Following Charlemagne’s army in Agen
We’ve looked before at some of the bastide towns (medieval ‘new towns’) in the north of the Lot-et-Garonne department of southern France. This time we head to the south of the same department, and across the border into the Tarn et Garonne department. The ‘Pays Agenais’ as it is known is the region around the [...]
Piled up houses
In centuries gone by, like across much of Europe, France had large areas that were covered with dense woods and forests. Although France still has a great deal of forest (increasing each year, as agricultural land in inhospitable regions gets abandoned), there are also many areas that we now see as open farmland that were [...]
Bastide towns of Lot et Garonne
Less well known than the Dordogne to the north, the Lot et Garonne department contains some hidden treasures in the form of the medieval bastide towns that dot the region. Head south from Lalinde or south-east from Bergerac and you will enter the quiet countryside that typifies the region. Agriculture and small scale farming are [...]