Au Revoir, France, and Europe

We spent our last couple days in France, and Europe, in the very generous and pleasant company of friends Jane and Gordon at their home near Cadeilhan, in Gers, not far from Toulouse. Southwestern France is a gentle, beautiful countryside, within half a day's drive of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and the Pyrenees and Spain, with culture and history and pre-history at every turn. And the food and drink are, well, um, French. We'll return there in April of 2013.

Jane and Gordon

Their beautiful home near Cadeilhan; very traditional, but
completely updated; it is for sale, and very reasonably priced
at c. 200,000 euros (contact jseigal1@gmail.com)

Not your average European kitchen

Detached guest/rental cottage

Enormous stone barn/workshop/garage, with room for large
vehicles

And with full outdoor kitchen and entertainment area

Larressingle

We proceeded on to the bastide town of Larressingle, which bills itself as France's smallest fortified town and as a mini-Carcassone. It was nice, very scenic, but nano-Carcassone would have been more accurate. I did get my Armagnac tasting, however, and more.

Au Camp du Siege Medievale; a nano-themepark, closed,
alas

Entrance to Larressingle

One of the more interesting facets of
Larressingle, its very old half-dome church

Carving in the church

OK, the mermaid stained glass is perhaps not
Medieval

Exterior of church

Walls and tower

Larressingle is definitely on the Camino de Santiago
pilgrimage route; some few pilgrims use donkeys
(and transistor radios)

Condom

In the few days that remained of our "summer vacation," we headed back north, wanting to see more of Gascony. I had read that Armagnac is becoming the "single malt scotch" of France and wanted to see its region and have a tasting. (I drank some Armagnac many years ago; it was good, and much cheaper than cognac.) So we drove up to Condom, France, to visit the Armagnac cooperative. Vicki had other, perhaps obscure, reasons for wanting to visit Condom.

Tree-lined roads are one of the emblems of France, and they
are nowhere in more abundance than in this region 

Unfortunately, the cooperative in Condom sold only one
brand of Armagnac

But they sold plenty of wine, in bulk

So anyway we visited Condom; the actual expression in
French is, I have read, preservatif

We next visited the Chateau de Cassaigne; but balked at the
admission fee

In the vicinity, the bastide town of Lectoure

Auch Stained Glass

Auch's windows are 16th century, later than most we have admired. By 1513, when these windows were created, much had been learned, obviously, about color, perspective, balance, optics, and also about subject matter. Some say there is great hidden meaning and symbolism in the Auch windows, but we did not stay long enough to notice anything more than the multiplicity of themes, stories, morals, and more. The beauty and clarity are really what hits you in all of these 18 windows, no matter how brief your visit, as well as the Renaissance mixture of Biblical and Classical. We know the name of the artist: Arnaud de Moles, a Gascon. There are whole websites on Auch's windows--some of them a bit goofy (don't read the profundities)--and I'll post just a few pix here.

These are the uninteresting windows on the west and east ends
of the nave, mostly clear, but

There are mythological figures and even some Arcimboldo-type figures up higher

The clarity of the figures is stunning; here are some Green Men (?); I am so proud
of my little camera for capturing these figures, 40 feet up in the air...

I never miss an Adam and Eve and friend

As seen on Terry Gilliam's Monty Python

Jonah being fed to the "whale"

Other nasty critters

Typical window 

The Sybil Europa in the middle; each of the major windows features a Sybil; last
place we saw a bunch of Sybils was, um, the Sistine Chapel; this was of course
the time when The Church was trying to appropriate whatever glory it could from
the ancients

Isaiah

Auch Cathedral Choir Carvings

Auch cathedral's choir includes some 1500 different carved statues and figurines, all 16th century, by unknown "Florentine" artists. Reflecting what is in the windows, the carvings focus on the Biblical, the mythological, and the life of Christ. Alas, only a few appear below.

The choir

Cute misericordia

Judith and Holofernes

Nasty critters

Peter and Paul, as I recall

Adam and Eve and friend

Mark, author of the oldest of the synoptic gospels (the lion,
his symbol)

Jammin' in the choir

The reader

A St. George and dragon that is not as large as a fridge magnet 

Parting shot

Auch Cathedral

We were pretty impressed with Auch's 16th century cathedral (Basilica of St. Mary (of course)), so I will devote this and a couple more posts to it, its stained glass and carvings. Our visit began quite well. An older Auch resident noticed us gawking in the alley on the south side (the mother-in-law alley, so-called) and--he said he just wanted to practice his English--proceeded to give us a good bit of the history of the church and its construction.

The exterior is nice enough

South-side view of tower

Every decade or so they documented how far they had gotten
in the construction (1544)

Napoleon's proposal to move Auch's windows and carvings to
Paris never got realized--he went on to other things-- but the
town did do this nice tribute on a building facing the cathedral

Nave

Another famous organ

Rose window

Altar

Outside artsy view