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 town of Agen and features numerous villages and small towns, many of them bastide towns, of historical interest. The central open squares are intact, often [...]
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 once forested. About 500-700 years ago, the Lot-et-Garonne region of southern France was well covered in trees, including oak and mixed woodlands. So the first [...]
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 the main business here with fruit, sunflowers and maize being among the main crops grown. The fruit includes many plum orchards that produce the fruit [...]
