While staying in Eauze we took time to visit some of the surrounding villages, starting with Montreal du Gers, a “Plus Beau Village de France” just 10 miles or so to the north east of Eauze.
Sitting on the banks of the Auzoue River, Montreal du Gers is an old bastide town dating back to 1255. It is organised around a small central square of arcades and the gothic collegiate church of Notre Dame (sometimes referred to as the Church of Saint Philippe et Saint Jacques). Unfortunately, we didn’t see the central square in it’s best light. It is used as the town car park and during our visit was packed with cars. It was a pity because if ever a square needed to be pedestrianised it is this one.
The best features of the church are the colourful stained glass windows
We paused in Montreal du Gers long enough to enjoy the small market on the square and walk a slow circuit of the place before moving on to another much smaller but more impressive village to the east, Larressingle. Overall, I didn’t rate Montreal du Gers. It certainly doesn’t have the charm one would ordinarily expect of a “Plus Beau Village de France”.
It is a small local market…… but there were a couple of very interesting craft stalls.
Notwithstanding the above, just outside Montreal du Gers is the small hamlet of Seviac and the remains of a 2nd century Roman villa, the ‘Villa Seviac’. This villa was a large and luxurious residence discovered by a local farmer in 1864 although it was neither explored nor excavated until the 1970’s. It is now a museum. Little is left of the villa’s original walls but many of it’s mosaics have been restored to their original splendour and they rank amongst the best of their kind in France.
NB We visited Montreal du Gers mid September 2022 but this blog was not completed and posted until 22 October – apologies.
And so to Eauze and an altogether nicer part of France. Eauze is only a small town (4,000 people) but it is recognised as the capital of the Armagnac area. Moreover it is surrounded by a clutch of interesting villages, a number of which are included in the list of ‘Les Plus Beaux Villages de France’ and it has a reasonably priced Michelin Restaurant (La Vie en Rose). We knew immediately that Eauze was going to be good and so we booked into the municipal campsite for a few days with a view to using it as a base from which to explore both Eauze and various local villages (Montreal du Gers, Larressingle, Cassaigne). The campsite was quiet (it would close for winter the following week) but it has a pool, a pleasant and very popular restaurant (Restaurant au Moulin de Pouy) and is just a short walk from a large Leclerc supermarket and the town centre itself.
Initially named Elusa in Roman times, Eauze is a town of some considerable historical significance (especially during France’s Religious Wars). It was home to Henri III of Navarre (who was subsequently crowned Henri IV of France) and his wife Marguerite de Valois (who was sister to no less than three French Kings – Francis II, Charles IX and Henri III – and popularised by Alexandre Dumas in his historical novel ‘La Reine Margot’). I recall watching the 1994 film version of Dumas’ book which starred Isabelle Adjani in the title role.
Eauze may be small but around it’s main square (which, unusual in rural France, has a bar that stayed open until one o’clock in the morning) there is a decent sized medieval quarter of narrow streets simply teeming with character.
The main square and a couple of the town’s narrow medieval streets The Camino Le Puy (also known as the Via Podiensis) takes you through Eauze
Also on the main square is a former cathedral, now a church, dedicated to Saint Luperc. Luperc (sometimes known as Luperculus) was a Bishop when the town was controlled by the Romans. He was martyred by the Romans during the reign of Emporer Trajan (3rd Century?). The original 15th/16th century church was destroyed by Cardinal Richelieu during the final days of France’s Religious Wars and the current building was built during the 18th century on the site of the older church. It is a tall but narrow Gothic building which, while not all that impressive from the outside, is quite distinctive on the inside. It is unusually light and airy and the apse contains a series of impressive paintings depicting the life of Jesus Christ and some beautiful long colourful stained glass windows.
