Discover the gorgeous city of Figeac and the encircling countryside of the wonderful Célé Valley – and also you’ll discover a slice of genuine France that’s simply brimming with magnificence, tradition and historical past…
A modest market city in rural Lot isn’t the primary place you would possibly anticipate finding connections between Napoleon Bonaparte, Historic Egypt and the British Museum. However because of the inquisitive thoughts and dogged dedication of 19th century linguist and puzzle supremo Jean-François Champollion, the medieval city of Figeac in Occitanie offers a hyperlink to all three.
This buzzing city of round 10,000 inhabitants lies simply north of the Lot river within the valley of the Célé, the encircling space of Grand Figeac designated a Pays d’Artwork et d’Histoire. With its wealth of medieval buildings, Figeac is a gem for heritage followers, nevertheless it has Champollion to thank for its place on the world stage.
The Rosetta Stone is deciphered
I’m wanting down from a high-level backyard within the city centre onto a small pedestrian sq. surrounded by stone buildings. Little greater than a courtyard, the Place des Ecritures is empty aside from an irregular slab of black granite overlaying many of the ground. A dignified celebration of Figeac’s most well-known son.
In 1798, Napoleon launched a marketing campaign in Egypt and Syria to defend French commerce pursuits and perform scientific analysis. However when the British Navy put paid to the Emperor’s desires of a Center Jap empire, the gathering of Egyptian antiquities amassed by his scientists was signed over to the British, together with the Rosetta Stone that now stands within the British Museum in London.
As soon as a part of a a lot bigger stone pill, this treasured fragment was engraved with three incomplete texts in numerous scripts, however no one knew what they stated. Lecturers puzzled for years, nevertheless it was greater than 20 years earlier than the youngest son of a Figeac bookseller finally cracked the code. Born in 1790, Jean-François Champollion had left dwelling at 11 to dwell together with his older brother in Grenoble, the place he shortly developed a ardour for Center Jap languages, and at 17, he moved to Paris, decided to decipher the mysterious pill.
‘Je tiens l’affaire !’ (I’ve bought it!) he declared in September 1822 on realising that the system of Egyptian hierogylphs is in actual fact a sophisticated mixture of sounds, phrases and concepts. It had taken 10 years of painstaking examine, however Champollion now understood that the Rosetta Stone was inscribed with a royal decree. The invention enabled him to determine many temples throughout an expedition to Egypt; go his abilities on to different eager Egyptologists; and turn out to be conservator at The Louvre in Paris, however in 1832, Champollion died all of a sudden of a stroke, aged simply 41.
In the present day, the sq. in entrance of his household dwelling is known as in his honour and his birthplace remodeled into the fascinating Champollion Museum, that showcases not solely his personal discoveries but additionally the historical past of written communication the world over. From the higher storey, the museum balcony seems to be out over the rooftops of medieval Figeac; behind it, accessed down a slender alley, lies Place des Ecritures.
Figeac city
The neighbouring squares of Place Champollion and Place Carnot have been the centre of native life since medieval instances. From Carnot, head to the Vacationer Workplace in Place Vival to select up a free annotated map highlighting 30 key heritage buildings across the historic centre. Palais Balène, as an illustration, largest medieval home in Figeac. The Abbey church of St Saviour, begun within the 11th Century. Renaissance city homes and the 17th Century city corridor.
And to completely expertise that medieval environment, guide a room on the Mercure Figeac Viguier du Roy, dwelling to the King’s consultant in Figeac for greater than 4 centuries. Steadily expanded to absorb adjoining buildings, this distinctive resort simply off Place Champollion overlooks tranquil courtyard gardens and an outside pool, combining historical stones with trendy interiors that replicate Champollion’s work on Egyptian hieroglyphs.
As night falls, the café terraces are buzzing after I head out for dinner at Le Safran, a spacious restaurant in a vaulted stone eating room. Specialising in seasonal fish, ‘The Saffron’ takes its title from the spice grown right here within the Quercy area because the Center Ages and the phrase for the rudder of a fishing boat.
What to see and do close to Figeac
Subsequent day, I head out into the encircling countryside. Figeac is a scenic 2.5-hour prepare journey from Toulouse, however travellers who arrive by automotive can pootle alongside the pleasant Célé Valley that wriggles its means westward from Figeac via a succession of sleepy villages to hitch the Lot near St Cirq-Lapopie.
I cease first at Espagnac-sur-Célé, stress-free over espresso within the courtyard of the traditional priory beneath a turreted bell tower, a landmark for pilgrims on the GR65 path to Compostela in addition to for native hikers and bikers. Just a few meanders additional on, I cease once more to discover the bijou neighborhood of Marcilhac-sur-Célé, a tranquil spot to relax out on a riverside bench or wander amongst the ruins of the traditional abbey.
And I’ve been advisable to take the broad path as much as a viewpoint above the close by village of Sauilac-sur-Célé. Within the 19th century, this monitor led to a clutch of properties nestled beneath the sheer limestone cliff, however immediately the one reminders of the unique village are ruined masonry and a interval picture beside the path, the inhabitants having lengthy since relocated to the flat land beneath.
Pech Merle
West of Sauilac, after a sequence of tight bends, the Célé flows via Cabrerets to hitch the Lot on its journey to Cahors. Don’t keep it up with out visiting Pech Merle, a sequence of prehistoric painted caves that make the civilisation of Historic Egypt appear to be a newcomer. That is my second go to, however I’m simply as stunned by the number of the art work, the geology of the caverns, and the story of how Paleolithic work have been found in 1922 by three native youngsters.
Some 800 motifs of assorted sizes and ranges of completion enhance the partitions, together with greater than 70 animals. Mammoths are the most well-liked topics with 28 particular person photographs however there are horses, bison, aurochs and even a lone bear. Human representations too together with a wounded man and mysterious ‘bison-women’. The subterranean circuit stretches for round 600 metres with stairs between varied ranges, and knowledgeable guides make sure that guests see a very powerful photographs, tracing a number of the much less distinct outlines with their laser pens.
The expertise is so vivid, so unusually within the second, that I discover I’m continually anticipating to spherical a nook and discover a Paleolithic painter onerous at work together with his purple and black paints. I’m fascinated by the handprints, massive and small, made by blowing powdered pigment at a palm positioned on the wall, and by the Black Frieze depicting 25 animal figures on a 7-metre panel. However my creativeness goes into overdrive as I look down on a toddler’s footprint, preserved for millennia in fossilised mud. Who was this younger individual and did she or he mischievously make these handprints while mum or dad was busy portray a mammoth?
It’s all humbling stuff, assured to remain within the thoughts lengthy after you might be again out in 21st century daylight. And as I have a look at the colourful frieze of noticed horses, a mere 29,000 years younger, I can’t assist questioning what Monsieur Champollion would have made from all of it. Heads held excessive, the noticed equines trot proudly throughout the rock face into eternity, a snapshot of the previous that even he would have struggled to decipher.
Helpful data: visit-occitanie.com/en; tourisme-figeac.com
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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