Agen  

There has been a human presence in Agen since at least Neolithic times. Early settlements were on the rocky outcrop overlooking the Garonne plain known as the Hermitage, but since the 4th century Agen has been situated on the Garonne plain.

The Gallo-Roman period :
Agen's strategic position led to a rapid expansion in Gallo-Roman times and by the 4th century Christianity was already well established. Unfortunately, nothing is left of the town of that era except for a few statues, artefacts and mosaics in the Town Museum.

The Dark Ages:
The town's development, however, was brutally interrupted by successive invasions of Germanic tribes in the 5th century. Thereafter, the town was under the control of the King of Burgundy in the 6th century and in the 7th century became part of the Kingdom of Toulouse.

The town was devastated by the Arab invasions of the 8th century and, even in the 9th century, was threatened by Norse invaders coming up the Garonne towards Toulouse.

 

Andorra  

Andorra offers you a large variety of activities for your holidays, 3000 shops with a very wide range of goods, a thermal centre where you can relax, mini-golf, trekking, excursions, mountaineering, an ice-rink.

The country’s medieval history has left marvellous traces, including more than thirty churches and monuments ! Andorra also offers historical tours, visits to picturesque sites ...and you can combine this programme with very intresting cultural events ! ! !

 

Auvillar  

Auvillar is situated in south-west France, in the department (county) of Tarn et Garonne, which itself is part of the Midi-Pyrenees region of France. Auvillar is between the large cities of Toulouse (80 kms) and Bordeaux (140 kms), by the southern (left) bank of the River Garonne, on its long passage from the Spanish Pyrenees to its wide mouth above Bordeaux. By the time the river reaches Auvillar, it has already travelled over 300 kms and it about 100 metres wide. It has a further 150 kms to flow before it meets the Atlantic Ocean. In the past, the valley of the Garonne has flooded, leaving it very fertile and allowing good cultivation for a variety of crops on the alluvial plain. Auvillar is close to the towns of Valence d’Agen (5kms) and Moissac (15 kms), but these are both on the northern side of the river. The river, after Moissac, turns sharply west and this is one of 2 large curves in which the land between is known as the Gascon Plain. Auvillar itself is a hilltop village, but with a separate quarter of a port nestling under the village adjoining the river.  

Bordeaux  

Bordeaux is a port city in the south-west of France, with 925,253 inhabitants in the metropolitan area at the 1999 census. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture of the Gironde department. Its inhabitants are called Bordelais.

Bordeaux is known to be Europe's main military space and aeronautics research and construction complex. Bordeaux wine draws its name from the city around which it has been produced since the 8th century. The city is considered the world's wine capital,[citation needed] hosting Vinexpo, the wine industry's biggest event worldwide.[citation needed]

With almost 100,000 students, the city's university is renowned for its research units in crop science, new materials and nanotechnology.

 

Cahors  

Cahors is the prefecture of the Lot département, and is the only major town in the “county”. It’s an ideal place to examine the history of the region, as you walk through its architecture from the middle ages.
 

Carcasonne  

Carcassonne is a fortified French town, in the Aude département of which it is the préfecture, in the former province of Languedoc. It is separated into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. The folk etymology – involving a châtelaine named Carcas, a ruse ending a siege and the joyous ringing of bells ("Carcas sona") – though memorialized in a neo-Gothic sculpture of Mme Carcas on a column near the Narbonne Gate—is of modern invention. The fortress, which was thoroughly restored from 1853 by the theorist and architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997.

 

 

Dunes  

This charming hilltop village is an example of the fortified villages or "bastides" dating back to the 13th century. There is a central square and covered market bordered by houses built in the 16th thru 19th centuries.
 

Lourdes  

Lourdes is a town situated in the Southwest of the Hautes-Pyrénées department, lying in the first Pyrenean foothills. It is overlooked from the south by the Pyrenean peaks of Aneto, Montaigu, and Vignemale (3,298m), while around the town there are three summits reaching up to 1,000 m, which are known as the Béout, the Petit Jer and the Grand Jer.

Lourdes was originally a small unremarkable market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees. At that time the most prominent feature was the fortified castle which rises up from the centre of the town on a rocky escarpment. Following the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858, Lourdes has developed into a major place of Christian pilgrimage.

Today Lourdes has a population of around 1,000 inhabitants but is able to take in some 5,000,000 pilgrims and tourists every season. Lourdes has the second greatest number of hotels in France after Paris with about 270 establishments.

It is the joint seat of the diocese of Tarbes-et-Lourdes.