Simple inside and unusually light, I really liked this church
One of the highlights of our visit to Eauze was a meal at La Vie en Rose, a Michelin listed restaurant which clearly deserves a star. It highlights local cuisine at very reasonable prices. A budget menu of the day was avalable but we went a la carte. I started with a really refreshing Salade de Saint Jacques a l’orange et aux avocats and followed it with the chef’s speciality, an earthy main of Papillotes de Saint Jacques au Foie Gras. The accompanying wine was a local Tariquet Amplitude recommended by the chef. I’m writing this blog some weeks after we left Eauze and, shame on me, I cannot remember Vanya’s main (she didn’t bother with a starter) but I recall her having a great looking dessert, a Marquise au Chocolat Creme Caramel, which she described as “simply divine”. I finished with a very good Armagnac but, in hindsight, I wish I too had taken a dessert. The ‘La Croustade’ looked fantastic.
We had our dogs with us when we visited La Vie En Rose and so ate outside.Papillotes de Saint Jacques au Foie Gras. They were cooked and served in aluminium.Vanya’s dessert, the Marquise Chocolat au Creme Caramel
One other feature of Eauze which I found particularly impressive was the local street art (most of which seemed to have been created by the one artist).
Most of the street art appeared to have been created by Jeegraffik. I liked it.
Camped up in Montrejeu and I somehow broke the Van’s fly screen. There’s no way you can spend Summer in a van in the south of France or Spain (our next port of call) without a fly screen so; we drove to the nearest (larger) town of Saint Gaudens to find the French equivalent of B&Q – Mr Bricolage.
Saint Gaudens is not the prettiest town in France but we arrived on a market day and we love local markets. So with the fly screen temporarily sorted via the purchase of a Moustiquaire Magnetique (just 12 euros), we wandered around the market; Vanya sourced a supply of ‘cbd’ in a local shop and; best of all we sat at the edge of the market and nursed a coffee and watched the world go by for a while.
The Church of Saint Peter & Saint Gaudens. I couldn’t get the more usual side view because the square alongside the church was full of market stallsNo doubt about it as to what dish Beanie most wanted.
Oh, and there’s one more thing worth knowing about Saint Gaudens. Dominique Bouchait, one of the great French cheese masters, is based in Montrejeau and, while his cheese factory is in his home town (alongside Camping Paradis), he has an impressive store in Saint Gaudens (Les Fromagers du Mont Royal).
Two creations available from Les Fromagers du Mont Royal
I last visited in Montrejeau in July 2019 (during Tour 2) but I never kept a blog that Tour, choosing instead to simply post brief details on Facebook. I recall I wasn’t very complimentary about the town in my FB entry. That was perhaps unfair because I didn’t get a good look at Montrejeau. My focus then was more towards the excellent camp site I stayed at (Camping du Paradis) and my trip to ‘le plus beau village’ of Saint Bertrand de Comminges where a medieval festival was under way. That was a great day but, it is time to put the record straight about Montrejeux.
Once again I chose to stay at Camping du Paradis and once again it was brilliant (nice pitch, facilities and people) although it is now three times more expensive than it was in July 2019. No matter, it was good enough for us to stay 4 days.
As for Montrejeau it’s a small town with no more than 3,000 people but, it has a couple of real plus points and it has some history. On balance I was a little unfair about the place and while Montrejeau is unlikely to set the world alight in my lifetime, it is a reasonable base from which to explore the Haute-Garonne.
So what did I see this time that I never saw before? Well, for a starter I missed the town’s main street. Instead I made my way from the campsite down along the Boulevard Bertrand de Lassusand then onto and over the town bridge to Saint Bertrand de Comminges. I returned the same way and as such missed the Marie (the town hall), the war memorial (it’s really quite unique), the Eglise de St Jean Baptiste (beautiful plain inside) and L’hotel de Lassus (the town’s most impressive mansion).
That’s the War Memorial in front of the Marie and a detail of the roof of l’hotel de Lessus (more about that below)
The church, L’Eglise de St Jean Baptiste, has an unusual octagonal shape tower but is otherwise unimpressive, until you get inside. The arched dark wooden roof and the roughly hewn cream coloured stone walls complement each other wonderfully well and the church isn’t full of garish furniture that might detract from what amounts to a beautifully simple interior. I like it.
