Castres

Castres grew up along the Agout, whose banks have one of the most photographed townscapes in the Tarn: the old tanners' and weavers' houses, with colourful façades and overhanging wooden balconies dropping straight into the river.

The textile industry, which made the town prosperous from the Middle Ages, also paid for the town hall, a former bishop's palace whose French formal gardens were designed by a pupil of Le Nôtre. Castres is also home to the Goya museum, devoted to Spanish painting, and the national centre and museum of Jean Jaurès, a native of the area. The old town, with lively squares and shopping streets, completes the picture of a Tarn town both industrial and refined.

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