French villages – the ones fabled for markets, bars, boulangeries and a sense of communal purpose – are a joy to discover.
asserted
villages → fable → purpose
I’ve compiled a list of my top 10 – starting with my favourite.
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I → compile → favourite
In a sense, the selection is nonsensical: there are so many variables, and some 36,000 French communes to choose from.
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selection → be → sense
But it’s quite fun, and not to be taken too seriously.
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it → ’ → ?
I’ve tried to avoid too many of the blindingly obvious (La Roque-Gageac, Mont Saint-Michel); too many of those which have more potters and ceramicists than bakers and grocers – in that case, the village is clinically dead – and too many of those that are shuttered in the off-season because they’re overcome with holiday-home owners.
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they → try → owners
I’ve favoured instead those whose prettiness and life have substance and are rooted in history; those that maybe have a story to tell.
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that → favour → story
I’ve randomly set a maximum population of 3500 for a village (one slides slightly over that limit) and have attempted to focus on those French villages that I get most excited about returning to.
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I → set → that
In the lee of the Pyrenees, St-Jean (or Donibane Garazi, according to Basques), the pint-sized capital of inland Basque Country, sees beret-wearing folk come down from surrounding mountains for Monday markets, pelota matches and late-night bar-room singing about the wonders of being Basque.
uncertain
folk → accord → wonders
Modesty gets a look in, but not often.
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Modesty → get → look
Walled and self-contained, with narrow paved streets rising to seek the citadel up top, and a fine old bridge spanning the river below, St Jean is as sturdily pretty as Basques have been making it for centuries; it’s welcoming, too.
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it → contain → centuries
Pilgrims pause here, girding their loins for the subsequent 17-mile hike up the Pyrenees, en route to Santiago de Compostela.
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Pilgrims → pause → Compostela
This makes everyone else feel guilty.
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everyone → make → ?
To get into the swing of Basque life, you need to see a pelota match.
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you → get → match
The trinquet (indoor pelota court) at St-Jean hosts them regularly.
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trinquet → host → them
It’s serious business.
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It → ’ → ?
Locals have staked, and lost, farms on the game.
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Locals → stake → game
The four-star, family-run Hotel Les Pyrenees is the stately spot round here, with doubles from $204.
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Pyrenees → run → 204
Stevenson passed through Le Pont-de-Montvert during his Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes.
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Stevenson → pass → Cevennes
Let’s forget that.
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’s → let → that
The book is like being cornered by a hiking bore.
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book → corner → bore
More interesting is that this close-packed village – it stretches with sober dignity along the infant Tarn River in the lee of Mont Lozere – was a hotspot of the 18th-century religious wars pitting Camisard Protestant guerrillas against the Catholic royal authorities.
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was → pack → authorities
In the surrounding hillscape there’s no thicket, dell, slope, cave or rock that wasn’t roared over by the faithful keen to tear the other faithful apart.
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that → surround → faithful
These days, there’s a nestling calm, notably right now as the stone village adopts summer wear and sends walkers off in all directions.
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village → ’ → directions
And it’s not just walking – Le Pont-de-Montvert is a centre for all sorts of outdoor activities.
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Montvert → ’ → activities
Rock-climbing rocks are to hand, as are via ferrata, canyoning, orienteering and much else besides.
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rocks → climb → ferrata
La Lozerette – along the Tarn valley, just outside Le Pont-de-Montvert – may have only two stars but it’s as comfortable as anyone needs (the bedding is terrific), with a garden, terrace, a cracking restaurant and charm to spare.
uncertain
bedding → have → garden
It’s a little over two hours to Le Pont-de-Montvert from both.
asserted
It → ’ → both
Angles-sur-l’Anglin, Vienne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Population: 327
On its rocky promontory, Angles is so startlingly pretty that it brings me up short.
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it → bring → me
From above the Anglin River – just before this joins the Gartempe valley east of Poitiers – the village unravels sharply down in a jumble of stone, horticulture and thigh-stiffening walkways.
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village → join → stone
It requires no improvement.
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It → require → improvement
What it needs, it already has: a castle crumbled to perfection, a reproduction of the world’s longest Magdalenian sculpted frieze (20 metres of wild animals and naked women: sculptors’ interests haven’t changed much in 15,000 years; the real thing is nearby, too fragile for public gaze) and a sort of sunlit self-assurance.
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thing → need → assurance
In this, one of the loveliest slices of unknown France, nearby villages have treasures of their own: unequalled Romanesque frescoes at St Savin, five châteaux in Chauvigny.
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villages → have → Chauvigny
But Angles has the serenity.
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Angles → have → serenity
Best bit: The reproduction of the Roc-aux-Sorciers Magdalenian, with its 50 metres of wild animals and naked women, indicates that sculptors’ interests haven’t changed much in 15,000 years ($14).
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interests → indicate → 14
Book the day before and you may dine there amid the wistaria on the terrace.
uncertain
you → book → terrace
Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais
Population: 1900
Hill-topping Montreuil is better than we deserve, barely 60 minutes from the Channel.
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we → top → Channel
Beset by ramparts and equipped with a powerful 16th-century citadel, it had a starring role in Hugo’s Les Miserables.
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it → equip → Miserables
It’s also a repository of British military memories: in 1916, Field Marshal Haig established GHQ here.
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Haig → ’ → GHQ
An equestrian statue of the fellow recalls the episode (you can puff out the chest further at Agincourt; it’s just half an hour east).
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it → recall → Agincourt
These days, Montreuil is a tight delight of unexpected squares, gardens and cobbled streets; the whole is punctuated by so many bistros and restaurants that the village reckons itself La Destination Gourmande.
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itself → punctuate → bistros
…and 60 more, not listed.
The Aporia