There’s nothing particularly impressive about the exterior of the church but the interior…
L’Hotel de Lassus is not, nor ever was, a hotel. It’s a mansion (many French mansions are referred to as l’hotels), dating from the late 18th century and it belonged to the same Lassus family whose progeny subsequently built the 1892 Chateau de Valmirande. Nowadays it is used as a reception hall and there is a small space museum inside it.
L’hotel de LassusChateau Valmirande
One other attraction I sought out during this more recent visit to Montrjeau is it’s leisure centre and lake. The lake was developed out of a former gravel pit and extends over thirty hectares. To one side of the lake is a ‘Blue Flag’ water park complete with water slides and a bouncy obstacle course (I had to restrain Vanya from the obstacle course on the water) and the other side of the lake is for fishing.
The dogs loved the lake
So, Montréjeau does have more to it than I first thought after my visit in 2019.
I mentioned too that it has some history. Well, it was the scene of one of the last battles between Republicans and Royalists during the French Revolution. In the summer of 1799, anti-revolutionary insurrection broke out in the area which threatened even the city of Toulouse. The Paris Directory quickly sent an army to the area and the rebels were crushed at Montrejeau in August 1799.
The next day, I was more than a little surprised that Vanya remained keen to visit the Cirque de Moureze, especially after she had seen the photos taken by our dinner companions of the previous evening. This simply wasn’t her thing but, then again, she has surprised me in the past and, hey, life is for living. It never occured to me that she wasn’t wearing her glasses the night before and couldn’t actually see the photos she was being shown.
And so we made the short drive to the tiny village of Moureze. We paid our 5 Euros to park in the car park by the visitor centre at the edge of the village, grabbed the dogs and set off on one of the shorter trails through the Cirque de Moureze…
Within minutes Vanya was starting to question what she was doing…… and as we moved further away from the village, gaining height all the time… and the going became more hands on… well, it became time to retrace our steps.
We were in the 300 hectare park which is the Cirque de Moureze for about an hour and I certainly enjoyed our time there. The views are sensational. There are a number of well marked trails through the park which are of between one and three hours duration and they take you through a strange and spectacular landscape full of ‘Dolomites’. Dolomites are large limestone rocks which have been weathered by wind and water erosion over thousands of years into tall columns and all kinds of weird shapes. Put simply,the softer limestone is washed away to leave the harder rock sculptures, some of which are up to 500 metres high, and they make for great scrambling.
Moureze VillageSome of the Scrambles
We retraced our steps to the village and found a small cafe bar. Moureze is a peaceful little village centred around the 12th century Gothic church of Sainte Marie. There is the ruin of a castle at the top of a rock above the village but I couldn’t get to it. I think that access is across private land. The village has a couple of cafe bars (one has crepes on it’s menu), a couple of small craft shops, an antique shop and an interesting little cemetery which has been designated a Commonwealth War Cemetery because it is the last resting place of a young Captain Peter Seymour Fowler who was murdered by the German SS in August 1944.
The Church of Sainte Marie; The Antique Shop; Captain Fowler’s Grave – The detail surrounding his presence in France in August 1944 is now available to the public. He was there as part of an SOE M19 operation (Operation Snow White). Interesting (but tragic) reading.
We enjoyed our drink, had a quick wander around the village and then returned to the Van. We had a long drive ahead of us to Montrejeau where I stayed almost 5 years ago.
Pezenas was one of the first towns in France to be protected as a historic monument. It also one of the most beautiful towns in the Languedoc Roussillon area and, without a doubt, one of my favourite towns in France.
Situated between Beziers and Montpelier, Pezenas is a small town of some 9,000 inhabitants but it has a sizeable and almost wholly pedestrianised medieval centre. It is a great place to explore.
We were parked at Camping Castelsec, a pleasant municipal campsite within easy walking distance of the old centre. It took no more than 15 minutes to walk to the town and my route brought me on to a wide avenue, the Cours Jean Joures, near the Place de la Republique. One side of the Cours Jean Joures backs on to the old town.
