Montauban, A City of Art and legends

Memorial to the 1870 war by Antoine Bourdelle

In my trip to France there were a couple places that I had to visit. One was Paris and another was Montauban.

I could find plenty of Americans who had been to Paris and were willing to offer advice about places to see and things to do, but I could not find anyone who had been to Montauban.

And that is a shame.

Montauban is a beautiful city in a gorgeous part of France and it deserves more tourists.

I needed to visit Montauban because one of the heroes in the legends of Charlemagne is Renaud de Montauban. Renaud is the eldest son in the famous French poem Les Quatre Fils Aymon or The Four Sons of Aymon.

Renaud's sister Bradamante is the heroine of my story. Therefore I found it necessary to for me to set my novel in the area surrounding Montauban.

Even though it is not historically accurate to the time period of my story. Blame it on the poets who wrote the Matters of France. They were fabulous dramatists, but not well versed on history.

The city of Montauban was founded in 1144 and Charlemagne died in 814.

However, trying to divorce Renaud from Montauban would be like trying to take Robin Hood out of Sherwood Forest.

Or using another Italian city other than Venice when refering to Leonardo. Perhaps Leonardo de Firenze.

It wouldn't work.

By my accepting the idea that dramatic necessity required my using Montauban, it mentally freed me to include similar historical inaccuracies when I deemed it a plot necessity.

That also meant my visit to Montauban was less demanding when it came to fact finding. I needed a sense of the surrounding area, but there would not be any buildings dating back to the time period of my story.

I also wanted to find examples of the legends of Charlemagne influencing their art and heritage.

Unfortunately, that was the most disappointing aspect about Montauban. I had tried via email to connect with any historians, professional or amateur, who were fans of the Matters of France. The Tourism Office sent me a lead, but I did not receive any reply.

It was not the first, nor shall it be the last time an email query receives no response.

My disappointment increased during our visit to the tourist office. I asked if there was anything such as a statue, a mural, streets, etc. in honor of Renaud de Montauban.

The only thing they knew of was a stone face on the side of the Ingres Museum thought to be of Renaud de Montauban. You can see it if you stand on the Pont Vieux and look at a certain angle.

Here is the Pont Vieux or "Old Bridge" over the Tarn River. This bridge dates back to the 14th century.


And here is the stone face that reportedly belongs to Renaud de Montauban.


While having found this face in order to take a picture seems worthy of earning points in a scavenger hunt, I was expecting more for this literary hero by the city of Montauban.

I had hoped to find statues, sculptures, paintings, or possibly a mural. I would not have been surprised to find streets being named after Renaud, Aymon, Guichard, Alard, Richardet and Bradamante. Maybe even a restaurant or two.

Les Quatre Fils Aymon Café.

As far as I know, that name is still available.

Something to demonstrate pride and ownership of this legend by the city of Montauban.

No other city or town can lay claim to being the home of Renaud.

In Chantilly I saw this painting depicting Renaud's magical horse Bayard who could expand to accommodate all four sons of Aymon on his back.



I asked the people working at the Tourism Office why there was not anything else celebrating their literary heroes. I wound up annoying them since they are not in control of artworks for the city or naming streets.

Their only answer to me was that this was only a story.

Only a story.

Rocamadour claims they have the sword Durindal embedded in the side of a rock (similar to Excalibur.) This was the sword of Roland made famous in the epic poem Chanson de Roland. I do not know how they claim it came to their town, but if Roland were to have thrown it as he lay dying in the Roncesvalle Pass and it flew through the air to Rocamadour he would have to have made one helluva toss.

That sword would have to go about 190 miles or 308 kilmeters by my quick and dirty measurment on Google Earth from Roncesvalles to Rocamadour.

Yet Rocamadour uses that bit of legendary lore to lure tourists. It is based on a story.

Carcassonne uses a legend to describe how their town was named. The legend involves successfully withstanding a siege by the Emperor Charlemagne.

They made up their own legend of Charlemagne. It's not true, but it makes a good story.

Portland, Oregon has bronze statues in a park dedicated to characters written by children's author Beverly Cleary. Statues based on stories.

I remember a restaurant on the campus of Wayne State University in Detroit named Friar Tuck's. There is no legitimate claim to the legend of Robin Hood by a college town restaurant/bar in Michigan, yet they proudly used a name they thought would be inviting to patrons.

A name based on a story.

I love the vibrancy of the city of Montauban. I love its history and its surrounding beauty, but I think the city is missing out on tourist dollars. Tourist dollars that are waiting to be claimed.

My plea to the city of Montauban is for them to honor Renaud de Montauban and his fair sister Bradamante through artwork.

Carve it and they will come.

Paint it and they will come.


If nothing else, do this because I want to come back and take pictures of that artwork. I also want my picture taken standing near them.

Okay, enough babbling about what I did not find in Montauban.

Here are some photos I took of a city known for its beautiful brick architecture. Montauban is sometimes called Toulouse's "little pink sister" due to the color of the bricks. The vibrant color is due to the rich color of the soil.

This next picture is from the Place Nationale in the heart of downtown Montauban.

Our visit was on a bright sunny day and unfortunately the carved inscription is washed out in this photo.

Here is a closer look.

On the left is the Occitan Cross which was the standard of the Counts of Toulouse and on the right is the standard of the city of Montauban.


Here is a nice colorized version of Montauban's standard taken from the pages of Wikipedia.



Next comes tables for the lunch crowd on the Place Nationale.



We chose to eat at a restaurant whose tables were underneath beautiful arches.



Our first stop of the day before we went to the Tourist Office was actually the Farmer's market held on the other side of the Tarn River.

