Goodbye Medieval, Hello Modernity (Well Kind Of)

 Another War?  Really?

By this point you should not be surprised that another war was around the corner.  Once again, it was a Catholic on Catholic brawl. The Cathars were a dissident faction of the "traditional" church and the Pope would have none of that so the fight was on. This one lasted 20 years from 1209-1229 and it is estimated that between two and four million people died.  This all happened in the Southwest of France where the Dordogne is but it also extended to the Languedoc which is adjacent.  Beyond the human carnage, many villages were destroyed and the economy turned on its head.  So, enter the bastides.

Michael and I always wondered why anytime we went to an adorable outdoor market it was always billed as "operating continuously for over 700 years".  Did they all get the idea at the same time?  It appeared more than coincidence and it was.  So, here we are in the 13th Century and the Cathar Crusade has ended.  People dead, villages destroyed, feudal arrangements in disarray.  Raymond VII, a Lord located in Toulouse, gets permission to create a new type of village called a bastide.  It cannot be fortified but instead will be a hub for commerce and a new method of organizing the economy.  So Raymond V|II devises a plan for these bastides (the first planned communities?) and they get busy building 700 of them between 1222 and 1372.  Before we get too deep in the weeds about the formula for bastides, Michael will provide you with some photos of the magnificent markets that all originated with the inception of the bastides.

From Serfs to Free Men

Up to the foundation of the bastides there were landowners and serfs.  The serfs essentially belonged to the lord and tithed a percentage of their crops to the Lord.  Now things changed quite radically and quite quickly.  People were encouraged to come and live in the bastides where they would become artisans and produce goods for trade.  They would be free men but would still pay taxes to the Lord or landowner based on their houses and the goods they sold.  The farmers would no longer be serfs but would also be free and would  pay taxes on the goods they sold in the market rather than the previous method of payment to the Lord.

We had visited many bastides in previous trips without realizing exactly what they were but now it became apparent.  All bastides have a common land use plan.  At the center of each is a large market square.  Prominent in the square is an open but covered section which serves as the center of the market.  Many of these bastides have what looks like the original covered marketplace intact and in use.  The market square is surrounded by buildings housing stores, and cafes or restaurants.  Extending from the buildings on all four sides is a wide arcade.  The church is invariably adjacent to the market square  but never within it.  Once you know the layout, you will immediately know when you have wandered into a bastide.  Some are on hills, some in valleys but they all have the common design.

One of the first bastide towns we visited was Issigeac. The church of Saint-Félicien was completed in 1527 and is an example of late Gothic architecture.

The half timber houses also speaks to the age of Issigeac, which was founded in the 6th or 7th century, with the first written mention in 1088.

The rear and front of Saint-Astier church in the bastide town of Saint Astier...

..

which is over a 1000 years old.

Throughout France you will see these monuments to the soldiers who perished in World War I. It lists the names of all of the soldiers from Saint Astier who died in the war.

One of the entrances to the fortified portion of Saint Astier. The town dates from the 8th century, where an abbey was built around the tomb of the hermit Astérius (d.c. 640).

The town of Le Bugue from the opposite bank of the Vezere River. Le Bugue dates from the 9th century, first mentioned as "Albuga".

The covered market of Le Bugue started in November 1319 when the King of France ordered it to be held permanently on every Tuesday. Each market town has a particular day and the vendors will travel from town to town.

One of the buildings in Belvés which was founded in the 9th century.

The covered market in Belvés is more reminiscent of most of the covered markets in the Bastide towns.

A portal to the protected inner town.

This door leads to the troglodyte homes located 6 meters below the market in Belvés.

Poor peasants made their home here from the 13th to the 18th century.

They added wooden platforms to increase the storage.

An old mill stone in the troglodyte cave. These rooms were carved out of the limestone to make individual rooms.

A view of the countryside from the ramparts of Belvés.

An old half timbered house in Bergerac which was founded by the Count of Périgord in 1070-1080.

A house of one of the wealthier residents of Bergerac.

This mural stood out among the old buildings of Bergerac.

The covered market of Saint Jean de Cole...

with another view showing the romanesque church of Saint John the Baptist, built by Raynaud Thiviers, Bishop of Périgeux. Like all bastide towns the church was not directly on the market square. It was offset on one of the corners. 

The words "MARCHE COUVERT" above the window refer to the covered market. This house was not the covered market, but was on the square of the covered market. The French lover their flowers and you will often see flowers on the small balconies.

The market squares will often have these arched walkways on one or more sides of the square.

There are always cafes around the market square as well.

Another restaurant (not yet open) with amazing flowers on the balcony above...

and a close up of the flowers.

Another very old house with flowers outside each window.

Many of the bastide towns would also have these narrow passageways referred to as "carrérots" off of the main streets.

One of the fortified entrances to the town.

This house with its Ionic columns and impressive door must belong to one of the wealthier denizens of the town.

A view of Rocamadour, which takes its name from the Roca Major (Major Rock) that emerges with its complex of churches and chapels 120 meters up on the side of a cliff.

A closer view of the buildings perched on the cliff. During the 12th to the 16th century this was one of the four most important pilgrimage sites in medieval Christendom.

It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the most visited tourist sites in France...

which is why we chose to view it from the other side of the Alzou valley.

