Dax > Nogaro

NEW AQUITAINE REGION

Departments : Charente, Charente-Maritime, Corrèze, Creuse, Dordogne, Gironde, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Deux-Sèvres, Vienne, Haute-Vienne.
Population: 6 million
Prefecture: Bordeaux
Area: 2,011 km2
Specialities: Bordeaux wines, Cognac, Armagnac, Espelette chilli pepper, Périgord walnuts, Marmande tomatoes, oysters from the Arcachon basin, Salers meat, Aquitaine cow, Bayonne ham, Pauillac lamb, Bordeaux canelés. Goose, duck, Sarlat apples, Basque chicken, garbure, lamprey. Black truffle.
Sport clubs: Girondins de Bordeaux (football), Stade Montois, Union Sportive Dacquoise, Aviron Bayonnais, Union Bordeaux Bègles Atlantique, Stade Rochelais, CA Brive Corrèze Limousin, Section Paloise, Biarritz Olympique, SU Agen (rugby), Elan Béarnais Pau-Orthez, CSP Limoges (basketball). 
Competitions: Tour de France, surfing in Lacanau (Lacanau Pro) and Biarritz. Tour du Limousin.  
Festivals: Bayonne festival, Dax festival, Madeleine festival in Mont-de-Marsan, Francofolies in La Rochelle, Angoulême comic book festival, Brive book fair, Nuits de nacre in Tulle, Grand Pavois in La Rochelle, Garorock in Marmande, Cognac detective film festival
Economy: Bordeaux wines, Cognac and Armagnac, aeronautics and space industry, biotechnologies, chemistry, scientific research. Image and digital sector. Agri-food industry. Port of Bordeaux. Tourism. Universities.
Sights: Bordeaux, Saint-Emilion, La Rochelle, Biarritz, Arcachon basin, Dune du Pilat, Lascaux caves, Futuroscope in Poitiers, Lacanau beaches, Biarritz, Biscarosse, Hourtin, Carcans, Soulac-sur-Mer, Gironde river mouth, Bordeaux vineyards, Dordogne castles, Pau castle, Pyrenees, Oleron island, Ré island.  
Websites and social networks: www.nouvelle-aquitaine.fr

MONTFORT-EN-CHALOSSE

Montfort-en-Chalosse is the village of brothers Guy and André Boniface, who played for the Stade Montois and the French national rugby union team in the 1960s. Both were initially members of AS Montfort, a training club par excellence, before joining the Mont-de-Marsan club in 1952, becoming French champions ten years later. Playing side by side in the back row, they have 48 and 35 caps respectively for the French national team. André won the Five Nations Tournament four times, Guy twice. This 13th century bastide, famous for its capcazalières (mansion) houses and corn cultivation, is home to the Chalosse Museum, housed in a typical 19th century farmhouse. Its 13th-century Saint-Pierre church is listed as a Historical Monument. Poet Lisa Deharme frequently invited her surrealist friends André Breton, Max Ernst, Paul and Nush Eluard, Dora Maar and Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Jacques Prévert or Man Ray to her house in Montfleuri.  

SAINT-SEVER 

The "historic city of the Landes" was the sub-prefecture of the department from 1790 to 1926. It developed around its Benedictine abbey, built in the 8th century to house the relics of Saint Sever. An agricultural town, at the heart of corn growing, it is also a major producer of foie gras (foie gras festival on 14 July) and the famous Chalosse beef. The town is also a stronghold of bullfighting, at the Morlanne bullring (1932), and of rugby, since it is the town of René Crabos (1899-1964), former international and president of the FFR. Saint-Sever is also the birthplace of the basketball player Frédéric Fauthoux, the legendary leader of Orthez and the French national team.

