Rodez: our guide to the pink sandstone cathedral and the Musée Soulages

Rodez, a hilltop town like no other

The best way to arrive in Rodez is from the heights, letting the town reveal itself little by little: the capital of Aveyron sits on a promontory, and its silhouette can be recognised from afar thanks to a single landmark, always the same: the cathedral tower, which has dominated the roofs of old Rodez for centuries. The historic centre is best explored on foot, through cobbled lanes, stone mansions and small shady squares where we like to wander without a set route. It is a town on a human scale, easily visited in half a day, but you can just as well spend the whole day there if you combine the cathedral, the museum and a stroll through the streets.

What we particularly like is the contrast between the town's two faces: on one side medieval Rodez, with its half-timbered houses, stone mansions and squares with lively café terraces; on the other, a few minutes' walk away, a museum of resolutely contemporary architecture that can hold its own against those of much bigger cities. We love taking guests who think they know "old Rodez" and surprising them by showing that, a stone's throw from the Gothic cathedral, the town has also reinvented itself around contemporary art.

Notre-Dame cathedral, a ship of pink sandstone

Construction of Notre-Dame cathedral in Rodez began in 1277, and the work stretched over nearly three centuries, into the 16th century. The result is one of the most imposing Gothic cathedrals in the south of France, built almost entirely of the pink sandstone typical of the Rouergue, which changes shade with the light: it looks almost ochre at midday and frankly pink at sunset. That is our number one tip: if you can, walk past at the end of the day to see the stone catch fire.

The west façade always surprises our guests the first time: massive, almost austere, pierced by very few openings, it looks more like a fortress wall than the entrance to a church. That is no accident: the cathedral was long part of the town walls, and this defensive façade keeps the memory of it. Your eye always ends up rising to the great Flamboyant rose window piercing this austere wall: finely worked stone lace that contrasts with the sobriety of the rest of the façade, and plays beautifully with the golden light of late afternoon.

The bell tower, stone lace 87 metres high

It is our favourite landmark in the landscape: the cathedral bell tower, the work of the Rouergue architect Antoine Salvanh, rises 87 metres high. Built between 1513 and 1526 at the request of Bishop François d'Estaing, it is square at its base and gradually becomes octagonal as it rises, in an increasingly delicate tracery of statues, gargoyles and pinnacles. You can spot it from far away as you approach Rodez, and it is worth stopping for a few minutes on the square in front to follow, storey by storey, this stone lace tapering towards the sky.

The Musée Soulages, a dialogue between architecture and light

A short walk from the historic centre, at the edge of the Foirail garden, the Musée Soulages opened on 31 May 2014. Designed by the Catalan practice RCR Arquitectes, together with the architects Passelac & Roques, the building is a series of box-shaped volumes clad in Corten steel, a metal that rusts on purpose to form a protective patina: the colour of the town, in a contemporary version. What strikes you is the way the museum slips into the slope of the land rather than imposing itself: seen from the garden, it keeps a low, horizontal, almost self-effacing profile, before revealing its full volume once you are inside.

The museum houses the exceptional gift made by Pierre and Colette Soulages to the Grand Rodez conurbation: more than 500 works and documents, the largest collection ever donated by an artist in their lifetime. It includes the great canvases of his mature years as well as the stained-glass windows and their preparatory studies, figurative works and early pieces rarely shown elsewhere, and his complete engraved work. It is a collection we enjoy seeing again regularly, as the temporary exhibitions keep renewing the way it is presented.

Inside, the exhibition design makes full use of the architecture: large, plain rooms bathed in carefully filtered natural light give the biggest canvases room to breathe. We always advise taking your time in the permanent collection before moving on to the temporary exhibition spaces, which regularly host other artists echoing Soulages's work on material and light. Allow a good hour and a half for a relaxed visit, a little more if you linger over the stained glass and preparatory studies, often less well known to the general public than the great black canvases.

Understanding "outrenoir" before entering the galleries

Pierre Soulages was born in Rodez in 1919 and died in 2022, but his bond with the town never weakened: that is what makes a visit to the museum so moving, knowing that the artist followed its construction closely. His fame rests on a word he coined himself, "outrenoir" (beyond black): from 1979 he painted exclusively in black, not to depict darkness but to explore how light is reflected by paint worked into grooves and ridges. Depending on the angle from which you look at a canvas, and the texture the artist gave the paint with a knife or brush, the same black becomes matt, glossy, almost bluish or silvery. Our advice: don't stand still in front of a canvas, move slowly from left to right. It is by walking that you really understand what Soulages wanted to show: that black, far from being an absence of colour, can become a source of light in its own right.

If the subject has struck a chord, Pierre Soulages also left a masterly work in Conques, 15 minutes from the cottage in the other direction: the 104 windows of the abbey church of Sainte-Foy, made between 1987 and 1994. It is a lovely follow-up to the museum, to see how the same work on light is expressed this time through translucent glass rather than paint.

How we visit Rodez from the cottage

From Gîte de la Viguerie in Pruines, allow about 40 minutes by car to reach Rodez. We suggest starting with the cathedral and the historic centre in the morning, before the streets fill up, then heading to the Musée Soulages in the early afternoon: the low late-day light there is particularly beautiful if you visit later on. The town centre has plenty of shops and places to eat where you can improvise a lunch break as you please. For families, the museum regularly offers tours and workshops for younger visitors; ask at the reception on the day, as the programme changes with the seasons. We like to round off the outing with a walk in the Foirail gardens, right next to the museum, to stay outdoors a little longer before driving back to the cottage.