Since last Wednesday's blog, I've been following our drive from Saint Antonin to Vers with Google Earth and discovered the location of a photograph we took but could not remember where. Someone else took the same subject but on a different angle. It was the wash house or Lavoir on the outskirts of Limogne. We remember driving along the hills of the area and seeing for the first time a Lavoir, but not our last. There were so many villages that we drove through or bypassed undiscovered. I guess you need to live in an area for awhile to really appreciate these hidden treasures.
Vers is just a small village with a population of less than 400 and you really wouldn't see a reason to stop there however with two nights we discovered those hidden treasures I mentioned earlier. Vers sits on the confluence of the river Vers and the river Lot. It had its own Chateau but I can find almost nothing of its history on the internet and we might not had even known about it except for an afternoon walk on the banks of the river Vers. At some time the Chateau sat on its own island but today the island doesn't exist. The walls and some of the foundations are still visible and subsequent buildings rest on the ancient foundations.
We sat by the river watching ducks paddle by, children play on the river bank while imagining what the Chateau may have looked like.
From what I can gather the Chateau fortress was established in the mid 1300s at the time of the One Hundred Year War, possibly a little before the battle of Poitiers 1356. By enlarging the photograph of the sign below (all in French) I tried to gain further information without success -
maybe a reader out there can help me.
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| The History of Chateau de Vers - can anyone translate please? |
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A view showing some of the original fortress walls
Peter Young Pic from Google Earth. He has some great pics of the region. |
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| Another view of further structures built on the old foundations of the Chateau. |
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| Possibly part of the internal walls of the Chateau with steps leading up. |
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| We stayed in this hotel with our balcony overlooking the river Vers. |
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| Sorry, but I couldn't resist a pic of my bike on an early morning ride around Vers. |
Next Wednesday takes us to the most interesting hilltop village but our GPS, Tommy took us on the most scary route that was in itself a great memory.
Guess where ... too easy ... It starts with 'Cham' and ends in 'bord'. Looks like you were out of luck weather-wise the day you visited :( We saw this castle on a blistering hot day in June 1999!
ReplyDeleteMartine - you are just too quick. Yes it was an easy one but I promise a more obscure one next. BTW, I have a young cycling friend now living in Belgium for the summer racing season. He last posted on Bruges. He recently came second in a local race. I'll list his post on my blog.
ReplyDeleteLeon
What an incredible aid to research the internet is.
ReplyDeleteThis is an area we have not been to but it looks well worth a visit. Diane
ReplyDeleteLLM - yes, Wed in France relies on the internet to fill in the gaps of my memory. Wed in France is currently from our 2008 trip and there's still 2009 and 2010 to go with plans for 2012's trip to come.
ReplyDeleteI think Wed in France may last some time yet!!!!
Diane, the area has some wonderful sights yet to come from Wed in France as we drive our way from Vers to the Dordogne, Liore, Normandy and back to Paris during this 2008 trip.
ReplyDeleteThe view from your balcony must have been great!
ReplyDeleteDianne - it was very relaxing after the drive thru two most wonderful village stops before reaching our overnight stop at Vers. So was the cool bottle of wine.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by our Blog.