The retired traveller: LaGrasse - A Plus Beau Village April 28, 2024

The day is cold again (although the thermometer reads 60 degrees in the car) and threatening rain. The plan is to visit a Plus Beau Village (LaGrasse), have a picnic lunch, and then do some wine tasting on the way home. So we pack lunches, pack up our raincoats, and head out for LaGrasse, 115 km away (a bit over an hour driving time).

What's a Plus Beau Village? Glad you asked. To promote tourism in small communities across France, an independent association, Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (the most beautiful villages in France) judges small towns for inclusion on their list of about 160 villages across France. It is a boon to small villages for whom modern life has left them behind.

To be considered, a village must have less than 2000 people, have well preserved streets and some kind of historic monument - church, abbey, Roman remains, houses, etc. Once on the list, the village is virtually guaranteed tourist traffic which encourages local business. We have found these villages to be really interesting both historically and culturally.

LaGrasse - a "Plus Beau Village"

LaGrasse can claim a 14th century bridge over the river Orbieu, a covered market (La Halle), and narrow cobbled streets lined with medieval houses. Most impressive, however, is the abbey that sits on the opposite bank of the Orbieu river.

LaGrasse Abbey

We first explored the village including the parish church, Saint Michel.

rather impressive for a parish church!

This church is completely surrounded by village buildings such that it was even difficult to find the entrance.

main entrance to the narthex

We wandered to the covered market, where there was a used clothing market going on.

Then along the cobblestone streets to the 14th century bridge. (The cobbles nearly rattled out my teeth and my chariot wasn't happy either!)

Dave helping me up the cobblestones to the top of the bridge

14th century bridge

Across the bridge, along the road to the abbey, we passed a cemetery - always an interesting place to visit.

Dale opening the cemetery gate for me

A fairly recent monument

In France, you lease your grave, you don't own it. If your descendants don't renew the lease, the city offers that property (called a concession) for lease. If a lease is purchased by someone else, the bones interred in the grave are moved to the cemetery's ossuary (a place to collect the bones of people). The stone is removed and can be resold or simply discarded (ground for gravel, for example).

This family's concession had expired.

We found one such grave where a notice was posted that this concession was available.

On to the abbey. One enters the book store and purchases a ticket (7 Euros 50 per person) to visit the public side of the abbey. There is still a private side of the abbey where monks continue to live. That side is not visited.

Originally a Benedictine abbey, Lagrasse was founded by the Abbot of Narbonne in the 7th century. It was the richest and most powerful abbey in the middle ages, whose monks were wealthy, often children of nobility, with their own servants. Thus, the abbey is palatial in its size and adornment. Since the French Revolution, about 1/4 of the abbey belongs to the town and since 2004, the remainder is privately held by a canon community and is not visited.

the private side of the abbey

Courtyard of the abbot's palace

upper balcony of courtyard

monk's dormitory

After touring the abbey, we made our way back to the parking lot where we found some big rocks to sit on while we ate. You can see how grey and cold it was, so we ate quickly and headed off to our wine tasting stop in Villamagne (Latin for Villa Magna - Big House).

Villemagne

Roger Carbonneau, 5th generation winemaker at Villemagne, met us at the door and brought us into his wine cellar. The winery and vineyards surrounding it were originally a Gallo-Roman villa. Since 1750, it has been producing an eclectic variety of wines. Today, the winery has 30 hectares of vineyards (Carbonneau says one hectare is the size of a football field. Janis asks, reasonably, American football of European football which is soccer.) M. Carbonneau was quite the character, telling jokes as he walked us to the tasting room in back, explaining to us how their wines were produced. Everything is done by hand - picking the grapes, corking, and even labeling are time-intensive jobs.