Sunday 17 August 2014

Brantome - Another wonderful town in France


Another wonderful place
Diane and Nigel took me to see !!
 
 
 

Brantôme is a place rich in history. The commune of Brantôme is regarded one of the city-gates of the Natural reserve the Regional Périgord-Limousin, but also as a jewel within Valley-of-Dronne.

 
It is certainly packed with history and beauty,
a market on a Friday , shops and cafés/restaurants,
and you can take a boat trip too!!





























 
 









Tower of St. Roch


This is the BENT river or Right Angled Bridge ..
 
Le Pont Coude
 
 
Le Pont Coude was built at the same time as the palace , the Monastery Gardens and the pavillion by the Abbot (1538-56). It provided access to the gardens on a far bank away from the town.
 





 
Brantome has a  brilliant market on a Friday ,
 with stalls situated near the river and near-by streets
as you can see and
there are the river trips too.



Oh I wonder who that is down there!!!



The Abbey in Brantome has its origins in the 8th century. A Benedictine abbey and it was founded by Charlemagne who allegedly donated the relics of Saint Sicarius, one of the children massacred by Herod.



The original abbey was destroyed by Vikings  then rebuilt in the tenth century and again in the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. It was  radically restored in 1850 by the architect Paul Abadie,  the abbey buildings we see today span a period of almost 800 years.

Paul also worked on the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris, Église Sainte-Croix of Bordeaux, Saint-Pierre of Angoulême and Saint-Front of Périgueux. He won the competition to design the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on Montmartre in Paris, and saw the construction commence , though he died long before its completion in 1914.



It certainly is a town of beauty and of interest .


 
I hope that you have enjoyed this snippet of a tour , I have a few more
photos to show you . I didn't do much history this time but I am sure
that you get the gist of the town and it's history.
 
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

BIG THANK YOU TO DIANE AND NIGEL.

7 comments:

  1. I can see it was a cloudy day, yet the city is so beautiful. Anne, you have a good eye for photography! Lovely photos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. France has so many lovely villages on the water. This is my kind of village. Just lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ha ha I just wonder who that is down there :-)) Lovely photos Anne of what we think is a beautiful place. Have a good week D & N xx xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. You are certainly getting a lot of wear out of your walking shoes - did you walk all the way up the belfry? Brantome looks like such a peaceful place to visit.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a beautiful old town. The picture of the buildings reflected in the river are terrific. Thanks for taking us there today and thanks for playing Dreaming of France

    ReplyDelete
  6. It looks like a wonderful place to visit :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love towns like this that are right on the water. Shame about the grey skies, but that's France for you.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you to everyone for commenting, it certainly makes my day. A pleasure to see everyone of you. Old and New.. Blogging not only opens up the world but gives us new friends.