Rosa Tuesday 7 June 2016

Today’s excursion was firstly to Chateau de Gourdourville a medieval castle built in 1038 It started as a single room one storey with a chapel on the end under where the tower now stands and probably less than half the height it is now.

 

Since then virtually every owner has added a bit, the last being the top of the square towers at each end to make bedrooms at the end of the last century.
After the original single room and chapel were built a round lookout tower was added to give a 360° vision over the countryside. As you can see from the photo below this tower was eventually dwarfed as the castle was extended.

The exit from the stairs to reach the top of the tower

Standing on top of the tower   The top of the tower is now well below the roof line

   
Our view from the top of the tower was marred by the poor visibility but even so I think we would have spotted an advancing army. The tower is equipped with gargoyles to shed the rain water.  

Looking out in poor visibility

The all-round view obscured  by later extensions

One of the Gargoyles

    

The latest owner has done well in restoring lots of the older building and his tops to the tower don’t look out of place.   

Bedroom in the old building	The roof seen from the room above the Banqueting room with dowelled joints.	Each stair and centre support is made from one piece of stone
Banqueting room with restored ceilings the same as the bedroom	Bedroom in the new tower extension	The old ground floor hall and kitchen
Open fire cooking on the ground floor	Arched roof support under the top or the tower	This is above the main entrance and bridge over the moat. It was to pour things onto unwelcome visitors.

The castle even looks down onto the village church it stands so tall. The church tower is not a ruin, they were built like that with just a wall and not a tower with the bells hung in openings in the wall so the sound travelled in all directions.      

Today you can get married in the castle or even hire it for a family holiday, it boasts a swimming pool but we didn’t  see that or a modern kitchen, but then we couldn’t visit the south end. The guide who showed us round lives in rather grand buildings in the grounds
Following our visit we made out way back down the hill that the castle is perched on and went to Valence where there is a rather splendid communal laundry. There are several of these in France but this one with three pools and circular in construction is outstanding.    

We didn’t spend long there before heading on to the old town of Auvillar,
We entered the town via the old town gate, it was here that we would see the first pilgrim on a small shelf, high on the wall, these are all over the town.  

The Town Gate

Some pilgrims were much simpler than others. We were to see lots of people walking the Pilgrim Trail

One of the more ornate Pilgrim figure

    The town has been greatly restored and preserved as the bricks have eroded badly in places.

This town is one of the few that can boast of still having a corn exchange right in the middle. This is a round building with a central island where the grain was weighed out in a tipping metal drum. Each segment of the building traded a different grain.   

The sidewalks of the street are all under brick arches
Again the town had a fine church with stained glass windows.
    A lot of the houses are of the timber frame construction with the first floor covering a greater area than the ground floor    
 

Like lots of the towns it stands on a hill and the view out over the river Garonne was quite spectacular looking down on one of the bridges crossing the river. We would cross this bridge  later in the bus.  

      
By the  time we had got back to the Barge the cloud had lifted and the sun was out so we were able to enjoy lunch on the top deck, it wasn’t to hot so we didn’t require the umbrellas while we ate. As usual Dominique our chef came and described the meal to us. 
        
Our destination for the night was Moissac, here the canal passes right through the centre of the town  hemmed in by walls each side. A low bridge crosses the canal
and this has to be swung away to let boats pass.

We didn’t moor on the canal but took a very sharp right turn to drop through a staircase lock onto the river Tarn, from here we went upstream a couple of miles so that guests could try steering the Barge on open water.

The turn was so tight that Dominique watched the bows round	I think the tall gate is for flood prevention from the river below.
The lock keeper used a radio mobile remote control pack to operate the lock.	We were a close fit so things needed watching carefully

We went upstream almost to the next weir before turning and coming back to moor for the night on the river in town, on the way we passed under the brick aqueduct that carries the canal over the river, we would be crossing that tomorrow afternoon.

The Aqueduct	Jeff trying the wheel	We turned just below this mill and weir
Trees brought down by the flood water	The open river	A modern bridge
Our mooring spot just behind these two boats.	The harbour master was British and lived on a boat	Rosa on her moorings.

This evening was a bit different to the rest of the week and Adele would take us into town for a meal in a local restaurant, we didn’t use the bus as it was quite a short walk to the top of the town.    
 

It was the first time I have eaten Oyster, thankfully it was cooked. the restaurant was right by the abbey that we would be visiting in the morning. When we walked back down to the barge afterwards we found that the arched bridge across the river behind us was illuminated. In the foreground to the right you can see a lock with the gates removed.

 

   

To see Wednesdays adventures please click HERE