Day or evening, regardless of the climate, Montauban’s Place Nationale is a magical spot to wind down a gear or three at a café desk. Centre of native life since medieval occasions, this bijou sq. is surrounded by crimson brick properties, constructed after the previous picket buildings had been gutted by fireplace within the seventeenth century. Practically 400 years later, the double arcades and harmonious facades merely ooze symmetry and wellbeing.
Every time I make a welcome return to Montauban, Place Nationale is at all times my first port of name. So I’m thrilled this time to seek out that the sq. is now much more enchanting, because of the set up of a water mirror that zings periodically to life with dancing water jets and swirls of colored illuminations.
What to see in Montauban
The biggest city of Tarn-et-Garonne, Montauban lies north of Toulouse within the west of the Occitanie area. However Montauban is massive solely in relation to the remainder of this rural division. Bisected by the river Tarn, this enchanting city numbers barely 30,000 inhabitants however nonetheless carries the celebrated label of Artwork & Historical past City in recognition of its wealthy heritage and excellent artwork collections.
Many guests arrive in Tarn et Garonne by automotive, bent on discovering a panorama that features steep gorges, rolling farmland, and peaceable waterways. Not simply the Tarn and Garonne both. Each the Aveyron and the Canal Latéral la Garonne be part of the Tarn at UNESCO-listed Moissac with its embellished abbey cloister. For hikers and bikers, the division gives a large selection of marked trails however there are gradual tourism actions to go well with everybody. I’ve been horse using on the cliffs above the Aveyron; explored at water degree by kayak; and revelled in a degree pedal beneath towpath bushes.
And when you don’t wish to drive or simply need a extra planet-friendly vacation, Montauban is lower than an hour from Toulouse by practice on the Lot and Dordogne Line. Keep on the practice line to go to the white limestone homes of Caussade, capital of the French hat-making business within the Quercy Blanc space of Tarn et Garonne. Or choose up the Canal des Deux Mers Line to go to Moissac. Plan your route and purchase tickets at Occitanie Rail Tour.
I like Moissac, the place society company danced at riverside guinguettes within the Nineteen Thirties throughout their grape juice ‘remedy’; the atmospheric market city of St Antonin Noble Val on the banks of the Aveyron; and the medieval villages of Auvillar and Bruniquel, each labeled amongst France’s Most Stunning Villages.
For a central however quiet resort within the coronary heart of city, the Lodge du Commerce ticks all my bins. Located on a landscaped pedestrian sq., this good-value resort is missed by the white façade of the Cathedral. At present closed for restoration, this Baroque extravaganza was commissioned by Roman Catholic king Louis XIV as a present of energy after the Protestant city refused to yield to his father, Louis XIII within the siege of 1621.
After an al fresco bistro dinner at Chez Olympe beside the water mirror, my first cease subsequent day is the Ingres Bourdelle Museum opened in December 2019 after main refurbishment. This former Bishop’s Palace stands on the stays of a riverside fortress begun in 1360 in the course of the Hundred Years Conflict by England’s ‘Black Prince’. Unfinished after French forces regained the city 9 years later, the medieval corridor is now an atmospheric venue for non permanent artwork exhibitions.
However the principle focus of the gathering is the work of Montauban’s two well-known creative sons, neo-classical painter Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingres – born right here in 1780 – and 19th century sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, born 1861. Initially a museum devoted to Ingres alone – who left 44 work and 4500 drawings to his hometown – this enchanting museum homes the most important assortment of his work, in addition to the second largest Bourdelle assortment after the Bourdelle Museum in Paris. I wander from one elegant room to a different, lingering over a portrait of the younger Ingres in opposition to a backdrop of décor designed by his father – himself a jobbing artist and stonemason – and stopping to admire his private assortment of antiquities portrayed in his photos.
Past the museum partitions, look out for dramatic Bourdelle bronzes as you stroll beneath the crimson brick facades with their pale blue shutters. The monumental warfare memorial overlooking the Pont Vieux; a pensive statue of Ulysses’ spouse Penelope exterior the Vacationer Workplace; and Greek poetess Sapho who stands reverse the theatre devoted to native heroine Olympe de Gouges. Playwright and political activist, Olympe was executed within the Revolution for her feminist writings.
What to see close to Montauban
Subsequent morning, I uncover a really totally different sort of artwork on the Abbey of Beaulieu-en-Rouergue, tucked away up a rustic street close to St Antonin Noble Val. Second solely in significance to the Pompidou Centre in Paris, this newly restored heritage constructing homes a set of recent artwork from after the Nice Conflict, amassed by husband and spouse collectors Geneviève Bonnefoi and Pierre Brache.
As with the Musée Ingres-Bourdelle, Beaulieu Abbey is one other instance of the French expertise for turning heritage buildings into artwork museums. Now owned by Monuments Nationaux, it reopened in 2021 after a four-year restoration programme that features a cavernous Cistercian chapel flooded with pure gentle. Artwork journalist Geneviève and gallery proprietor Pierre purchased works by comparatively unknown artists and continued to help their careers, amassing a set of greater than 4,000 trendy work, drawings and sculptures. Benefit from the altering show, then chill out exterior within the rose backyard, nonetheless aromatic throughout my October go to.
After an al fresco lunch on the terrace of Chez Ernest on the outskirts of Montauban, common for its wood-fire grills and conventional native fare, I drive south-west out of city to go to the division’s most uncommon vacationer attraction.
Canal Lateral
In 1856, the Canal Lateral à la Garonne was constructed between Toulouse and Bordeaux to hyperlink with the Canal du Midi from Toulouse to Sète, thus creating the Canal des Deux Mers. However within the Nineteen Seventies, locks had been prolonged by 10 metres to accommodate bigger cargo barges, an issue at Montech the place 5 locks happen in simply over 2.5km on the Garonne canal.
Enter engineer Jean Aubert who designed The Pente d’Eau de Montech, an ingenious resolution utilizing two railway locomotives to push a quantity of water uphill, thus enabling a ship to drift up the water slope. In-built 1973, it was final utilized in 1993 however has now reopened as a free immersive museum that makes a captivating cease on a stroll or bike trip alongside the Voie Verte or Inexperienced Method towpath. Decide up the free leaflet from the waterside Vacationer Workplace to observe the self-guided city path.
Again in Montauban, I’ve time for a final lunch beneath the arcades of Place Nationale at Les 5 Bouchons, a great-value small restaurant listed within the Michelin Information. Then I flip north to proceed my round journey by practice by Cahors, Figeac and again to Toulouse.
Discover out extra about Tarn-et-Garonne at: tourisme-tarnetgaronne.fr/en
By Gillian Thornton, one of many UK’s main journey writers and a daily author for The Good Life France Journal and web site.
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