May 3, 2019 Touring Tarascon and environs

Today's trip involves a Michelin Green Guide tour of an area south of Avignon, visiting 2 small towns and ending in Tarascon to see a monstrously large and well-preserved castle before heading home via St-Michel de Frigolet Abbey.

Not too good with the digital pen. sigh

There's supposed to be a château in Barbantane with tours. We hustle a bit, well, just a bit - coffee and croissants take time in the morning - to get in before they close at noon for lunch. (We couldn't wait for it to re-open at 2.)  Turns out, there was no hurry. There's no indication that the château is ever open to the public and it certainly isn't open now. A photo of the outside is all there is.

Janis, Dave, and Clark wander around the old town which was walled with a 14th century watch tower whose watchmen could warn the town of any impending danger which prompted the gates to be closed.

 The streets are steep and narrow as expected.

Next to the church on the right is a community well, built in the 14th century - over 100 feet deep into the bedrock with 20 feet of water at the bottom. The church is Romanesque, 12th century.

This 12th century house has 16th century arcades and balcony added. It was the house of Lord Guillaume de Barbantane.

Next we stopped Boulbon. While I stopped at the church of St. Anne in town, Dave, Janis, and Clark stormed the castle. However, they were stopped by an iron gate half-way up the hill.

Are we there yet?

Can't get any farther.

a pretty view on the way down from the castle

Our next stop was Tarascon. The town is named for the Tarasque, a legendary monster that lived in the middle of the Rhone River and attacked cities, eating the townspeople and burning the town with its fiery breath. 

the Tarasque

When Martha (who arrived by boat at Saintes-Maries de la Mer in the Camargue) found out about the monster, she told the people along the Rhone that she would calm the monster, which she did by making the sign of the cross when she met the Tarasque. The monster became docile as a dog. Depending on your version of the legend, either the monster died because it would no longer eat people, or the towns people, still frightened of the Tarasque, killed him although he put up no resistance. The people of the town renamed it Tarascon in honor of the monster. The Tarasque is the symbol of the town and can be seen on weather vanes around town.They also dedicated their church to Saint Martha.

weather vane with Tarasque

The castle, Château de Roi René, is impressive, towering over the town and the Rhone River below it.

There's a perfect sized wall on which to eat our lunch and admire the castle and Rhone at the same time.

We ate lunch beside castle on left, by the river.

Built between 1400 and 1435, the castle occupied a strategic location for monitoring traffic on the Rhone and allowed the Dukes of Anjou who ruled Provence to keep an eye on the French city of Beaucaire across the river.

Beaucaire across the Rhone, which divided Provence from France in the 1400s

By 1480, Provence had been ceded to France and the defensive importance of the castle was unnecessary. From then on the castle was used to house garrisons of soldiers. From the end of the 15th century till 1926, it was used as a prison and its walls still bear prison graffiti from this time.

The tour allows you to go to the top of the crenellated roof, 4 stories up. Between cobbled walkways and lots of steps, the castle was beyond my range.

looking down from the towers onto the interior of the castle

So while Janis, Clark, and Dave explored the castle, I found the tourist office, took photos of some lovely doors behind which was housed a "maison d'enfants de caractère sociale," and explored the church of St. Martha.

The tourist office gave me tons of information about fests, maps of the town, 3 different walking tours, and a few more that I haven't looked at yet. Most helpful, even if slightly hidden around a corner off the main street. It's clear this town is worth a second visit to explore its medieval center.

When I was photographing the lovely blue doors at the front of this very well-maintained manor house across from the church, a woman asked if she could help me find something. I told her that I was only photographing the doors of this lovely building and asked her what it was.

blue doors

renaissance house

She explained that it was a "maison d'enfants de caractère sociale", a home for children who have been removed from their families for reasons of parental incompetence - drugs, sexual assault, violence, alcoholism, psychological trauma, etc. This house takes in children from ages 1 to 21, providing shelter and schooling. After a short chat (she wondered what Americans who spoke French were doing in Tarascon), she walked up the steps and let herself into the building with a key. Clearly, she knew what she was talking about!

Lady entering the maison d'enfants de caractère sociale

The collegiate church of St. Martha was a wonder - it was completely handicapped accessible!

side porch is remains of romanesque church

close up of metal embossed doors

Of course, the icons in the tympanum of the door were destroyed in the revolution.

A collegiate church is like a cathedral, but isn't the seat of a bishop. Instead, worship and church services are provided by non-monastic canons and the church is presided over by a dean. We've run into collegiate churches several times in this area. It makes sense because there is a church in every town, bigger churches for bigger towns. The Papacy in this area had a strong influence in the lives of the towns. And many of these towns were actually owned by the Catholic church.

Besides that it was well restored.

Photo of what the church looked like after WWII

Damaged by heavy bombing in WWII, it was restored in the 50s and 60s.

the organ was beautiful 

nave of the church

stained glass above reliquary of St. Martha

Since St. Martha is venerated in this town especially, it is no surprise that a gothic church was raised over a romanesque crypt that houses a 4th century sarcophagus where in lie the remains of St. Marthe.

There is also a beautiful reconstruction of a reliquary said to be in the likeness of the face of St. Marthe. The original, a gift of Louis XI in 1470, was sold in the Revolution and melted down for its gold. It was said to have held her skull.

The rest of the town remains to be discovered on another day. It's time to head home with just one more stop on the Michelin tour, St. Michel de Frigolet.

St. Michel de Frigolet

interior of church

A monastery was first built in 960 on the top of one of the hills (la Mignonette) outside Tarascon. A chapel was built in the 12th century, which still stands. It was home to Benedictines, Hieronymites, and Augustinians and of course was suppressed and sold in the Revolution.

Paul Boulbon, a Trappist priest, purchased the property in 1850 and installed a Premonstratension order. A new church was built and the religious order became an abbey with Boulbon as the first abbot in 1869. The abbey is still a functioning monastery of this order today.

You can see one of the brothers praying in the church

We visited the church but other buildings such as the cloister need an appointment to visit.

Every inch of this 19th century church is painted

one of the columns

columns

Back in the car, we traveled by small roads and goat paths back to our place in Sarrians.

You call this a road? Our GPS thinks so.

Crossing the Rhone river. It's wide!

We're sure our GPS is testing us to see how small a road we will actually take before not believing her. (Her name is Michelle.) But we get to see lots of beautiful back roads and country scenery this way.