Waters and Wines of Aquitaine
Waters and Wines of Aquitaine. The Barge
Waters and Wines of Aquitaine. Serignac-sur-Garonne
Waters and Wines of Aquitaine. Buzet
Waters and Wines of Aquitaine. Baise River
Waters and Wines of Aquitaine. Nerac
In Vianne, we stopped on our way back.
Vianne is a small, but quite interesting town. Actually town-citadel or bastides (fortified village). One of the few completely preserved citadels, and only bastide in France named after a woman.
In the Middle Ages, Aquitaine was a quite desirable land, and many neighbours wanted to get a piece of this land. The XIII century is a time of small feuds and every feudal tried to get a better piece of land. Local wars between small and big lord were pretty common. As a result, from the beginning of the XIII century, many bastides were built in Aquitaine to protect villains during the lord’s wars.
At the beginning of the XIII century a little village Vilalonga, the center of the lands of Vital, lord de Montgaillard, occupied the place on the left bank of Baise. The village also has the lord’s castle and church. Lord de Montgaillard had two daughters, one of them, Vianne, heired her father’s lands. Vianne didn’t have her own children, so she bequeathed all her properties to her nephew Jourdain de l’Isle in 1275. He had pledged his allegiance to Edward I, King of England, and Vilalonga and surroundings became English. Jourdain de l’Isle was the very warlike man, and he built huge fortified bastide on the place on Vilalonga and named her after his aunt Vianne. He did it pretty quickly, in three years, and in 1284 the bastide towered above Baise. Unfortunately, Jourdain de l’Isle was the not only warlike, but also very dreadful man, and behaved with his vassals in such way, that even severe Edward I didn’t have any other possibilities, except execution. That was done in 1323.
During the Hundred Years’ War Vianne passed from France to England and back with miraculous frequency, until, finally, it settled under French Crown.
Bastide Vianne survived the time since 1284 till our days. And continues to do it. Of course, all these centuries, it was repaired and modified, it is impossible to exist 800 years without repair, however, it is undamaged and looks according to the original plan. The almost whole modern town located inside the bastide walls. Only gates are never locked now.
The dam and the lock.
The wall.
View on the Baise and the dam from the wall.
The turret for the dam protection.
The wall encloses the whole town. Turrets and gates.
The wall from inside.
The wall can be used as a walk-path.
The church of same age as the bastide.
Inside the wall – normal modern town – houses, shops, restaurants, hotels.
Musketeers are not forgotten.
I should say that Vianne was the most hospitable town among all that we visited. The mooring is big, convenient and free, electricity and water are also free. There is a huge lawn under tree shadow with tables and benches.
The residents are friendly and hospitable despite common opinion about the French attitude to foreigners.
The owner of the grocery where we tried to buy baguette together with other stuff, personally led us to the bakery. She almost didn’t speak English but tried to help.
When I almost got next heat stroke and laid down on the grass under the bastide wall, my crew went looking for cold champagne to bring me to life. Small town store (grocery, actually) didn’t have cold champagne, so the owner called to local wine-merchant who found two cold bottles in his cellar. The wine-merchant was a wholesaler and didn’t have a regular store, but if somebody dying without cold champagne he felt that must help anyway. Champagne was really good, by the way, and saved my life.
In last years small Aquitaine villages restored a tradition of night markets. At summertime, each village organizes such a market on a specific day of the week, another village on another day, and so on, so local people can have entertainment almost every day. We luckily arrived in Vianne on the day of the market. This is cute, home-style party. In the evening on the central square tables and benches were set. Local bands played live music. Sellers had been sold food and wine. Food was mostly traditional – fried gees heats, shrimps and mussels, different parts of ducks and so on. Very tasty! Wine also was local(Buzet). People eat, drink, dance, talk. We spent a very nice time.
In the morning, we went biking to a little village Mongaillard. From Vianne to Mongaillard about seven kilometers among hill and vineyards.
Here are the vineyards of Buzet AOC.
Mongaillard
The village is very small but very old.
The rest of the castle.
Belltower
If from one side of the village were vineyards, from the other side were plenty of fields.
We biked till my next almost heat stroke, had some cold beer in Vianne to cool down, and continued our boating back to Agen. Because my first mate left the barge by perforce, I was the only wheel-man for the last two days. As a result, I quickly increase my wheel-man class to a very high level.
We left Vianne pretty late and went directly to Serignac, where spent a night. Although Baise is a pretty slow river, the barge moves downstream much quicker than upstream. I felt so deep in my dream that we almost hit Garonne instead of turn to the channel. Actually, it was some mystery on our way down. There is a lock on Baise very close to the locks that connect the river and the channel. I remember this lock, my companions remember this lock and even map says that it exists. However, we didn’t pass this lock on our way back! I missed the turn to the channel just because I waited for this last lock on the river. It is impossible to pass the lock and didn’t notice this. It is not the same as pass under the bridge and didn’t pay attention. The passing of lock is required many meaningful activities from the crew. And we both didn’t remember it. Something is definitely strange with river Baise and its locks.
In Serignac I waked up so early that decided to do my morning run. Before sunrise, it was fun – the trail on the channel bank, fields of kiwi with hares among them and so on. As soon as the sun appeared I quickly transformed into the dried toad.
Fortunately, the cold shower, coffee, Armagnac, and other life beauties returned me to the partly alive conditions. In the middle of the day we arrived in Agen and went to study the town, but it is a different story.
To be continued…
