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 […]
Tag: Medieval
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, […]
Capendac is officially “one of the most beautiful villages in France”
Capendac is a medieval fortress and a survivor of centuries of war, surrounded by spectacular views of the Lot River valley. One of the local tourism sites calls it “a slender village on a meander of the Lot”, but as I walk through the Roman and medieval sites of Capendac-la-Haut other words come to mind: “steep”, “ancient”, “calm”, and…did I mention “steep”? But no matter which adjectives you apply, they all connect somehow to the 30 criteria required to join the elite association of “The Most Beautiful Villages in France” – that’s why this little town was accepted as a member in 2010.
Discover Figeac – a window into the 12th century in the deep heart of France
Figeac is a well-restored medieval village southern France – still vibrant in the 21st century, and one of the “most beautiful detours”” in the country! I know it’s neither cool nor politically correct to say you’ve “discovered” a place that has existed for 1,500 years and that has its full share of visitors wandering through the streets on any given summer day.
Visit Montsalvy – an ancient “Sanctuary City” in the Deep Heart of France
Montsalvy was created a thousand years ago to be a “place of refuge” in the Cantal wilderness, deep in the heart of France – but the logic behind that choice might surprise you! The concept of a “sanctuary city” is often in the U.S. news these last few years, and it usually evokes a particular response depending on which side of our political divide you sit. (And if you’re not American, I’d be interested in hearing from you in the comments about what the idea means to you!) On this side of the Atlantic, the phrase has only been in broad use since about 1980, when it came to describe a state or local government that declines to share information […]
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 […]
VALENCE: France’s “Gateway to the South” has a big-city feel
I’m not a jaded traveler – but neither am I easily surprised. Valence did it, though, more than most of the places I’ve visited in France in the past year. It’s a lovely small city that feels much larger and more urban than I expected. It’s sophisticated for its size – one of its leading families put the city on the map as one of the great destinations for gourmet dining in France! And with one foot in the Midi and the other in the deep heart of the country, it’s ideally positioned to be your base for exploring a part of France you might never see otherwise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIqAy4oN1KQ Some of Valence’s sophistication is easily explained: this is […]
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 […]
Saint Flour is a “Town for All Centuries” in the deep heart of France
Cet article est dédié à Marie-Thérèse, Sanfloraine exceptionnelle et le professeur qui m’a appris à parler français et à profiter au maximum de notre expatriation en France. There are several towns in central France that are famous mostly for “being medieval”. Many of them are immaculately restored; they give you an idea of how they must have looked in the 13th or 14th centuries. (Think of the incredible ensemble of medieval architecture in Sarlat-la-Caneda or the settings right out of The Three Musketeers in the “most beautiful village” of Pérouges.) They exist now primarily as tourist attractions where the curious traveler can have a window into life as it might have been in the distant past. And on first […]
