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

Auch

We had driven through Auch a week or ten days earlier--topped off our LPG there--and were intrigued by the cathedral and its setting. After reading about the cathedral, and Napoleon's proposal to simply move its glass and wood carving to museums in Paris, we were determined to see it. We arrived mid-day, another scorcher, found a place to park at the municipal aire, and then walked along the river a kilometer or so to the centre ville.

We elected not to spend the night in Auch, but rather to practice safe camping
near Condom, on higher ground

On the walk to the old city, a pooch pissing post, something we'd
not seen before, but which apparently is common in this past of
France

The river Gers and its levee, an unusual pigeon roost

Everything is tree-lined in this beautiful part of France

The 235 steps from the river up to the old town--the Escalier 
Monumentale--are getting some restoration, and, alas, the
famous statue of D'Artagnan is not at its best for viewing
(D'Artagnan, of but not one of, The Three Musketeers,
was based on a local, Charles de Batz)

Another view

Near the top of the Escalier Monumentale, much Latin, in bronze

A beautiful old building on the town square,
now housing the Office of Tourism

After spending a couple hours in the cathedral (next post) we walked the main
street and shoppes; here, inside one of the largest independent toy stores I have
ever seen; they also had cool stuff too

Old market building

A view of Auch from the river

Gargas

Prehistoric cave paintings have been an interest of ours since we saw Lascaux (II) in 1989 and also Pech Merle. I had already acquired a fascination with hands-in-negative painting (spraying paint over one's hand, leaving its outline) and saw my first such at Pech Merle. On our more recent travels we have visited Alta Mira (II) and the Cueva de la Pileta near Ronda, Spain. My recollection is that Pech Merle has one hand-in-negative, that Alta Mira has three, and Lascaux and Cueva de la Pileta have none. There are some 500 hands-in-negative prehistoric paintings known in Europe. Nearly half of them are at Gargas. But hands-in-negative are found all over the world; one of my favorite examples is from South America. In any case, they have become a symbol for art and perhaps a symbol for humanity.

Gargas is really two caves, the upper being Magdalenian, with abstract symbols and animal paintings (species now extinct), about 15,000 years old now; the lower is Gravettian, recently carbon-dated to 26,000 years ago, and that's where all the hands-in-negative paintings are. Unlike Lascaux and Alta Mira, one can actually go into Gargas and see the real things, or some of them. Reservations are required, visits are guided, numbers entering are limited, and tour/visits can last no more than 50 minutes. All for preservation purposes. There is a strict no fotos in the caves policy, and, uncharacteristically, I complied with it. Alas, there is very little of Gargas on the web, so I have little to show except the following, some of which are off the web and some of which are photos of photos.

The visitor/interpretive center; and gift shoppe; the
interpretive stuff was quite good, with representations of
many of the items the tours don't see

Actual entrance to actual cave

Alcove image that has become the symbol of the place; at
Gargas many of the hands have shortened or missing digits;
earlier this was seen as mutilation, some sort of "religious"
rite; more recently theorists think the digits are simply
turned inward or downward and that the whole was some
form of "communication"...

Example from the interpretive center 

Off the web and perhaps digitally enhanced; but you get
the picture...as I recall, this is sort of how catchers communicate
with pitchers in American baseball...reading left to right and
top to bottom, these say screwball, slider, inside curve, fastball,
outside curve, change-up...

In the Cave of the Hands, near Santa Cruz, Argentina,
c. 7,000-11,000 BCE (off the web); I want to go there...
[and I did, eventually; see posts starting at
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2017/02/cueva-de-las-manos-1.html]