 

Moissac  

Moissac is a town and commune of the Tarn-et-Garonne département, in southwestern France. It is on the route of Santiago de Compostela. It is famous world-wide mostly for the artistic heritage handed down by the ancient Saint-Peter's abbey.
The Saint-Pierre abbey in Moissac has a 12th century tympanum, and a 15th century cloister. There is also a Centre of Romanesque Art with important documents on medieval sculpture, illumination and wall-paintings. The abbey-church Saint-Pierre and cloister are listed among the World Heritage Sites of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France.
From legend, the abbey was founded by Clovis (the Frankish king), but from historical information it was founded by Saint Didier, bishop of Cahors in the middle of the 7th century. The monastery establishment was difficult because of Moors' and Norsemen raids. The 11th and 12th centuries witnessed a first golden age, the consequence of Moissac being affiliated to the Burgundy abbey of Cluny and its accepting the famous Reformation, under the drive of Durand de Bredons who was both the Abbot of Moissac and the bishop of Toulouse. This outstanding era witnessed the major abbots Dom Hunaud de Gavarret, and Dom Ansquitil; who had the doorway and tympanum built. In the 13th century, Raymond de Montpezat and then Bertrand de Montaigut, abbots and builders, ruled the abbey. Aymeric de Peyrac, writing his Chronicle in the 15th century in the castle of Saint Nicolas de la Grave reveals us those events.

The 15th century saw a new golden age with abbots Pierre and Antoine de Caraman who erected works, and especially the Gothic part of the abbey-church. The 1626 secularization of the abbey caused the Benedictine monks to leave the cloister after nearly 1000 years of Benedictine life. They were replaced by Augustinian canons, under commendary abbots: well-known cardinals such as Mazarin and de Brienne. In 1793, the French Revolution put an end to religious life. In the middle of the 19th century, the laying of a railway-track threatened the cloister but it was saved, listed as a historic monument. Even if the side buildings have suffered a lot and the abbey changed in aspect, this inheritance is nowadays the object of intense care as the tympanum, renowned amongst the greatest, and the most beautiful cloister in the world can still be admired.

 

 

Pau  

Pau is a town of southwestern France, préfecture (capital) of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département. It is famous for the Boulevard des Pyrénées, a walk of three-quarters of a kilometer from the château to the Parc du Beaumont and the royal Beaumont Park with magnificent views of the mountains in the Pyrenees mountain range. Along the elevated path the iron hand-rails have plaques explaining which mountain is directly in front of you and how high it is.

The Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (founded in 1972) is situated in the town and accounts for Pau's high student population.

Pau was the capital of the former province of Béarn. The site, on a slight elevation overlooking the valley of the mountain river called the Gave de Pau, where it was crossed by a ford, controlled access to an easy passage into the Pyrenees, used annually for the seasonal pasturage of flocks of sheep in the high meadows (now represented by a hiking footpath GR65 that runs about 60 km south to the Spanish border). Access to the pass partly accounts for Pau's strategic importance.

The site was fortified in the eleventh century ("pau" means "palisade" in Occitan), and it became the seat of the viscounts of Béarn. Pau was made the capital of Béarn in 1464. During the early sixteenth century, the Château de Pau, made more habitable by Gaston Fébus, count of Foix, became the residence of the kings of Navarre, who were also counts of Béarn.

Pau was the birthplace of Henry IV of France (1553–1610), though this required some extraordinary effort. His mother, the redoubtable Jeanne d'Albret, crossed the whole of France to ensure that her son would be born there. The baby's lips were moistened with the local wine and rubbed with garlic shortly after the birth. Charles XIV of Sweden was also born at the château, in 1763.

 

 

Saint-Emillion  

Saint-Émilion's history goes back to prehistoric times and is a World Heritage site, with fascinating Romanesque churches and ruins stretching all along steep and narrow streets.

The Romans planted vineyards in what was to become Saint-Émilion as early as the 2nd century AD. In the 4th century, the Latin poet Ausonius lauded the fruit of the bountiful vine.

The town was named after the monk Émilion, a travelling confessor, who settled in a hermitage carved into the rock there in the 8th century. It was the monks who followed him that started up the commercial wine production in the area.

Saint-Émilion is located 35 km north-east of Bordeaux, between Libourne and Castillon-la-Bataille, with an average altitude of 23 m above sea level.

Saint-Émilion is one of the four principal red wine areas of Bordeaux (the others being Médoc, Graves and Pomerol). The same grape varieties tend to be used but in a different ratio, with Merlot and Cabernet Franc predominating, while relatively small amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon are used. The region is much smaller than the Médoc and adjoins the wine region of Pomerol.

As in Médoc, the winemakers devised a system of ranking the vineyards. While that of Medoc was done in 1855 Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 that of Saint-Émilion was first done in 1878. The use of the word "first" is significant, as unlike the Médoc classification which has never been revised (except for the promotion of Château Mouton Rothschild from 2nd to 1st Grand Cru Classe), the Saint-Émilion classification is revised about every 10 years.

Château Ausone, and Château Cheval Blanc are the only two wines currently classified as Premiers grands crus classes A (First Great Growths category A). There are then 13 Premiers grands crus classés B and 47 grands crus classés. In addition, a large number of vineyards are classified as Grand Cru.

 

 

Toulouse  

The capital of the Aveyron départment and of the entire region too. The enormous number of Spanish immigrants in Toulouse means that the ambience is lively and nocturnal. The student population also adds to the party atmosphere in the late-night bars. Culturally, there is an endless supply of plays and musical events. Also of interest: The excellent flea market around the St-Sernin church on Sunday morning.  

Valence D'Agen