A Real Bastide

The trip from Uzes to Domme in the Dordogne was our shortest transfer, so we decided to go via the scenic route.  We drove down the Tarn Gorge.  It was an absolutely stunning drive down a very narrow winding road above a deep gorge between huge limestone cliffs.  Every ten or so kilometres there is a small village built into the hillside beside the river Tarn.  The buildings are all made of the local stone, many with stone rooves, and blended completely into their settings. There are limestone stacks on the hillsides, and every now and then you say to yourself “Hang on.  Is that another stack, or is it a castle? Yes, it’s a castle”.  The Tarn Gorge has some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in Europe.

Our cottage is a restored old stone cottage, half way up a very steep one-way lane that is barely wide enough for one car. After unloading LouAnne had to drive to the top of the lane and try to turn around. The three-point turns we all learned in suburban streets for our driving tests were nothing compared to the twenty-point turn LouAnne needed to turn the Peugeot around. It didn’t help that a tipsy Frenchman with a stroppy poodle in the car wanted to drive down at the same time.

The village is called Cenac et St Julien, and is the 16^th Century overflow of Domme below its ramparts. We are middle left, rendered wall.

I thought that I was well-prepared for the French language this time.  I had bought an expensive electronic Franklins French-English/English-French dictionary, and left my old Collins Pocket dictionary at home.  The trouble is that the electronic dictionary makes the Pocket Collins look like the Encyclopaedia Britannica. If you enter the French word corniche, the English translation is … corniche. If you enter belvedere you get … belvedere.  A bastide is ... a bastide. But after seeing a few of them, and looking for the common features, you realise that a belvedere is a … panoramic viewpoint, and a bastide is … a medieval fortified village, with ramparts, gates etc.

Domme, in all guide books, is described as “The best-preserved bastide in France, with some of the greatest belvederes in the Dordogne”. After doing some local shopping on the Sunday morning we all climbed the hill into Domme. The town has a magnificent setting on the top of a bluff. There is a steep cliff above the Dordogne River on one side, and almost intact ramparts on the other three.  There are three gates with guard towers on these three sides. We walked in along a sentier that came into the town along the cliff side.  The views across the valley to hills studded with chateaux really is stunning.

But from there something is missing. One of the guide books describes Domme as “enthusiastically restored”.  Well it is. The buildings, all original, are perfect. The gardens too, are perfect. The old shops are all now … restaurants, sellers of fois gras and other local produce, or souvenir shops now.  I could see no butchers or bakers or candlestick makers.  Then you realise that almost all the immaculate houses are shuttered because October is out of season.  There is hardly anyone, apart from a few toursists. Domme reminded me of the lovely old towns in the Cotswolds in England where rich Londoners had bought up all the pretty cottages and renovated them and turned them into holiday homes that were only used “in season”. As the locals moved out the local shops could no longer survive on a few months of frantic trade, and were replaced by tourist shops that opened for summer, then closed for the rest of the year. After a short time in Domme I was longing for the living towns of Ribeauville and Uzes, with their all their people, and everyday shops, and kids in the streets, and dogs at your feet.

Chris