Saint-Sever Abbey
Construction: 11th century, renovated in the 15th and 19th centuries.
Style: Romanesque.
History: the monastery was founded at the very end of the 10th century by Guillaume Sanche of Gascony to house the relics of Saint Sever, who was murdered nearby by the Visigoths in the 5th century. The Benedictine abbey of Saint-Sever experienced exceptional expansion and influence: from the 11th century onwards, its countless possessions extended from the Médoc to Pamplona in Spain. The decline began with the end of the Duchy of Gascony and was precipitated by the Hundred Years War, the Wars of Religion and the Revolution. The abbey church was returned to worship in 1795.
Characteristics: the abbey church is surprisingly vast: 71 m long, 31 m wide for the nave and 41 m for the transept. It has a choir with six apsidioles of decreasing depth, following a Benedictine plan. The marble columns of the choir and transept come from the nearby palace of the Roman governors of Morlanne. The abbey church has one of the most beautiful seven-apse chevets. Only two churches in France have preserved this form inspired by Cluny II, as the most common form is that with three apses.
Special features: the Beatus de Saint-Sever, an illuminated manuscript produced in the middle of the 11th century, was probably written in the abbey. It contains a commentary on the Apocalypse written by Beatus de Liébana. It is kept in the National Library.
Listing: Historical Monument since 1911, then Unesco World Heritage Site as part of the French Pilgrimage Route to Santiago de Compostela.   

Jacobin Convent
Construction: 1280.
Style: Languedoc Romanesque, Gothic.
History: the Jacobin convent of Saint-Sever was founded in 1280 by the Dominicans thanks to the support of Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I, Duke of England, at the time of the English presence in Aquitaine. Montgomery's Huguenot troops destroyed part of the convent in 1569 during the Wars of Religion. After the French Revolution, the convent was used for several purposes: school, college, agricultural school, depot, fire station, municipal showers, fat market.
Characteristics: the cloister, in the Languedoc Romanesque style, was built in pink brick in the 17th century. The chapter house and the refectory are originally two separate rooms built at the end of the 13th century and restored in the 14th century. They are in Gothic style and are now joined together. The refectory is decorated with a fresco dating from 1335, depicting St Dominic and Cardinal Godin. The church has a single nave and a flat chevet, and is covered with a broken barrel roof made of oak.
Current destination: since the beginning of the 1970s, it has been the venue for the town's cultural events and activities. It also houses the Cap de Gascogne Art and History Museum.
Listing: Historical Monument since 1971.

VILLENEUVE-DE-MARSAN

In 1895, the Relais restaurant opened in Villeneuve-de-Marsan, which became the stronghold of a great family of Landes chefs, the Darrozes. Four generations succeeded one another at the head of the establishment until Hélène Darroze, trained at Alain Ducasse's and encouraged by her mentor, took over the reins in 1995. In 1999, her parents sold the Relais and Hélène Darroze opened her own Landes restaurant in Paris and obtained two stars in 2003. Named the world's best female chef in 2015, she retains her restaurant on rue d'Assas, while running the kitchens at Connaught in London (three Michelin stars) and a table at the Château La Coste estate near Aix-en-Provence. It was at JS Villeneuve-de-Marsan that Olivier Roumat cut his teeth in rugby before joining Dax. The 2.02m second or third row has 62 caps for the French national team, of which he was captain in the 1990s.

OCCITANIA REGION

Departments : Ariège, Aude, Aveyron, Gard, Haute-Garonne, Gers, Hérault, Lot, Lozère, Hautes-Pyrénées, Pyrénées-Orientales, Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne
Population: 5.9 million
Prefecture: Toulouse
Area: 72,724 km2
Specialities: foie gras, cassoulet, aligot, tielle sétoise, brandade de morue, haricots tarbais, garbure, sweet onions, Céret cherries, wines (Pic Saint-Loup, Corbières, Cahors, Costières de Nîmes, blanquette de Limoux, Minervois, Tavel, Madiran). Perrier spring water.
Sports clubs: Stade Toulousain, Castres Olympique, Montpellier HR, USAP Perpignan (rugby union), Montpellier HSC, Nîmes Olympique, Toulouse FC (football), Dragons Catalans (rugby league), Montpellier Handball, Fenix Toulouse, USAM Nîmes-Gard (handball) 
Competitions: Tour de France, Open Sud de France (tennis), Route d'Occitanie (cycling).
Economy: aeronautics and space (Airbus, Ariane, Toulouse), defence, information technology, nuclear, agri-food, agriculture (wine, cereals) tourism, pharmaceutical industry. Universities (Montpellier, Toulouse).  
Festivals: Nîmes and Béziers férias, Rio Loco (Toulouse), Festival Radio France Montpellier (classical), Comédie du Livre (Montpellier), Electro Beach (Port Barcarès), Jazz in Marciac, Cinémed (Montpellier), Circa Auch, Noir Bookfair in Frontignan.
Sights: Cité de Carcassonne, basilica of Lourdes, Toulouse (Capitole, Saint-Sernin, ville rose), Montpellier (place de la Comédie, Écusson), Pont du Gard, Arènes de Nîmes, Cathar castles, Canal du Midi, cathedrals of Albi, Castres and Rodez. Millau Viaduct, Niaux and Maz d'Azil caves. Valentré Bridge in Cahors. Villages of character. Beaches in the Aude, Gard and Hérault. Ski resorts in the Pyrenees and Ariège.
Website: www.laregionoccitanie.fr