The buildings on this avenue are for the most part large houses; some may even qualify as mansions or ‘Hotels Particuliers’ as they are referred to in Pezenas. I walked the length of the avenue to Place Ledru Rollin where there is a gateway into the old town. What a find! It’s a maze of narrow winding streets and alleys. Almost all of the buildings in this warren are constructed of the same attractive honey coloured stone but they come in all shapes and sizes and no two buildings or even two doors are the same. It is enchanting. I spent hours wandering and marvelling at the place.
That’s Place de la Republique at one end of Cours Jean Joures. Once through the gateway into the town I simply turned right into the busiest street and made my way to Place Gambetta (the centre of the old town) where stands the mansion known as L’Hotel des Montagut and it’s fountain… … then it was just a matter of making my way backwards and forwards around the attractive honey coloured stone streets and alleys… … Every street or alley was brimming with character and history…… and many were simply downright beautiful…
The old town is a real mix of different commercial and residential buildings; many with unique features, be they ornaments or carvings or simply special window dressings and, as often as not, the real curios are to be found up on high. You need eyes in the top of your head if you want to see everything in Pezenas.
One building on Rue Alfred Sabatier has a statue of Saint Roch carved into an upper corner. Quite why there should be such a statue on this particular house, I don’t know. Saint Roch is, among other things, the Patron Saint of Dogs. It is said he contracted the plague whilst helping others with the disease and was then shunned and would have died except; a dog brought him bread every day and licked his wounds until he recovered. Because of this, Saint Roch is often depicted with a dog by his side and pointing at a lesion (caused by the plague) on his thigh.
One of many unique carvings on a building (up on high) in the old town and a statue of St Roch on Rue Alfred Sabatier
The town is home to a wide range of craftsmen; those working with iron or wood being particularly prevalent and; as a result, there are plenty of unusual art and craft shops in evidence throughout the old town (and some fabulous window displays). You could spend a lot of money here.
The town’s population swelled in 1298 with the arrival of a number of Jewish refugees from Spain, Portugal and Italy and this influx added to the range of craftsmen in the town as silversmiths and jewellers figured prominently amongst them. The Jewish population was to prosper in Pezenas for the next 100 years, most living in either Rue Juiverie or Rue des Litanies (which, it is said, had been reserved for them) until 1394 when the French King Charles VI decreed that all Jews should be expelled from France. As a consequence of this action the area of the town which comprises Rue Juiverie and Rue des Litanies is now referred to as the Jewish Ghetto but it is most unlikely it was deemed a ghetto at the time. It now contains a few artisan shops and bijou restaurants and is as integral a part of the old town as it ever was.
The entrance to what is now known as the Jewish Ghetto – the 14th century Porte Faugeres Photos of Rue Juiverie and Rue des Litanies. I was told that the Star of David built into the house in the second photo was added by a recent owner of the house in recognition of the injustice caused to the Jewish population in Pezenas all those years ago. I don’t know if that story is true or not.
Pezenas’ most famous “adopted” son is Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known as Moliere, France’s 17th century answer to our very own William Shakespeare. Moliere lived in Pezenas for a while (some say up to four years) and he is wholly revered. Everywhere you go in the town there are references to Moliere – there are shops, restaurants and hotels named after him. There is a monument and museum dedicated to him. The town has even retrieved the chair that Moliere is said to have sat on outside his barber friend’s salon. The list goes on and on.
To my mind, however, the most striking memorial to Moliere is the Monument carved from Carrara Marble on the Avenue Francois Hue. It takes the form of a bust of Moliere and two other more complete figures; the first being a female character, Lucette, from his comedy “Monsieur de Pourceaugnac” and the second being what looks like a satyr. It is presumed that Lucette was included in the monument because the character makes frequent positive remarks about Pezenas. One can only assume the satyr relates to the more exotic or licentious behaviour that supposedly characterised Moliere.
Photos of the Moliere Hotel; Moliere’s Monument on Avenue Francois Hue and; the erstwhile barber’s shop owned by Moliere’s friend Gelys where Moliere is supposed to have sat and sketched characters for his plays. The salon is now a museum to French singer/comedian, Boby Lapointe.
I could go on about Pezenas for a while yet but it will suffice to say that we liked the place so much we decided to stay on an extra day. These extensions are becoming a feature of this particular tour.
