Day 11: Happy Easter, visiting two towns and meeting new friends

Sunday, April 21 we started out to drive to La Reole. It is only about 20 minutes away and we have driven through it many, many times. La Reole is on the banks of the river Garonne. It is a hilly town full of narrow streets with examples of medieval architecture. It is home to the oldest town hall (hotel de ville) in France dating back to the 12th century. The church, l’ Eglise de Saint-Paul is a preserved Benedictine abbey. The suspension bridge crossing the Garonne was designed by Gustave Eiffel prior to his becoming famous for his design of the Eiffel tower.

The monastery was founded there in the 7th or 8th century. La Reole was the regions second largest city after Bordeaux. It was granted a certain amount of freedom to self-govern by Richard the Lionheart who ordered the building of the town hall (hotel de ville) which is now France’s oldest building of its kind.

**Ancient map of La Reole as it was about 1705**

**Gustave Effel designed this bridge over the Garonne river**

Ancient window sill
Medieval wall

**Repairing an ancient wall. This scaffolding is all that is holding it up.**

**Former city hall built around 1200 at the request of Richard the Lionheart, 14th to 15th century, the oldest in France**

**Iron works by Blaise Charlut some of them La Reole**

**Inside L’eglise Saint-Pierre. They had just finished Easter service and a baptism.**

Square outside the church dedicated to Albert Rigoult, the head of the La Reole resistance, who organized nurmerous airdrops of weapons and helped young people and Jewish people hid and return to Spain.

Other sites around La Reole.

We found this sweet street
Woman visiting through the window

House on the street

**When we first got to La Reole we ran across this car show** **and this very cool Citroen.**

**Scott had this model Mustang when he was growing up only it was in white**

We were on our way home and saw this big church on a hill. We decided to try and find it and ended up in Sainte-Croix-du-Mont. This village overlooks the vineyards of Bordeaux. There is a 15th and 16th century castle with a terrace that offers a great view of the Garonne Valley and on a clear day the Pyrenees and the Atlantic Ocean.

**The Pyrenees are on the left and the Atlantic Ocean is straight ahead.**

The first picture below shows rows and rows of trees that are planted all over this area for use in the wine industry. We’ve seen large trees ready for harvesting and newly planted saplings.

The hillside reveals an amazing geological site composed of oyster fossils dating back 22 million years.

We had a beautiful lunch here overlooking the valley.

**Castle tower with partial view of the valley**

**Scott found this amazing place for lunch**

**Who can complain about a lunch of oysters, bread and glass of vin blanc?**

We drove back to Rouge Bordeaux and met another couple from Minnesota, Kurt and Lisa Lieberman. They had been in Paris and had arrived in Bordeaux in the morning and had a wonderful tour of Bordeaux with Julien. We will be joining them on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for the rest of their tour (stay tuned)! We all had a beautiful dinner at l’absolu a restaurant right in Auros.

**Amuse bouche, gingerbread macroon filled with foie gras**

3 thoughts on “Day 11: Happy Easter, visiting two towns and meeting new friends”

Julie ROBINSON says:

April 27, 2019 at 1:16 pm

Amazing how you are able to chronicle all this Mary! It sounds like a wonderful trip love you

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1. meanderingwithmurphy says:
  
  April 27, 2019 at 1:20 pm
  
  Jules, It has really been fun. Megan and Julien who own the B&B are so delightful and welcoming. It is so much fun to be here.
  
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valmas123 says:

April 27, 2019 at 1:57 pm

Mary & Scott, this is all amazing! SO happy for you two! Thanks for sharing…almost like being there! Well done! ❤❤

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Meandering With Murphy

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