Journey around the heritage sights of France and eventually any person will consult with the medieval interval. The structure of a cathedral or citadel maybe; the stays of a metropolis rampart; or perhaps some character of be aware from the common-or-garden to the high-born. Assume Charlemagne and Joan of Arc, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Anne de Bretagne, and a vigorous forged of French kings.
All of them lived within the interval we all know right now as medieval, or The Center Ages, which started in Europe in the course of the 5th century AD after the autumn of the Western Roman Empire and carried on for roughly a thousand years to the appearance of the Renaissance. And wherever you journey across the Hexagon – the French title for mainland France – you might be by no means distant from some side of medieval life. Gillian Thornton explores essentially the most lovely medieval websites of France…
Step again in time: welcome to the Center Ages
Vibrant villages
France is blessed with a stunning variety of medieval villages, together with one of the common for guests – Mont-Saint-Michel, a medieval time warp off the coast of Normandy. Many villages are members of the Plus Beaux Villages Affiliation like Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert and Rocamadour, each stopping locations for pilgrims on the St James’s Means; wander amongst the golden stones of Oingt overlooking the Beaujolais vineyards; and discover the world of the Templars and Hospitallers at La Couvertoirade. Each has its personal story to inform.
As you stroll, do not forget that most of the villages we see right now have been far larger and busier than they’re now. Look carefully on the road names to seek out out extra. Rue des Tanneurs would as soon as have throbbed to the noise (and smells!) of the leather-based business, while the guts of any native weaving business can be present in Rue des Tisseurs. And even when a citadel not stands in Place du Chateau, many communities nonetheless boast medieval fortifications.
Medieval cleaning soap opera
A exceptional variety of medieval streets and buildings nonetheless exist in main French cities corresponding to Le Mans, capital of the outdated province of Anjou and heartland of the Plantagenet dynasty within the 12th and 13th centuries.
In 1128, Geoffrey, Rely of Anjou and Maine, married Matilda in Le Mans cathedral, his nickname of Plantagenet coming from the spring of broom or genet that he tucked in his hat while looking. Though the granddaughter of William the Conqueror – Duke of Normandy and King of England – Matilda by no means wore the English crown, however their first son Henry did make high job, in addition to gaining giant areas of France by means of his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152. With its half-timbered homes and cobbled streets, Le Mans’s Cité Plantagenet remains to be filled with medieval ambiance, a preferred location for filmmakers.
If like me you might be fascinated by the medieval cleaning soap opera of the Plantagenets with its household feuds and bigger than life characters, head additionally to the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud within the Loire Valley to face beside the tombs of Henry and his estranged spouse Eleanor, their son Richard I of England and Isabella of Angoulême, spouse of youthful son King John. Eleanor spent her final years on this advanced of 4 priories for girls and one for males. Repurposed right now as a regional arts centre, Fontevraud additionally now features a lodge and Michelin-starred restaurant.
Buying and selling locations
The Center Ages noticed the development of many ‘new cities’ often called bastides throughout south-west France. Specified by a grid-pattern with vast streets round a central market sq., they have been principally constructed between 1200 and 1400 with the goal of creating commerce and boosting native economies in distant areas such because the outdated provinces of Gascony, Béarn and Languedoc.
Many stay remarkably untouched throughout the areas of Occitanie and Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Castelnau-de-Montmiral within the Tarn division and Mirepoix in Ariège have each retained superb arcaded squares. Some bastides corresponding to Cordes-sur-Ciel in Tarn have been based in strategic hilltop positions by native rulers, while Aigues-Mortes in Gard is a uncommon instance of a bastide nonetheless fully enclosed in defensive partitions.
Within the north-east of France, commerce flourished on a global scale within the 12th and 13th centuries with a collection of gala’s, every lasting a number of weeks and spaced all year long in cities dominated by the highly effective Counts of Champagne. Right here retailers from the Mediterranean to the Low Nations would commerce in excessive worth gadgets corresponding to fur and wool, spices, textiles and leather-based.
Most of those cities have continued to thrive throughout the centuries, their medieval buildings step by step swallowed up or overshadowed with new city improvement. However Provins to the east of Paris remains to be a time capsule of its medieval heyday, bypassed as commerce routes modified and largely left to slumber unnoticed.
Now inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage listing as the one surviving instance of a service provider metropolis from the Champagne honest period, Provins nonetheless has many underground galleries the place retailers did enterprise, a 12th century tower, and tithe barn, plus greater than 1km of imposing fortified partitions. Immerse your self within the Center Ages with The Legend of the Knights stay motion present, the show of falconry on horseback, and annual medieval pageant.
Armed fight
In the direction of the tip of the Center Ages, France and England engaged in a collection of battles over who was to rule France. Later dubbed the Hundred Years’ Struggle, the battle kicked off in 1337 and carried on intermittently till 1453 when the ultimate battle happened at Castillon-la-Bataille on the Dordogne river. Each bend on this picturesque waterway appears to disclose a brand new medieval fortress to go to corresponding to Château de Beynac, as soon as dwelling to Richard the Lionheart, and close by Castelnaud with its Museum of Medieval Warfare.
Probably the most well-known confrontation of this drawn-out battle happened at Azincourt in Pas-de-Calais in 1415, popularised in William Shakespeare’s epic play, Henry V. The village museum brings the occasion zinging vividly to life and the close by subject the place all of it happened is basically untouched. Stand on the viewing tower listening to birdsong and see the place the cream of French aristocracy floundered within the mud in heavy armour earlier than the English archers.
However medieval fortresses nonetheless stand throughout France. Stroll round William the Conqueror’s ducal citadel at Caen, a city that celebrates 1000 years of historical past in 2025; discover the imposing riverside fortresses at Angers on the Maine with its 17 towers; Chinon on the Loire, the place Henry II breathed his final and Loches, the place Joan of Arc persuaded the French king-in-waiting to let her lead his armies in opposition to the English.
Within the shadow of the Pyrenees, near the Spanish border, uncover the various defensive additions to UNESCO-listed Carcassonne. Begun within the 12th century by the highly effective native viscount, La Cité de Carcassonne grew in significance as a navy fortress, earlier than being deserted after the tip of the Franco-Spanish struggle in 1659.
However in 1844, restoration work started on the orders of Prosper Mérimée, Inspector Basic of Historic Monuments, who entrusted the undertaking to Viollet-le-Duc, an architect enthusiastic about Gothic and Medieval structure who had already supervised work on Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Purists could argue with Le-Duc’s interpretation of how he felt Carcassonne ought to look, however with out him, 21st century guests could by no means have had the possibility to discover this marvel of medieval development.
By Gillian Thornton, one of many UK’s main journey writers and a daily author for The Good Life France Journal and web site.
Need extra France?
Uncover extra fabulous locations in France with our free journal The Good Life France
Love France? Have a hearken to our podcast – every part you need to learn about France and extra!
All rights reserved. This text might not be revealed, broadcast, rewritten (together with translated) or redistributed with out written permission
