Discovering the countryside (Part 1)

Recently we had a “friend of a friend” from Australia stay with us for a night and they reciprocated by inviting us to spend a night or two with them at their rental accommodation in Najac, France. Najac is in the Quercy region of France and is quite different from our part of the country, so we decided to take a couple of days off and take up their kind offer.

Antique shop in Cahors

As we had not seen a lot of this part of the country we decided to drive via a few well known towns on our way to Najac. The entire trip was a 456 km round trip that took us through 6 different Departments in France – Dordogne/Gironde/Lot/Tarn et Garonne/Aveyron/Tarn and each Department has its own special appeal.

Les Jardins de Secrets in Cahors

Our first stop for lunch was Cahors, which is the capital of the Lot Department and set on a U-bend in the Lot River. It was first established by the Celts over 2000 years ago, but now shows predominantly its medieval charm. A very pleasant city of around 25,000 population and it is easy to walk around the “old town” and take in some of the charm.

One of the famous sights of Cahors is the Valentré Bridge which was built as a fortified bridge during the 14^th Century and is referred to by legend as one of the Devil’s bridges. The legend has it that the builder of the bridge could not fully complete the bridge as it kept falling away at the last leg. In order to succeed, he made a pact with the Devil so that the bridge could be completed. To appease the devil a small devil like creature was built into one of the three towers of the bridge (see photos below)

The Valentré Bridge with devil

Cahors is also well known for its black heavy wine which is generally 100% Malbec in variety. These days the wine is not as heavy or as dark as it used to be but it is one of the very few regions in Europe that basically use the malbec variety of grape in such a high concentration.

After lunching in Cahors, we then drove through pretty towns such as Villefranche-de-Rouergue and onto Najac for the night. We had read a little about Najac as it is classed as one of the Plus Beaux Villages of France. Indeed it more than met our expectations as it is a long narrow medieval bastide, built around 1253 that stretches all the way along the ridge line overlooking the river valley below. At one end of the village is an old ruined chateau and church that stands out on the horizon for many miles. We expected a smaller town, but while it is narrow, it just kept on going. This village is very popular with tourists during the peak spring and summer season and can be very crowded.

Najac Village and Chateau

After spending the night at Najac, in the morning we visited nearby smaller towns such as Varen and Lagoupié before a quick visit to the wonderful hilltop bastide of Cordes-sur-Ciel. Cordes is also well worth a visit, but it takes a reasonable climb to access the town.

Cordes sur Ciel

The journey home took us through other wonderful places including Figeac which is a pleasant town of around 12,000 population nestled on the river Célé and very peaceful. Our journey was originally going to take us to Rocamadour and Sarlat but hat will wait for another trip. Instead we detoured via Domme another hilltop bastide overlooking the Dordogne River and very much a tourist focussed centre. There are a number of art and souvenir type establishments, but also a couple of very good restaurants.

The village of Domme

On the final legs home we passed through Beynac et Cazenac, which is the home of the Chateau Beynac on a hill overlooking the river and a short distance away the neighbouring Chateau de Castelnaud. During the 100 years’ war, Beynac was a chateau loyal to the King of France, while Castelnaud was loyal to the English who had a long history in the Aquitaine region.

Chateau Beynac

The French Bureaucracy (continued) 

Well it may have seen like forever, but after a matter of 8 months since our application, we have now received our French Permis de Conduire or our Drivers’ Licence.  The dilemma appears to have been caused by the lack of action by the French Embassy in Australia chasing up the local authorities to ensure that our Oz licences were valid and had no disqualifications. In the end, we had to do all of the liaison work with the RTA and have them send our records directly to the Prefecture in the Dordogne and even that was not straight forward. Clearly not everyone wants to help.

Further good news arrived last week when we were informed that our application to renew our Residency status (originally by Visa) has been approved and after 1 June we can collect our new Carte de Sejour or residency cards. This allows us a further 12 months residency at which time we will need to renew again. After 5 years, we can apply for permanent residency and citizenship, which will give us the much needed EU passport (we will then be dual passport holders). Our next adventure will be our first Tax Returns in France, which are currently being completed for us. Fingers crossed!!!!.

We are both comfortable that it will all fall into place.

À bientôt

How to spend a Sunday afternoon….

