Chapter XI: Section IX: Bergerac to Mont-De-Marsan,

96¼ MILES

(155 KILOMETRES)

DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE

Kil. Miles. =Bergerac= to Eymet =25= 15½ =Eymet= to Seyches =19= 11¾ =Seyches= to Marmande =15= 9½ =Marmande= to Casteljaloux =22= 13½ =Casteljaloux= to Houeillès =16= 10 =Houeillès= to St. Justin =34= 21 =St. Justin= to Mont-de-Marsan =24= 15

NOTES FOR DRIVERS

Hilly from =Bergerac= to =Seyches=; after that a flat road, with a
moderately good surface.

PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE

=Bergerac.=--A rather modern town on the Dordogne; new church; old
streets, only fairly picturesque; sixteenth or seventeenth century
house called the Château de Henri IV.

=Eymet.=--Old village, with ruined castle, ramparts, and a good
gateway.

_Miramont._--Village, with quaint houses.

_Marmande._--Small town, with church of thirteenth to fifteenth
centuries.

_Casteljaloux._--Small town, with some interesting old houses.

_Pompogne._--A hamlet in the forest, with church of eleventh,
thirteenth, and sixteenth centuries.

_Houeillès._--Another forest village; has a Romanesque church, with
a fortified tower.

_St. Justin._--Picturesque little town, with ruined ramparts, old
houses, and thirteenth-century church.

_Mont-de-Marsan._--A town of small interest; remains of a keep
inside the barracks.

Bergerac is a cheerful town on the north bank of the broad Dordogne, with straight modern streets and few antiquities. During the religious wars of the sixteenth century it was sufficiently important to give its name to the sixth peace concluded between Catholics and Protestants, and it became one of the eight places of safety where Protestants could worship unmolested. About 1620 Cyrano de Bergerac, the author, was born in the town.

There is a large modern church in the style of the thirteenth century. Nearer the river there is a network of narrow, and a trifle unsavoury, streets. The mouldering old houses often have their upper stories projecting on massive stone corbels or the ends of huge beams, and the half-timber work is filled in with thin bricks laid in thick mortar. Among these narrow ways, in the Rue des Rois de France, is a larger and better-built structure of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, called the Château de Henri IV., but it is not worth looking for unless one has time to spare. The street leads down to the river at the point where the old bridge stood. The abutment on the south bank remains.

Crossing the Dordogne, the route is due south through a country of vineyards. On reaching some steep hills, the road curves to the right, to take the ascent as easily as possible, and soon afterwards winds down into and out of the valley of a small tributary of the Dordogne.

The tops of the hills here and there are crowned with small round towers with conical roofs.[D] After winding among the hills for several kilometres, there appears a great view towards the east as the road drops into the valley of the Drot above the picturesque village of Eymet. The houses on the road are modern, but behind them is a little medieval town, with its machicolated château grown over with ivy, a picturesque gateway and walls, as well as some interesting Gothic houses.

In Miramont, which is entered almost at right angles, one turns to the right for Marmande by a curious arcade of considerable width, which runs beneath some of the old houses. Some of the oldest shops have the primitive doorway and window in one, exactly the same as those one finds in the old Italian towns, and even in Pompeii.

The small churches dotted over the country generally have bell-cotes, and are surrounded with sentinel cypresses. Fruit-trees and vineyards are everywhere, and the slow-moving bullock-carts constantly passed make the roads exceedingly attractive.

After the village of Seyches the country becomes flatter and flatter, and the road is lined with plane-trees.

MARMANDE

is entered at a level-crossing, beyond which one goes straight on to the last turning to the right before reaching the river (Garonne). This street leads to an open space, where one goes to the left and crosses the river by a suspension bridge.

The church is an interesting building, dating from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, and has a fine rose-window in the façade. There are three naves and a restored apse of the thirteenth century.

Marmande must have been well defended in the Hundred Years’ War, for when the English took it in 1447 they only succeeded by resorting to a ruse.

The journey from Marmande to Mont-de-Marsan--a distance of nearly sixty miles--is practically level throughout, and nearly the whole time one is passing through an immense forest.

Casteljaloux stands on the edge of this forest, and all the yards are stacked with sawn timber. The town is full of sixteenth-century and earlier houses, and some old _hôtels_. The most remarkable is the Maison des Xaintrailles, or Château de Jeanne d’Albret, of which only a wing survives.

The road in passing through the town goes to the right, and then to the left, and to the left again at a fork.

South of Casteljaloux great perspectives of yellow road stretch away to a vanishing point among the blue-grey pines. It is not an uncommon thing to pass groups of dark-blue-coated soldiers bivouacking by the roadside, with stacked rifles and their heavy accoutrements deposited on the grass, while the men are lighting fires to cook their field rations.

Pompogne is a pretty hamlet in the forest, with a whitewashed church of the eleventh, thirteenth, and sixteenth centuries.

Houeillès, the next village, has a small thirteenth-century church of dark stone, with a fortified tower. There is a great staircase turret, and the tower opens into the church through a Romanesque arch with a toothed moulding.

At intervals there are large clearings in the forest, with only a tree here and there, and pools of water appear by the roadside. The lake shown on the map, near the modern château of Lubbon, is scarcely visible from the road, which continues to keep for long distances in a perfectly straight line. The white crosses frequently to be seen roughly painted on farmyard gates, where they appear in the forest, suggest that ancient superstitions linger in the dim forest glades of a country still in the thraldom of a religion that encourages belief in supernatural visitations.

ST. JUSTIN

is an old and very picturesque little town. It was greatly damaged by Montgomery in 1569, but has still some remains of its ramparts perched above the road. The thirteenth-century church stands near a monastery of the Templars.

It is here that one notices the first of the Basque type of house, with the wall of its gable-end deeply recessed to form a shady verandah with a balcony to the upper floor. The ordinary old cottage of timber-framing still appears among these of a more southern type, designed for comfort during great heat.

More perspectives through the forest succeed, and bring one to the rather uninteresting town of

MONT-DE-MARSAN

There is a quaint view of houses built above the river, and inside the big rectangular building of the old barracks stands the lower part of the keep of Nou-li-Bos, built in the fourteenth century by Gaston Phœbus, Count of Foix, to terrify the inhabitants.

BORDEAUX TO TOULOUSE AND PAMIERS OR CARCASSONNE

Those who land their cars at Bordeaux can (1) pick up the route at
Casteljaloux (86 kil.) or at Mont-de-Marsan (129 kil.), or (2) they
can go to Toulouse (262 kil.) and join the route at Pamiers (322
kil.) or Carcassonne (364 kil.). _See the large folding map at the
end of the volume._

Kil. Miles.
1. =Bordeaux= to Podensac =31= 19¼
=Podensac= to Langon =14= 8¾
=Langon= to Casteljaloux =41= 25½
or =Langon= to Mont-de-Marsan =84= 52¼
2. =Langon= to La Réole =18= 11¼
=La Réole= to Marmande =20= 12¼
=Marmande= to Tonneins =18= 11¼
=Tonneins= to Agen =38= 23½
=Agen= to Moissac =41= 25½
=Moissac= to Montauban =30= 18¾
=Montauban= to Toulouse =52= 32½
=Toulouse= to Pamiers =60= 39½
=Toulouse= to Carcassonne =102= 63½