Rocamadour is also a stopover on the French Way of Saint James to Santiago de Compostela.

The pilgrimage church of Notre Dame contains a wooden Black Madonna reputed to have been carved by Saint Amator (Amadour) himself.

Even before there were buildings, people were living in the caves of Rocamadour.

A bower of flowers on the arch of the market square in Villareal, a bastide town built in 1265/1267.

The covered market of Villareal. Each covered market is unique.

The Marie of Villareal, which is the administrative building of a small town or village in France.

This church in Domme, dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption, was created by a master mason of Monpazier. Domme is a French bastide town from 1281.

In the Dordogne (Périgord) and surrounding region, it is a living tradition to erect an Arbre de Mai in front of the home or town hall (Mairie) to celebrate newly elected municipal councilors or the mayor. A sign attached to the trunk often reads "Honneur à nos élus" ("Honor to our elected officials").

The Domme Marie flying the French and European Union flags.

The views of the French countryside from Domme are magnificent. You can see the Dordogne river and ...

a closer view of the limestone cliffs, which are a feature throughout the Dordogne.

The entrance to one of the most charming bastide towns we visited - Monpazier. This is the Tower of Porte St. Jacques. Monpazier was founded in 1284 as an English bastide town by Edward I. 

The streets of Monpazier were lined with plants, some of which had beautiful flowers.

This bower of roses were at the entrance to this arched carrérots.

One of the perfect roses on the bower.

Monpazier has a huge market square surrounded by buildings like all the other bastide towns. 

The covered market...

which still has these cylindrical iron containers used to precisely measure the grain the merchant was selling. These were manufactured to a precise, legally fixed capacity. Note the different sizes lined up here.

A merchant selling grain would fill the measure level to the rim (often leveled off with a flat wooden or iron strickle bar, "raser" in French, to remove any heaped excess) rather than weighing grain on a balance. This allowed for faster transactions in the busy marketplace.

This well preserved building on the market square also had a cafe on the ground floor.

This house on the square even had lace curtains hanging in the window.

This decorative wrought iron shop sign (an enseigne) identified this place as a clockmaker. The central medallion is shaped like a stylized clock face - you can make out the hands set to around ten past ten, the classic "smiling" display position still used in watch advertising today.

This describes the manner of death of Isaac de Cause, known as "Buffarot" - the leader of the 1637 Croquants uprising in Périgord and Quercy. 

We did visit more modern markets like this one in Issigeac. The markets sell not only food but other articles such as these baskets and clothes.

This smiling French woman and her husband were selling tapenade.

There were all different varieties of sausages and meat at this market stand.

This market stand advertised Sylvie's home made meat pies.

While eating lunch in Le Bugue we witnessed the merchants tearing down their stands and packing up their umbrellas and shade covers, along with their unsold merchandise.

Trade in the Dordogne

The Dordogne has a lot of natural attributes which contributed to their success in trade -- well, with occasional setbacks.  The land is incredibly fertile, the climate is mild with adequate rainfall and there are numerous rivers which aided in moving goods in the early days.  The Dordogne, like most of rural France, has suffered from depopulation as younger people move to the cities but in several areas their economy is still strong -- most notably in wine and tourism.

As Michael and I were driving along in the countryside we saw a long brown barn with slats that allowed air circulation.  I said: "That looks a lot like a tobacco barn."  Michael took a look and said:"Yep. Definitely".  We knew this because I grew up in Connecticut which, incongruously, was once a big producer of tobacco leaves used in cigars and Michael lived for many years in the heart of tobacco country -- Kentucky.  Needless to say, this was an industry that didn't end well for the Dordogne.  Even the French don't smoke very much anymore.  But once tipped to seeing the barns we saw them everywhere indicating that at one point this was a major money maker for the region.

One of the former tobacco barns we came across in our travels.

Like all the other wine producing regions of France, the Dordogne was hit hard by phylloxera, a microscopic, aphid-like insect which attacks the roots of the grapevine. The phylloxera came from the US, but the root stock of the American grapevines saved the French wine industry. The French grapevines were grafted on to the American root stock, which was resistant to phylloxera. Today this root stock paired with French grapevines produces fine wines including reds, whites, rose and sweet varieties. Michael and I  made it our mission to sample as many as possible.  For hundreds of years (actually since Roman times) the area has exported wine to the delight of the world. They would transport the barrels on flat bottomed boats called gabarre down the Dordogne River to the Garonne River and on to Bordeaux.  Now, even the French market is being forced to retrench.  Due to  huge increases in wine production in places like the U.S., Australia, Chile, Argentina and even Mexico, there is a wine glut -- is such a thing possible?  The French are taking thousands of hectares of vines out of production to help support wine prices.

What we love about the Dordogne is how rural it remains.  You can drive for miles just surrounded by farmland with a little village now and then.  The fields are full of wheat, hay, rapeseed and a lot of things that were too little for us to identify since it was still early spring and they were just poking their heads up.  I'm only including this short note on agriculture so Michael can include some photos of the landscape which is truly beautiful.

We will leave you with a view of this vineyard...

some views of the countryside...

this view of the convergence of the Vezere and Dordogne rivers, and...

another view of the Dordogne river from the heights of Limeuil.

So, next stop on the blog is one more war.  And a lot of churches.  And then it will probably be time to go home.......