Medieval soap opera A

Medieval soap opera A remarkable number of medieval streets and buildings still exist in major French towns such as Le Mans, capital of the old province of Anjou and heartland of the Plantagenet dynasty in the 12 th and 13 th centuries. In 1128, Geoffrey, Count of Anjou and Maine, married Matilda in Le Mans cathedral, his nickname of Plantagenet coming from the spring of broom or genet that he tucked in his hat whilst hunting. Although the granddaughter of William the Conqueror - Duke of Normandy and King of England - Matilda never wore the English crown, but their first son Henry did make top job, as well as gaining large areas of France through his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152. With its half-timbered houses and cobbled streets, Le Mans’s Cité Plantagenet is still packed with medieval atmosphere, a popular location for filmmakers. If like me you are fascinated by the medieval soap opera of the Plantagenets with its family feuds and larger than life characters, head also to the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud in the Loire Valley to stand beside the tombs of Henry and his estranged wife Eleanor, their son Richard I of England and Isabella of Angoulême, wife of younger son King John. Eleanor spent her last years in this complex of four priories for women and one for men. Repurposed today as a regional arts centre, Fontevraud also now includes a hotel and Michelin-starred restaurant. Trading places The Middle Ages saw the construction of many ‘new towns’ known as bastides across south-west France. Laid out in a grid-pattern with wide streets around a central market square, they were mostly built between 1200 and 1400 with the aim of developing trade and boosting local economies in remote areas such as the old provinces of Gascony, Béarn and Languedoc. Many remain remarkably untouched across Effigies of kings and queens at the Abbey of Fontevraud © Gillian Thornton Aigue-Mortes, a superb bastide town, Gard the regions of Occitanie and Nouvelle- Aquitaine. Castelnau-de-Montmiral in the Tarn department and Mirepoix in Ariège have both retained glorious arcaded squares. Some bastides such as Cordes-sur-Ciel in Tarn were founded in strategic hilltop positions by local Provins, a medieval time capsule near Paris Château de Beynac, Dordogne rulers, whilst Aigues-Mortes in Gard is a rare example of a bastide still completely enclosed in defensive walls. In the north-east of France, trade flourished on an international scale in the 12 th and 13 th centuries with a series of fairs, each lasting several weeks and spaced throughout the year in towns ruled by the powerful Counts of Champagne. Here merchants from the Mediterranean to the Low Countries would trade in high value items such as fur and wool, spices, textiles and leather. Most of these towns have continued to thrive across the centuries, their medieval structures gradually swallowed up or overshadowed with new urban development. But Provins to the east of Paris is still a time capsule of its medieval heyday, bypassed as trade routes changed and largely left to slumber unnoticed. Now inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list as the only surviving example of a merchant city from the Champagne fair era, Provins still has many underground galleries where merchants did business, a 12 th century tower, and tithe barn, plus more than 1km of imposing fortified walls. Immerse yourself in the Middle Ages with The Legend of the Knights live action show, the display of falconry on horseback, and annual medieval festival. Armed combat Towards the end of the Middle Ages, France and England engaged in a series of battles over who was to rule France. Later dubbed the Hundred Years’ War, the conflict kicked off in 1337 and carried on intermittently until 1453 when the final battle took place at Castillonla-Bataille on the Dordogne river. Every bend in this picturesque waterway seems to reveal a new medieval fortress to visit such as Château de Beynac, once home to Richard the Lionheart, and nearby Castelnaud with its Museum of Medieval Warfare. The most famous confrontation of this drawnout conflict took place at Azincourt in Pasde-Calais in 1415, popularised in William Shakespeare’s epic play, Henry V. The village museum brings the event zinging vividly to life and the nearby field where it all took place is largely untouched. Stand on the viewing tower listening to birdsong and see where the cream of French aristocracy floundered in the mud in heavy armour before the English archers. 28 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 29