Page 442 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - France

22 Musée Ingres TOP GORGES IN
" ⌂ Palais Episcopal, 19 rue
Montauban de l’Hôtel de Ville § 05 63 22 3 FRANCE
12 91 ¢ Closed for
! D6 ⌂ Tarn-et-Garonne renovation until end 2019 France has some truly
£ @ n 4 rue du Collège; impressive gorges, and
www.montauban- some great adventures
tourisme.com 23 are to be had exploring
them either on foot,
Toulouse’s little pink-brick
EXPERIENCE The Dordogne 17th-century “Protestant ! D6 ⌂ Tarn-et-Garonne Gorges de l’Aveyron
by canoe, paddle board
Gorges de l’Aveyron
sister and the capital of the
or paraglider.
Republic” of southern France,
k Toulouse £ Montauban,
Montauban was the birthplace
Lexos @ Montauban n 10
Where limestone cliffs
of the painter Jean-Auguste-
rue de la Pélisserie; www.
tower over beautiful
Dominique Ingres (1780–1867).
tourisme-saint-antonin-
countryside.
The town’s great treasure is the
noble-val.com
Musée Ingres, a 17th-century
palace with an exceptional
Some of France’s most
sweltering plains of Montauban
bequest of paint ings and 4,000
spectacular natural
change abruptly to cool,
draw ings, plus works by Van At the gorges de l’Aveyron, the Gorges du Tarn
scenery(p346).
Dyck, Tinto retto, Courbet and chestnut-wooded hills. Here
sculp tor Antoine Bourdelle, the villages are of a different Gorges du Verdon
who was also born here. stamp from those of Périgord Constitutes one of the
Above all, Montauban has and Quercy, display ing an most dramatic natural
a pleasant shopping area, obsession with defence. sights in Europe (p60).
with a double-arcaded main The château at Bruniquel,
square (place Nationale) built founded in the 6th century, is
in the 17th and 18th centuries. built over the lip of a preci pice.
A few streets away from here Further along the D115, the epidemics of plague later sent
lies the stark white Cathédrale village of Penne’s position on it into decline, and the town
Notre-Dame, which was built the tip of a giant rock fang is was in an advan ced state of
on the orders of Louis XIV in even more extreme. The gorge decay at the begin ning of the
1692 in the backlash against then narrows and darkens and 20th century.
Protestant heresy. It houses from St-Antonin-Noble-Val , Restoration work began in
The Vow of Louis XIII painted beside the river, the valley the 1940s and the ram parts
by Ingres in 1824. turns towards Cordes. and many of the gates built in
1222 have been well preserved.
Also intact are Gothic houses
24 such as the 14th-century
Maison du Grand Fauconnier.
Cordes-sur-Ciel Today, Cordes still exudes
a sense of loss. The town of
! D6 ⌂ Tarn £ @
n Maison Gaugiran, which Albert Camus wrote
38–42 rue Grand “Everything is beautiful there,
even regret”, is now depen dent
Raimond; www.
cordessurciel.fr on tourism. Crafts aimed at
visitors abound and a collection
Cordes-sur-Ciel at the Musée d’Art Moderne
(“Cordes in the Sky”) is et Contemporain evokes
a fitting description as the Cordes’s former embroi dery
town seems suspended industry. The mus eum also
against the skyline, built as houses works of modern art
a protective enclave for the by such artists as Picasso and
local populace. During the Miró. The Jardin des Paradis
13th-century Cathar wars the offers a corner of beauty and
entire town was excom- hope in which to reflect.
municated. Devastating
Musée d’Art Moderne
et Contemporain
= " ⌂ Maison du Grand
Bacchante aux raisins by Fauconnier § 05 63 56
Antoine Bourdelle, in the 14 79 # Mid-Mar–mid-Nov:
Musée Ingres, Montauban Wed–Mon
442-443_EW_France.indd 442 22/02/2019 16:22
EW Must-see / Catalogue template v1.1 – 18th May 2018
Fonts: Aptifer Sans LT Pro, Posterama Text, Soho Gothic
Pro, Soho Pro, ITC Caslon 224