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Go to the Page LIst for a full listing of pages and their status
All material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission - Adrian Fletcher can be contacted at afletch at paradoxplace dot com
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CIAO ADRIANO
Around Agen
October 2007
THE ROUTE TO DATE WITH MAPS OF FRANCE AND OF ITS MEDIEVAL PILGRIMAGE ROADS
Back to Ciao Adriano France Overview
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Agen, the Prune Capital of Europe, lies to the NW of Toulouse. It was an important Roman centre, then later became a frontier town between the territories of Plantagenet England and France - changing hands 11 times over 200 years.
It's now a fair sized commercial town, but the old town area is pleasant to wander and relatively traffic free. When travelling east or west it's best to cross the wide river (the Garonne) and use the motorway to the south, as the old main road on the north is painful.
The IBIS hotel here worked really well as a base - thanks especially to Bénédicte for her help. You could in fact access Toulouse for the day from here without too much trouble, though we did not !
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this famous and iconic Romanesque statue of the Prophet Jeremiah is in the portal of the abbey church.
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The Abbeye St-Pierre de Moissac (on the via Podiensis from Le Puy-en-Velay)
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Flaran is an ex Cistercian Abbey to the south of Agen. It is owned by the regional authority, and an impressive amount of creative effort has been put into displays and signage about Cistercian monastic life and about medieval pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela. They deserve great credit for having more than made the best out of what they have got, but what they have got is not in the same league as Noirlac or Fontenay, let alone a lot of the Spanish and Italian Cistercian Abbeys, as a basic structure.
On the way to Flaran, one passes through a pilgrimage town called Condom.
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Further down the Garonne towards Bordeaux is l'Église St-Saveur - a pilgrimage church perched up against another high rampart - this time of a medieval village called St-Macaire (sounds more like a health fund!). The frescos in the crossing are presently (October 2007) being restored, which means a lot of scaffolding and darkness - here's a flash photo of the interesting apse ceiling.
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Sunday lunch in the main square of Eymet (south of Bergerac). Eymet is a Bastide - a word describing small planned towns in SW France set up and funded by rulers in the in the 1200s and 1300s as a means of repopulating the areas ravaged by the Cathar wars and conflicts between Plantagenet England and France. Nowadays, the English have returned as property owners and holidaymakers, and you are more likely to hear English spoken than French over lunch.
Several of the smaller Bastide centers - which typically consisted of a square surrounded with arcaded buildings - have been preserved - though the need for visitor car parking has mostly destroyed their photogenic attractions.
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Go to the Page LIst for a full listing of pages and their status
All material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission - Adrian Fletcher can be contacted at afletch at paradoxplace dot com
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