Auch and Sarrand

Saturday 24 August

Auch and Sarrand

We left in two cars this morning, Rachel drove Mel and I through some lovely country roads and through some little villages until we hit the motorway then she put her foot down and without realising it had overtaken James, David and the kids in the other car.  Don't know what Ken told them but I bet it wasn't as pretty as the route we took.  So we drove in tandem until we reached Auch (pronounced Osh), and then somehow lost them as we took a wrong turn around the roundabout.  We met up in the car park and as soon as we got out of the car we knew why we had come.  There ahead of us was this medieval city on a hill. 

Wikipedia says:   "Auch is a very ancient town. The name of Auch comes from the Aquitanian tribe that inhabited the area at the time of the Roman conquest in the 50s BC. The name of this tribe, as recorded by the Romans, was Ausci (pronounced [awski] in Latin), singular Auscus. Aquitanians spoke a language related to the old Basque language."

The city's history was set out on a storyboard at the top of the steps, we climbed 232, Jasper counted (remind you of anyone?).

Half way up there was a statue of d'Artagnan, one of the three musketeers who came from this region.

The Cathedral St Marie dominated the square, and of course was just amazing, both inside and outside.  

We wandered around the interior taking yet more photos of lovely stained windows, but there was a surprise in store, we paid €2 to go into the choir stalls and the carving there just blew me away,

 

each stall was different, each seat was different and there were four sets depicting an event in the church, they were carved out of oak that had been aged in water.  

We were given an information sheet which we had to return, and unfortunately I cannot find anything on google about it, which is a shame as it really does deserve a mention.

It had started to rain so we found a restaurant close by, which seemed quite full, but the 'patron' took us up a couple of flights of stairs to the attic and it was an ideal place where we could relax, there soon followed two other families, so we disturbed no one and had a lovely meal and were well looked after.

It had stopped raining when we had finished and we wandered back to the car, as we reached the square we heard a lot of car horns blaring, and a horse and carriage came round the corner with a bride and bridal party.

 

 I thought the cars were just being impatient because they couldn't pass the horse and carriage, but they all pulled up behind, so I guess thats how they celebrate weddings.  There was a bit of a queue at the church -

 

another bride was coming down the steps!  

Rachel knew of a great toy shop so we marched off to check it out.  It was a bit of a wonderland really, like a maze only with small staircases up and down, and little nooks and crannies, every inch covered in toys of all shapes and sizes.  Children bliss!  So we left Rachel, Jasper and Penelope there to do some more browsing, and James took Mel, David, Hannah  and I on a 'tiki-tour' on the way home.

The countryside is really delightful, for as far as the eye could see there was field after field a mix of ploughed and ready to go, yellow sunflowers, corn, vines, just a patchwork quilt right to the horizon.  Our main stop en route was to the village of Sarrand, James and Rachel had come upon this village by chance on one of their 'discovery' drives.  

When we got there the main roads around the square were taped off, there was a serious Boules Tournament going on.  We parked the car in a field and walked round the village, that took about ten minutes!  

That was all there was, once again medieval, ancient old homes, but sadly in rather bad shape,

 

however the activity in the middle of the village was certainly hot, there must have been 10 games going on, all serious stuff.  

We wandered round like lost tourists taking pictures, and no one seemed to mind.  It was just a lovely atmosphere under the trees.

We had a lovely journey home through more country lanes  and came across a field of really large sunflowers, so Mel was able to get her photographs set up at last!

We have seen so much  of the French countryside, we are almost experts on restoration of medieval buildings, we have driven through so many small villages and towns that contain a treasure trove of historical buildings, and almost always a church with a steeple, and this won't be some small ordinary church, it will be the biggest building in the village and will be alive and in use almost daily.  The French economy might not be held up as a shining example to the rest of the world, but if that is because they invest an inordinate amount on preserving their history then they certainly have something to be proud of.