On holiday in France in 1931, Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard experienced the worst April weather for 50 years. Crossing at night on the car ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe on 16 April they would return on 30 April. In her diary, Woolf describes spinning along the wet roads, breaking…
Just as Munro bagging has become the ultimate challenge for hill-walkers in Scotland, why not have a go at bastide bagging? Complete a round of bastides and learn more about France’s cultural heritage at the same time. While there are only 282 Munros, there are more than 300 bastides to fill…
To take a long view of the preceptory tower and the history of Sainte-Foy-La-Grande, the visitor should pause for a few moments, on the main market square (place de la Mairie) looking eastwards to the rooftops of les arcades. There, rising above the lower rooftops of surrounding buildings, the visitor will…
We make our first road trip off the beaten track to five Dordogne bastides. It is a one day round trip beginning in Sainte-Foy-La-Grande, a Girondine bastide, situated on the Dordogne river, at the crossing for the Voie de Vézelay (Chemin de Compostelle). We call Sainte-Foy our 360 degree bastide because…
Walking in the footsteps of Paul Broca. Cross the bridge over the Dordogne from Port-Sainte-Foy-et-Ponchapt to the Girondine bastide of Sainte-Foy-la-Grande and you see the brass plaque of the orthophoniste. We wonder if they are located in this town because they remember that Sainte-Foy was the home of one of the…
Adventure Travel in the Tarn: Bastides and Medieval Towns near Albi Let’s look at the Adventure Travel sector and see what’s on offer when it comes to exploring French Bastides. If you are in the Tarn region, there is a tour operator in the Pyrenees, La Balaguère, that organises a 7…
To all Heritage Trail Blazers! Do you know if anyone has mapped an official heritage trail through the bastides of South West France? One that traces the exact path the builders of bastides took? Buildings in the bastides were constructed more than 700 years ago and visibly intact remnants still exist. …