L'abbaye de La Sauve-Majeure

in the front garden

As very little is open on a Sunday, if we don’t got to a vide grenier or a brocante marché , then we like to take a drive in the countryside.

On a recent Sunday we discovered the Abbaye de La Sauve-Majeure near Créon just east of Bordeaux. This is the ruin of a  Benedictine abbey founded in 1079. As the tourist office pamphlet says -" in the 12th century, the Abbeye  stood at the head of 70 priories stretching from England to Aragon (Spain)", so this was a very important religious site.

Not unlike many religious buildings, the French Revolution saw La Sauve-Majeure ransacked and the site used as a "quarry" to pilfer the stonework to be used in building non secular buildings and private chateaux and other buildings. Fortunately, the site has been preserved and protected in more recent times.

It is now a world heritage listed site so decline has been stopped thanks to government funds and the management of Monuments Nationaux. It is on one of the Routes de Santiago de Compostela (as is Sainte Foy La Grande) so also receives lots of visitors throughout the year. The buildings once included the church, the chapter house, the cloister, the scriptorium and the refectory all surrounded by a high stone wall. 

the ceiling of a tower

Some of the stone work had been restored over the centuries . On the columns are fish, plants, mermaids, demons and saints. The stonemasons certainly had a sense of humour when this place was built.

mermaids

pine cones

leaves

a knight riding a lion ??

not sure what these people are up to 

sea monsters

a medieval demon

don't you love the copy of the original door ?

The abbey and the church of St Pierre opposite are built on the top of hills and the lovely village nestles beneath on the slopes. 

the church of St Pierre 

On Sunday the sun was shining, the trees were in bud, the birds were singing and the lawns were full of tiny daisies. Beautiful. Families and groups of walkers had brought picnic lunches to eat at the tables set out under the trees and overlooking the surrounding village. And of course,  there are always all those with enormous cameras (Graham included) for snapping those memorable details of the abbey.

amicalement, mes amis

**photos courtesy of Graham ( and my little pocket camera)

Let me explain our town….

one of our riverside walks with a chateau hiding in the trees

Sainte Foy is a country town where real country people live and work, not a tourist destination as so many french towns can be. We are surrounded by vineyards, fruit orchards, canola and sunflowers . We are on the Dordogne river about an hour and a quarter drive from Bordeaux and a half hour from Bergerac . There are airports in both and a rail line between so we are easy to get to. The river is the border between the déparments of Dordogne and Gironde. Sainte Foy la Grande and Pinheuilh are in Gironde and Port Sainte Foy is in Gironde. C'est la vie.

canola fields 

Sainte Foy la Grande is a combination of three small towns -

Sainte Foy is a bastide village that was given it’s charter (royal approval to build a town) in 1255. Most of the original colonnades in the old central square still stand but only small sections of the original town walls can be seen today. Sainte Foy (pronounced ‘santa fwa’) takes up a small area in the centre of town and has a population of about 2,500.

rue de la république - there's one in every town !

above the colonnades

the tourist office

apartments over the shops

some of the houses need a little maintenance

Port Sainte Foy et Ponchapt is across the river and this is where we live.

This was established as the port for Sainte Foy and boats collected wine and other crops from this area and took them down the river  to Bordeaux. A lot of the houses here were originally built for merchants and other professionals . Ponchapt is a small village up the hill and is included in our ‘commune’, that is, local council area. The population is around 2,500.

Port Ste Foy church and musée 

houses further along our street and lucky enough to have  river views

Port Ste Foy mairie (town hall) and post office

Pinheuilh is a modern suburb surrounding Sainte Foy.

Most of Pinheuilh (pronounced ‘pin-eye-a’) was built in the last century and includes the local shopping mall on the outskirts of town. It has a population of around 4,000.

In the town we have about 16 coiffeurs (hairdressers), 13 boulangers (bakers), about 23 bars and restaurants, a cinema, 4 supermarkets, a club nautique (rowing and kayaking), an equestrian centre, a boules club, a rugby stadium for the local club Stade Foyen , baseball fields, tennis club, a hospital, 3 dog grooming salons, 6 pairs of swans on the river - and 3 chateaux (that we've found).

the swans have come to town

fishing from a weir

Club Nautique

rowing and kayaking are after school sports

 So now you know where we live...come and visit us sometime

à bientôt mes amis