Domme, Bastide Royale and Chateau de Commarque

Gentle Friends, today we continue on win a lovely cliff side town, a church, lunch and end with a super Chateau ruin.restoration.

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There are many lovely towns/villages all over Aquitaine region, many of them are members of the "La Plus Beaux de Villages de France."   This is an independent association created in 1982, that promotes small and picturesque French villages of quality heritage.  As of 2008 there were 152 villages that have this label.  Domme is certainly a worthy addition to the group.

Founded in 1281 by Phillip the Bold, Domme is 250 meteres above sea level on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Dordogne river.  The city is laid out in a trapezoid plan, it is a bastide (fortified medieval town) which adapted to the terrain - and is quite different than the typical rectangular city plan typical of most bastides.

After parking we walked through the village up to cliff side park.......

,,, from Domme, Jaques de Maleville was a Jurist, politician and helped to write the Civil Code of France.

.....there was an outcrop that I could take a snap of the cliff looking back at the park, and bust of Maleville....

.... looking out over the Dordogne and valley......

..... this is the main church of Domme, Our Lady of the Assumption.....

... this "Liberty tree" was in front of the Office of tourism, and we saw them all over the region everywhere, they were originally May Poles, that during the Revolution changed meaning.....

... one of the dozens of shots I got of a typical street in one of these "beautiful Villages."  This was taken in Domme.  What a great old house to live in!!

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On our way headed to lunch we stopped at a great Romanesque church......

L'eglise de Cenac et St Julien, this is the church of Ste Marie......

... beautifully pain and clean looking with a soaring pointed arch ceiling.....

.....  the windows are 19th century, but the stone work is ancient......  after this quick stop we got back on the road to Castlenaud le Chapelle .......

... here is a shot of the Chateau, we did not visit......  but stopped at a great restaurant called....

Les Tilleuls... we ate outside in this garden space.....

.... my lunch with a great beer..... and a shot of the menu... I had pommes frites instead of sarladaise..... and we had a lunch companion.....

..... he enjoyed the duck also, I'm a total sucker for a cute kitty!!

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From lunch we went on to.....

......  this Chateau was located far off the road.  You park your car and walk for about 600 meters to the site....  passing signs like this....

....  and it was a hike downhill on the dirt path you see behind the sign, a "boucle" is a walking path or trail in the woods.....

... once you clear the woods you see the massive Chateau de Commarque......

... I took this shot from under a tree, across the fields looking up at the bulk of the Chateau...

... you climb up and the first building you come to is the chapel....

... we were given guide books and this map was in mine of the site, showing the buildings and paths you can climb.  It is a huge place and took the better part of the afternoon to see.....  more snaps.....

... this is the Chateau (privately owned) that is across the valley that with Commarque, protected this area.  The dark place under the trees at the edge of the field is were I got the shot of the Chateau 5 snaps back......

... this was once the great hall of the Chateau....

..... It was a great place to visit, but you have to be able to climb and walk quite a bit to visit this Chateau.  I'll leave off there for today.  Stop back in tomorrow for a little something special!

Take care,

edgar