Another wonderful place Diane and Nigel took me to see !! BRANTOME
View Larger Map
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 streetsas 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.