The second day was more about eating and drinking in the town and again we were blessed. On this our second night in Pezenas we stumbled upon a Grand Wine Festival on the Cours Jean Joures (Les Estivales de Pezenas). Every Monday, the local wine producers set up stalls along the length of the avenue. You buy a wine glass and off you go tasting the different local wines. The town provides tables and chairs (benches) and there are a handful of food stalls – I saw one serving oysters! That is a great way to spend a Monday night and it looked as if the town’s whole population thinks so too because the place was teeming with people.
I read that Les Estivales de Pezenas is held every Friday in the summer but this was a Monday (and all the local publicity refer to the event being held “Tous les lundi soir”
We couldn’t make a full night of it at the festival. I had booked us into a highly recommended restaurant called “Le Duplex de la Maman des Poissons” on Rue Conti but, once again, what a result! We had a marvellous evening.
We sat outside the front of the restaurant near an interesting couple from North Yorkshire and we got to talking (and sharing some Picpoul de Pinet) and, I for one, enjoyed the best tapas I have ever had outside of Logrono. Moreover, the couple we met told us about a place they had visited earlier in the week that we decided, there and then, should be our next destination – Cirque de Moureze. If Vanya hadn’t drunk quite so much Picpoul or, had paid a little more attention to what they had said about the Cirque de Mourez or, looked more closely at their photos, she may not have been so keen. lol.
Outstanding restaurant; good wine (we drunk them clean out of Picpoul) and; the best food. Fantastic!
I loved our time in Pezenas and look forward to returning. My only regret is that we weren’t there for the Saturday morning market which I understand is one of the largest and best in the region.
Our current plan is to be in Spain for when Spain play Italy in the first of the two European Championships Semi-Finals. There was time therefore for one more overnight stay in France before we crossed the border. We settled on the small town of Villeneuve les Beziers which sits on the Canal du Midi and is within walking distance (4.5 miles) of Beziers.
I didn’t know it at the time but the drive south would take us over the 2.4 km Millau Viaduct which spans the Tarn Valley. Designed by Norman Foster and completed in 2004 it was, and perhaps still is, the tallest bridge tower in the world at over 1100 feet and it has the highest road bridge deck in Europe at 890 feet. It’s an incredible feat of engineering and quite beautiful although Vanya wasn’t in the least impressed as we drove over it – that is her acrophobia at work again.
The Millau Viaduct – Beautiful
Shortly after crossing the viaduct and with the weather still bad, but getting brighter all the time, we pulled off the motorway at Clermont L’Herault with a view to having lunch at one of two nearby beauty spots; either the Cirque de Moureze (with it’s strange rock formations) or the supposedly pretty Lac de Salagou, whichever we reached first.
Clermont l’Herault itself is a really quite unremarkable little town but from there Lac de Salagou was well signposted. Lac de Salagou was not that much more interesting and is best remembered for the unbelievably loud noise made by the cicadas (cigales in French) as the rain finally ceased and the sun came through. Honestly the sound was almost deafening. The other thing about the place is the strange red soil in the area which days later is still coating the Van.
Lac de Salagou as the weather changed
We reached Villeneuve les Beziers soon enough and the sun was still shining as we parked up in a small campsite, Les Berges du Canal, which sits right on the Canal du Midi. The Canal is another engineering marvel stretching as it does some 240 kilometres from Toulouse to the Mediterranean Sea. It was built during the reign of Louis XIV (between 1667 and 1681) and connects the River Garonne to the Etang de Thau thus enabling canal boats to travel all the way from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Many of those canal boats have since been converted into really comfortable living accommodation…
Villeneuve les Beziers has a very pretty and surprisingly large old town. The 1oth century church of St Stephen is surrounded by narrow streets and lanes which in all likelihood haven’t changed much since the French Revolution. We had just missed the town’s annual Latin Festival with it’s concerts and salsa and flamenco dancing but were happy enough to simply wander the old town and stop for drinks in a local backstreet bar.
