Bastides

A most delightful, restful day today as Mike and Dotts friend David drove us through the beautiful French countryside exploring a couple of bastides

Bastides were founded during the Hundred Years War between England and France, mainly in South-Western France. They were new towns, mainly set up on frontier and disputed lands to establish a border and a defensive presence. People were subsidised to settle there, in a manner very similar to the kibbutz settlements in Israel. Both English and French kings set up these towns.

Kings of the bastide-building period included:

France: Philippe le Hardi (the Bold), Philippe le Bel (the Fair), Louis XIII (Saint)

England: Henry III, Edward I (Confessor), Edward II.

Most bastides were built between 1229 and 1373, between the Albigensian Crusade and the Hundred Years' War. Today, there are about 400 bastides. They all have a central square, and a rectangular street layout. On the market square, the houses have arcades. They were usually built in places that were easy to defend, such as the top of a hill.

The first one we visited was Montflanquin

Monpazier, in the Dordogne was the next stop after lunch.

The bastide territory of Monpazier is one of the smallest (53 hectares) of all the French fortified towns and one of the smallest communes in France. Monpazier was founded 1285 and exchanged hands several times, yet it is the best preserved bastide in France, with few facades replaced or ‘improved’.

Monpazier was part of the English defensive system in the south of Périgord, with Lalinde, Beaumont, Molières and Fonroque, and with incomplete bastides at Pépicou, Roquine, Castelréal, Puyguilhem, Beaulieu and Labastide.

Nearby opposing French bastides included Rayet, Villeréal, Castillonnès and Monflanquin.

Monpazier’s changed ownership several times between English and French. home to Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard II of England for a time. Nearby is the Château du Biron which was the original landowner who gave the lands for town to be built in return for its revenues.

A stop on the way back was at Chateau Biron. It was the castle from which the Gontaut-Biron took their name, their seat from the twelfth century. Biron was seized by the Cathars in 1211 and retaken by Simon IV de Montfort the following year. The Plantagenets held it at times during the 14th and 15th centurie.

The present château bears additions over the centuries that make a picturesque ensemble: a twelfth-century keep, sixteenth-century living quarters, a chapel and vaulted kitchens.

It was then back for some rest before going out for tea at the nicest little restaurant at another Bastide, Penne d'Agenais. The meal was superb and the company great. Afterwards we walked through the old town which is perched on a hill as the sun disappeared. There were cats everywhere and hardly any signs of human habitation!