac, but there's a point at which dilapidation is no longer pleasing, when it threatens the fabric of a whole town. One house was so swathed in ivy that it was almost invisible, like the Sleeping Beauty's castle. This was once (within the last decade) a thriving market town; I wonder what went wrong and drove people away?