The Canal du Midi dominates the town…
The narrow streets and lanes probably haven’t changed since the French Revolution. I couldn’t find out much about him but there’s a plaque in the Place Antoine Bezombes commemorating the life and death of a 20 year old Antoine Bezombes – Mort pour la Liberte – 1793
The Church of St Stephen – the original Church of St Stephen was built in the 10th century
I loved some of the street art but best of all was this fresco
After exploring Villeneuve I left the dogs with Vanya and set off westwards along the Canal to Beziers which is, I am told, the major tourist attraction in this region. There was never going to be time for me to see all that much of Beziers but, sad person that I am, I was delighted to stumble upon the Beziers Aqueduct which takes the Canal du Midi over the River Orb. Another fine piece of engineering but also visually impressive with it’s arcaded walkways under the canal itself. Unfortunately, those walkways are closed to the public but one can walk the tow paths at the top. The aqueduct took 4 years to build and was completed in 1858 but the Chief Engineer died a few weeks beforehand and it had to be finished by his son.
The view from the aqueduct over Beziers and towards the Cathedral of Saint Nazaire is impressive. The cathedral is unusual in that it looks more like a castle than a church. It was built that way to impress upon the Cathars the might and power of Catholic Rome – not that there would have been many Cathars left in Beziers after the 1209 massacre which initiated the Albigensian Crusade.
The Beziers Aquaduct and a view towards La Cathedrale de Saint Nazaire de Beziers from the aqueduct
By the time I got back to Villeneuve I was ready for a few beers (the round trip amounted to some 12 miles of walking) and Vanya and I found a real local’s bar where we enjoyed the cheapest beers of the tour so far.
Dinner followed at a fine restaurant on the canal front, with the restaurant owners once again being very accommodating so far as our dogs were concerned. We ordered a mixed tapas followed by a particularly salty pizza (far too many anchovies for me) to share. The tapas were great except for one dish, which I thought were mushrooms but proved to be duck hearts – uugghh!!
A couple of beers outside a very friendly local bar in Villeneuve before moving on to a very nice restaurant where we enjoyed a good Picpoul de Pinet (which is produced in the Languedoc) and a few tapas
Lovely sunset over one of the 63 locks on the Canal du Midi
Canet de Salars is a small commune in the Aveyron department of Occitanie just 90 miles south east of Rocamador. Vanya chose the place on the strength of a supposedly good campsite, Camping Le Caussanel, which sits on the banks of the Lac de Paraloup. The idea was to move south east instead of south west because the weather forecast was slightly more promising in the east but, most important, the campsite looked a good place for us to watch the European Championship Quarter Final match between England and Ukraine.
Parked up at Camping Le Caussenal and that is the view over Lac de Paraloup from the Van
We arrived at the campsite early afternoon even after a prolonged stop at one of the motorway service stations where we had tucked into a selection of French Cheeses bought at a huge Leclerc Supermarket earlier in the day. Whereas last year was very much about sampling Cremant wines, this year it is about French cheeses. Today’s unanimous winner from a selection of Savoie cheeses was Reblechon, a semi-soft mountain cheese made from unpasteurised cow’s milk and best eaten with nuts or dried fruit. It is also the principal ingredient in a Tartiflette which skiers in the French Alps will be well familiar with (or so Vanya tells me).
Reblechon
Most of the afternoon was spent spoiling the dogs. We had the campsite pretty much to ourselves and could indulge them without putting on other residents.
Can we go in the water please?
The expected wet weather curtailed the afternoon’s fun or who knows what would have happened in the cam[site pools?
As for the football… what a result! England 4, Ukraine 0 with Raheem Sterling once again the man of the match and England now into a semi-final match against Denmark. We’ll sleep well tonight but it is going to be an early start in the morning. We have decided upon just one more stop in France before crossing the border into Spain. The weather in France is still not great and we both want to be in Spain when the first semi-final, Spain v Italy, is played.
We were the only ones watching the football but the beer was good and relatively inexpensive… and the result was magnificent
I was here a couple of years ago. It is touristy (and I mean very touristy – fridge magnets and toy trains ferrying crowds of people about) but for all that it is very pretty and one of those places that simply has to be seen. More to the point it is within walking distance of La Foret des Singes (the Forest of the Monkeys) which Vanya was desperate to see.
