There are plenty of reasons to visit La Couvertoirade – its rich history with the Templars and the Hospitallers, its status as one of France’s “most beautiful villages”, and its distinctive medieval architecture. But one other thing about the place caught my attention, too… I’m not an engineer myself, but the best years of my professional life were those I spent working alongside some of the finest engineers to be found in French and American industry. I like to think that their approach to the world – heavy on data and analytical problem-solving – rubbed off on me in some ways. In any event, working with them gave me a deep and enduring respect for how people have analyzed and […]
Category: Notes from History
An ancient, dark landmark dominates the skyline of Clermont-Ferrand
Widely known as “the Black Cathedral” in Clermont-Ferrand, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption has a distinctive appearance and a rich history that are unique in France. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to write about a landmark that is prominent in all my memories of life in the deep heart of France: the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption, perched atop a steep volcanic butte in the medieval center of Clermont-Ferrand. That city will always be my home away from home when I’m in France, and I’ve written often about why Clermont is one of the best places to live in France, and about why we love the town so much. I’ve written about that one forgotten day when Clermont was the capital of France, […]
I only understood later how extraordinary my visit to Lavoute-Polignac had been
The Chateau de Lavoute-Polignac may not be an « essential » stop for tourists, but my visit there last summer was packed with interesting surprises. What I value most in my travels around France are the experiences, sometimes surprising, sometimes peculiar, sometimes intensely pleasurable, that remind us there’s more to traveling than getting a generic selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower with thousands of other tourists. In his remarkable book, Rediscovering Travel: A Guide for the Globally Curious, Seth Kugel talks about why getting away from the beaten path can be more rewarding than visiting well-known monuments. And he focuses on how the people you encounter can turn a normal tourist experience into a richer, more memorable experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3MlUr0LV40
Visit Puymartin – the castle haunted by the White Lady
To be clear: I don’t believe in ghosts, I don’t care much for ghost stories, and I’ve never written about one for this blog. Still, if any of the places I’ve visited in the deep heart of France ever had a legitimate claim to harboring a ghost, it must surely be the lovely Chateau du Puymartin in the Périgord Noir, only 6 km (3.6 miles) from Sarlat-la-Canéda. Karen and I spent a pleasant morning there in June, and even though the site exploits the incredible story of “the White Lady” to the max, the castle is an interesting and rewarding place to visit for plenty of other reasons. As with so many of the fortified châteaux in this part of […]
The Manoir de Veygoux: Humble beginnings for one of Napoleon’s greatest generals
If you’ve followed this blog, you know I have a longstanding fascination with people who come from difficult beginnings in remote parts of the country and somehow forge a national reputation and a lasting place in history. It’s not that I follow the “great man” school of historic thought – I don’t! – but many of these people just have personal stories that are so compelling they are worth knowing about. Joan of Arc is certainly a prominent example in French history; in this space, I’ve written about Lafayette (hero of both the American and French Revolutions), about Pope Clement VI (a monk from the remote abbey at La Chaise-Dieu), and about the Count of Montmorin (Louix XVI’s “right-hand man”), […]
Blaise Pascal’s 400th birthday party is underway in the deep heart of France
It’s official: Clermont-Ferrand has just launched its year-long celebration of the 400th anniversary of the birth of Blaise Pascal, “le génie Clermontois.” The party started earlier this month with a performance of music from Pascal’s lifetime in the lovely church of Notre Dame du Port. Over the next 12 months, the celebration continues with: Exhibits at the Henri-Lecoq museum of science and natural history and the Roger-Quilliot museum of art An online collection of documents at the Overnia (Clermont’s digital library of historical materials) about the great man’s life, as well as reproductions of his most famous books and essays A year-long series of concerts, films, lectures and roundtables featuring distinguished artists and scholars celebrating Pascal’s life and the lasting […]
Reflections on the Ruined Castle at Montmorin
Somehow my visit to the crumbling castle ruins at Montmorin feels more important to me than the site itself really warrants. From the peak of this ancient little volcano, you can see forever – or at least that’s how it seems to me on a particular August afternoon in the deep heart of France. The entire Chaine des Puys, that iconic 25-mile-long range of extinct volcanoes that dominates the country’s center, is visible along the horizon to the west. As it happens so often in my travels through this region, I feel like the only person left on earth after some global cataclysm. I’ve come to visit the Chateau de Montmorin, a jumble of ruins at the end of a […]
Délicieux – a good story about good food set in the deep heart of France
OK, it’s not actually a true story – but the 2021 film Délicieux is a good story (“93% fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes), and for the purposes of this blog it’s a perfect story because it unfolds in the Cantal, one of the most beautiful regions in the deep heart of France. Directed by Eric Besnard, the comedy is available now to stream on Amazon Prime and YouTube Movies. In the movie, Grégory Gadebois plays Manceron, an extraordinary, if sometimes temperamental, chef who gets dismissed from his position cooking for a French duke. What did he do wrong? For a banquet with the duke’s distinguished guests, he made a dish (one of 40!) that includes potatoes at a time when the […]
Visit Commarque – an incredible ruined castle with prehistoric roots
Since 2016, I’ve written more than 160 posts exploring the exceptional places I’ve seen in the deep heart of France, so I don’t say this lightly: the Château de Commarque is unique among the most moving experiences I’ve had traveling in this region. I’ve taken hundreds of detours down country roads and visited dozens of other old castles over the last 25 years; by my count, I’ve written about 34 of them just for this blog. But after a while, many of them start to look similar – they are piles of rocks where the outlines of a castle remain, perhaps, or slightly shopworn old family manors. Don’t misunderstand — just about every château is interesting in some way. But […]
Building a new “medieval” castle at Guédelon
Before I went to Guédelon, I’d never really heard much about “experimental archeology.” For me, archeology seemed more a discipline based on pre-existing evidence – concrete objects, things you find in the ground or at the bottom of the sea. The interpretation of those objects is often open to conjecture (is this pottery shard part of a wine jar or was it a piece of the sculpture of some deity?), but in most cases you couldn’t really devise an experiment to prove the theory one way or the other. As on so many subjects, though, I was wrong. There’s a whole formal branch of archeology devoted to testing our conjectures about how people lived and how they made things by […]
Le-Chambon-sur-Lignon – a “Righteous City” in the Deep Heart of France
Most of the places I cover in this blog have something concrete that evokes an emotional response in me – old buildings in which I can feel the weight of history, a festival or a market that makes me feel connected to a place’s daily life, or some spectacular natural site that overwhelms my senses. My visit to Le-Chambon-sur-Lignon was not like that, though. This is a town that moved me profoundly, not because of its “touristy” attractions, but because of the power of its reputation. It’s a reputation for kindness and care in the face of great evil – a reputation that places Le-Chambon-sur-Lignon among the rarified company of places known as a “Ville des Justes Parmi les Nations” […]
Is Vichy a destination? Or a regime? (Part 2)
On June 22, 1940, a somber caravan of cars and trucks arrived in Vichy, a spa town in central France. They brought with them the principal political luminaries and the mechanics of bureaucracy for what remained of the French government after the Nazi army occupied Paris. Eight decades later, the town still struggles to restore its image as one of Europe’s most historic luxury resorts. In last week’s post, I talked about all the great reasons to visit Vichy in the deep heart of central France: it’s a resort town with a rich history, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its amazing thermal spas, a city full of remarkable examples of Belle Epoque architecture and first-class recreational opportunities. On […]
