We spent a week in Mauroux, a tiny hamlet on the Lot river, in early May and discovered a dozen incredibly beautiful bastides, chateaus and fortified towns in the area. A quick word on the particulars of each: A bastide is a ‘new town’ established in the 13th and 14th centuries as a means for the French to secure parcels of land (before the English did) across France and to […]
We had a little apartment for our wonderful week in Toulouse in the Saint Cyprien district on the gauche side of the Garonne river, which according to the apartment owner used to be a very poor area and is now known as ‘bo-bo’ (bourgeois-bohemium) and a ‘champagne-socialist’ area – I like the connotations of this last phrase and I would be happy to embrace a champagne-socialist society if it means […]
We spent seven days in late April house/dog sitting in a little town called Chapelle des Pots just ten minutes from the city of Saintes and loved how richly packed the Charente-Maritime region in Nouvelle-Aquitaine area is with so many historical, pretty little towns. Here are some of the highlights. The Charente-Maritime area Saintes sits in the north of the Nouvelle Aquitane region (the largest region in France) about 90 minutes […]