Rocamadour
Rocamadour is a small village, well under 1,000 people, built on 3 successive levels into the side of the Alzou Canyon in the Dordogne Valley. It is stunning, especially if you can visit the place when there are no large crowds.
Already a place of some religious significance, in 1166 it became a “must see” destination on the pilgrimage route from Le Puy en Velay in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain after a perfectly preserved, long dead body was dug up just outside the local church. No one could identify the body but it was deemed “incorruptible” and assumed to be Saint Amadour (a one time local hermit). Call me a cynic if you like but such an assumption could only benefit the local community which was immediately renamed the Rock of Amadour (later bastardized to Rocamadour) and when, just 6 years later, the local Benedictine monks produced a Book of Miracles (126 properly authenticated miracles) – well, the place was made! It’s popularity as a pilgrimage spot grew further after 1244 when King Louis IX (later Saint Louis) visited and, despite all kinds of problems during France’s long and bloody Religious Wars (which amongst other things saw the Huegenots burn the long dead body of Saint Amadour), it is now one of France’s most popular places to visit although nowadays there are many more tourists than pilgrims. Rocamadour is not just about Saint Amadour. There are plenty of other extraordinary events associated with this town – even leaving aside those associated with the Black Madonna (supposedly carved by Amadour) and the Miraculous Bell which rings without human intervention whenever the Madonna saves someone’s life anywhere in the world. There is, for instance, the story of the famous Durandel Sword (a bit like Excalibur) which Roland threw away (so the Saracens couldn’t claim it) as he lay dying at the Battle of Roncevaux. It seems he threw the sword so hard it landed 160 kilometres away in the rock wall at Rocamadour. Now there may be some truth to this legend because I have actually seen the sword which is stuck into the rock wall at Rocamadour!
I mentioned that Rocamadour is split into three levels. The lowest level sits against the cliff face at the bottom of the Alzou Canyon and comprises a single street of medieval stone houses now, sadly, almost entirely given over to tourist shops and bar-restaurants. Cut into the side of the canyon directly over the houses, the second level is the religious heart of Rocamadour and comprises various monastic buildings (churches & chapels) the principal ones being the Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de Rocamadour and the Basilique Saint-Sauveur. Towering over everything and perched at the top of the gorge is the Chateau or castle which was built to protect visiting pilgrims.
Some of the very few properties at the lower level not (yet) given over to tourism
The view towards Rocamadour from the conurbation at the top of the canyon which was once referred to as L’Hospitalet (after the hospital which was built there in the 11 century) but which is now considered an integral part of Rocamadour. The tower in the second photo forms part of the Chateau.
The view up towards the Chateau from the second level, the religious heart of the town
Part of the second level
Inside the Chapel of Notre Dame. The detail in the photo on the right includes the Vierge Noire (the Black Madonna)
The photo on the left is of the Chapelle Saint Louis, dedicated to him after he visited as a pilgrim. It is now dedicated to injured or dead rugby players (sic). The photo on the right is of the wooden mezzanine, built to accommodate increasing numbers of pilgrims, in the Basilique Saint Saveur
The stained glass windows in the Chapel of Notre Dame are beautiful. I’m not so sure about the sculpture of Saint Jacques
The edge of the plateau above Rocamadour, where L’Hospitalet used to be, is predominantly modern and now filled with tourist shops and bar restaurants. Nothing too wrong with that; tourists have as much right as pilgrims to visit such a beautiful place. It is just a shame the tourist shops and restaurants are not confined to this upper part of Rocamadour and that the medieval part is not left as was for visitors (pilgrims and tourists alike) to enjoy.
There are a few places up on the plateau, along with the Chateau, that deserve special mention. The first is the very prominent Chapelle de l’Hospitalet which sits in the ruins of the old hospital which was built way back to tend sick or dying pilgrims.