CAZAUBON

Barbotan-les-Thermes
Located in the commune of Cazaubon, Barbotan-les-Thermes is a thermal spa whose waters and mud treat rheumatic and phlebological diseases, osteoarticular pains and arthritis. The use of the thermal waters and mud of Barbotan was already known before the Christian era. During the 16th century, illustrious people came here to treat their pain: Marshal Blaise de Monluc, Montaigne, Henri de Navarre. It is one of the few resorts that can treat venous and rheumatological diseases simultaneously. Barbotan is one of the three remaining thermal spas in the Gers, along with Castera-Verduzan and Lectoure.  

Saint Peter's Church and Barbotan Gate
Construction: 16th century.
Style: Renaissance.
History and characteristics: the church has the particularity of being also an old city gate dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. It is built on stilts because the ground is made of hot mud. It consists of a nave with four bays and a side aisle in the Romanesque style. It is vaulted and some of the keystones are from the same period, especially those in the sacristy. The building was completely redesigned after the Hundred Years' War: the vaults were redone and the roof frames rest directly on the walls with overhanging rafters. The outer porch with an ogee arch houses a Renaissance-style door. The top was transformed into a pyramid shape to serve as a bell tower and in 1899, it received its clock. The pediment bears the arms of Cazaubon.
Listing: Historical Monument since 1925.

COURRENSAN

The former minister Patrick Devedjian, who died of Covid-19 in 2020, was the owner of the château de Courrensan. He is buried in the village cemetery. Courrensan is also the birthplace of Jacques Brunel who, after a rugby union playing career in Auch, was coach of the French national team in 2018 and 2019, and also of the Italian team between 2011 and 2016.  

Castle of Courrensan
Construction: 13th to 18th century.
Style: medieval.
History: a former medieval castle acquired by the commune during the Revolution, it was used as a school, a presbytery and then as a refugee centre. It is said to be the home of Scipio Dupleix, historiographer of France, at the beginning of the 17th century. Abbé Lucante, naturalist and founder of the French Botanical Society, published his studies here.
Characteristics: it consists of two parts from different periods. The older part consists of a building formerly flanked by two towers. Only the north-eastern one remains. An 18th-century wing continues perpendicular to this building. On the ground floor, the three adjoining rooms were once fully panelled. One of these rooms still has the paintings above the door. Between the old castle and the dwelling there is a building element which must have been the base of a tower or keep. The oldest part rests on a rocky base in which a barrel-vaulted underground room has been dug.
Current destination: bought by the family of the former minister Patrick Devedjian in the 1960s.
Listing: Historical Monument since 1979.

DÉMU  

Demu Tower
Construction: 14th century
History and characteristics: this tower is a characteristic example of a fortified gate of a Gascon village in the Middle Ages. The gate is open in a tower. A wooden staircase leads to the upper floors. The opening is a pointed arch, as is the one to the west. Archways open the first floor. On the third floor, the dial of the old weight clock is still in place, the mechanism of which is still inside. It housed the town hall from the end of the 19th century until the beginning of the 20th century and was also used as a municipal prison.
Listing: Historical Monument since 1973.   

In the French Basque Country, where the rivers Nive and Adour meet, Bayonne is a picturesque cultural city intertwined with green spaces and waterfront views.  
The old town is overlooked by the gothic Cathédrale Sainte-Marie, a UNESCO World Heritage site. In the surrounding streets and along the riverbanks, you can find more impressive architecture, delicious food, and interesting cultural attractions.
All of this offers visitors a taste of the charming Basque region. Nearby, you'll find the popular coastal town of Biarritz, with beautiful beaches and opportunities for surfing. These two contrasting destinations are just waiting to be explored.

Top 5 things to do in the French Basque Country:

1. Discover the history of the Basque region
2. Explore Bayonne's 3 main neighbourhoods
3. Join in the festivities during summer
4. Visit sparkling seaside town, Biarritz
5  Sample the favourite local delicacies

Provided by lastminute.com