The photo on the left is of the view from L’Hospitalet towards the medieval part of the town. The photo on the right is of the Chapelle L’Hospitalet and it is taken from inside the ruins of the old hospital.
Also on the plateau is the Grotte des Merveilles with its stalactites, stalagmites and Paleolithic drawings which go back 20,000 BC. It is a very small grotto with a handful of primitive drawings and it in no way compares with the Lascaux cave system and drawings (also to be found in the Dordogne) but, the 45 minute guided tour through the grotto does provide some temporary reprieve from the midday sun.
One of the best places to visit up on the plateau and less than a kilometre from L’Hospitalet is La Foret de Singes (The Monkey Forest) which is a wonderful park of some 50 acres where three troops together comprising 150 Barbary Macaques roam freely. With less than 8,000 living wild (there were 23,000 in 1978) Barbary Macaques are a seriously endangered species. La Foret des Singes provides a wonderful habitat both for the monkeys to thrive and for researchers to study their behaviours. Moreover “La Foret”, in conjunction with three sister parks (one of which is Trentham Monkey Forest in England), has successfully returned entire troops of Macaques totalling some 600 monkeys back into the wild. Our walk through the park lasted just over an hour but it is not a long walk. We enjoyed frequent, sometimes extended stops through a beautiful setting and would have stayed much longer except we were never going to leave the dogs for more than an hour or so.
To end this particular blog I enjoyed two firsts in terms of food during this trip – One was Rocamadour Cheese (Cabecou), made from unpasteurised goat’s milk presented in the shape of a small disk and eaten warm on a slice of walnut bread and with a crisp salad. The other was the king of pates, Pate Foie Gras, made from duck liver specially fattened by gavage. I loved them both. Vanya was not keen on the pate.
Chilling in the pool this afternoon. Not sure where we are heading next. We’ll talk about it over a wine or two later this evening. One thing for sure, it will be hot and sunny.
We spent the weekend at the Yelloh in Montclar and had a most relaxing time although by Sunday night all the good beer had gone. That was not all my doing – there was a birthday party on the Saturday night and the attendees pretty much finished the draught beer off.
We were off to Limoux early on the Monday morning for a wine tour. Vanya had been able to organise another tour with Guinot Wine for 10.30 am. It was really informative and of course the actual tasting was enjoyable.
Back again…
Our guide was named Eltonjean (he told us his father was a great fan of Elton John) and over about an hour and a half he introduced us to Guinot’s whole range of wines (and very good they are too). An hour and a half is not a lot of time to “Sacrifice” at a wine tasting and you could tell I didn’t drink a great deal because “I’m Still Standing”. In any event, I “Believe” I could have managed a great deal more and “I Guess That’s Why They Call This The Blues” that I’m now suffering from. This is utter nonsense and I should stop this and apologise but “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word”. Bloody hell, seems like I could go on forever. Truly sorry. Just a bit of fun.
We came away from Guinot much more knowledgeable regarding Cremant and Blanquette wines. All the Guinot wines are made using the traditional method (i.e. by hand) using Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and, peculiar to this region, the Mauzac grape varieties. Their Rose also has a little Pinot Noir. It is the mix of these grapes which tell the Cremant and Blanquette apart with Blanquette being predominantly Mauzac and the Cremant using considerably less. If I understood Eltonjean correctly, Cremant comes in at 12% and will keep a good 5 years. This is a feature of a good Cremant; like most Champagnes it will last (until such time as you open the bottle).
We came away too with a mixed case which included two bottles of their best wine and, yes, it is the same wine as the one we had been gifted by the owner last Saturday (i.e. the Cremant Imperial Tendre Boise). Sounds fanciful this but Vanya and I each consider it to be at least on a par with the Louis Roederer Crystal that we drank at Rohan’s graduation last year and at a fraction of the price. It could have been the atmosphere in the cellars that made us feel this way but we can put it to the test again when we return to the UK. Ironically and I discovered this much later, Guinot’s Cremant Imperial Tendre Boise and Louis Roederer Crystal were both favourites of Czar Nicholas II and both companies mention the Czar in their marketing. Not many people know that.
We had a good wander around Limoux before moving on…