We were unsure where the market was, but was told it was near the Pont Vieux. We parked near the Ingres Museum but did not see any sign of the market. Then we saw women carrying bags laden with fresh produce. We set off trying to find where they had come from and after crossing the bridge soon discovered a large open air market teeming with people and the bounty of the land.



The fruits and vegetables were wonderful. Chasselas grapes are a specialty of the region and were bursting with flavor.

Yummmmm.

I sampled brioche for the first time in my life and we bought a marvelous apple tart for dessert.

We had the best bruschetta of our lives using heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil we bought at that market.



After our lunch we visited the Musée Ingres named after Montauban's most famous artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867).

The building at one point was an episcopal palace, later it was a town hall and finally became a museum. It houses paintings by Ingres, sculptures by another famous Montauban artist Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929), as well as other artwork and Gallo-Roman artifacts. The basement of the building is called the Black Prince room another reminder of the longreaching impact of the Hundred Years' War.


One of the most famous paintings by Ingres was inspired by the Matters of France. It is Roger délivrant Angélique. (1841)


The original hangs in the Louvre.


Here is a better version I found on the web.


Ingres was so fascinated by Angelica that he has another painting without Ruggiero. I apologize, but the lighting was not ideal at this point in the day and this was the best photo I could manage.


I do not care for the character of Angelica in either Orlando Innamorato or Orlando Furioso. She is more in the archetype of Aphrodite and I prefer the character of Bradamante who follows the archetype of Athena.

Too bad Ingres did not depict Ruggiero and Bradamante together. Or Renaud de Montauban.

Enough pounding on what I want versus what they have.

Here's a painting that impressed me. It is Le Songe d' Ossiane by Ingres.



A Gallo-Roman mosaic dating back to the fourth century.


There was also a few display cases with Greek pottery.



On the way downstairs there is a wood carving showing the patron saint of Toulouse, Saint Saturnin being martyred by being tied to the back of a bull.



Downstairs are more mosaics. You can tell by the color of the tiles next to the bricks that the materials were made in the nearby area.



A close up on the fine detail of the mosaic.

I would love to have something that intricate and beautiful in my house.


Then the room of the Black Prince. Check out the vaults on the ceiling.


Some stone sarcaphagi.


An old stone fireplace.




The close up is of a bear and a dog holding the crest.

On the left side of the mantle is the Wild Man of the Woods.


And on the right side is the lesser seen Wild Woman of the Woods.

Yay for equal representation!


One of the most disturbing things we saw in our travels in France was le banc de question.

Otherwise known as The Rack.



Here is a nice picture of colored glass to cleanse your palate.



And to leave you, here is the marvelous spread of food that my husband lovingly prepared for our dinner including the fresh fruit and baked bread we bought at Montauban's farmer's market.



It was a good day. The next day on our travels brought us to the town of Peyrusse le Roc. A town reportedly that was once conquered by Charlemagne's father Pepin le Bref.



I shall be sharing some of my pictures of my travels with my friend Lee Lofland on his blog this Saturday. Feel free to stop by.

Orlando Furioso, the Louvre, Pope Joan, memoirs, literacy and

I discovered through the virtues of Google alerts that the Louvre has a special exhibit running now through May 19th called The Imaginative World of Ariosto.

There are lectures, showing of operas based on the epic poem Orlando Furioso, woodcuts from Gustave Doré, sculptures and paintings.


One of the most famous paintings inspired by Ariosto's masterpiece is Roger délivrant Angélique, 1819 by Montauban's native son Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres housed in the Louvre.




A copy is in the Ingres Museum in Montauban.


It is a beautiful painting reflecting a famous scene from the epic poem, but the Ruggiero/Angelica pairing however brief does not capture my imagination like it has artists over the years.


I much prefer Ruggiero/Bradamante.

Here is a link to a PDF file from the Louvre explaining the exhibition in detail. It would be nice to travel to Paris and see the exhibition before it closes, but alas I do not see that in the cards or in my budget. Not between now and May 18th.

I am pleased to know that there is a resurgence in interest in the Matters of France. Hopefully that will be beneficial to me in the future.

Onto some of the other topics in my title. I received an update on Donna Woolfolk Cross' novel Pope Joan. I knew that the movie based on her novel was due out this fall, but I did not know that a different version of her book was also coming out. From her update:

Hurray! A brand-new edition of the Pope Joan book by Three Rivers Press will be released in June. This is not just a re-print; I've made corrections and additions to the text and also written a new "Author's Note" to explain/expand upon these changes. I've also included a list of "Best-Ever Reading Group Questions", gleaned from my many years of chatting by speakerphone with reading and school groups all over the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Speaking of which, I'd like to ask book group members a big favor: could you fill out this survey? (If this link doesn't work for you, then go to readinggroupchoices.com and click on "survey".) It will take only a couple of minutes. Surveys must be completed by March 27th.

Of course I'm hoping that you'll vote for Pope Joan as one of your favorite book group reads! (doesn't strictly have to be a book you discussed in 2008; what the survey is mostly looking for are good recommendations for other reading groups). If Pope Joan makes the list of top ten book group favorites of 2008, , it would be wonderful and much-needed publicity for the new edition by Three Rivers Press.

The advantage to book group members: the survey enters you in a lottery to win $75 toward your next book group meeting. Also, you get access to the list of Reading Group Choices (RGC) authors who, like me, are willing to chat by speakerphone with book groups.

I was also alerted by my friend Matilda Butler that she and Kendra Bonnett will be holding an online memoir writing class entitled "The Craft of Memoir Writing: Using the Five Senses to Bring Your Story to Life." It runs from April 13th to June 8th and is at a reasonable cost.

Onto the topic of literacy which is my father's raison d’être. He founded the non-profit AVKO Educational Research Foundation which has an updated website, a new blog, a Facebook Page and even a Twitter account.

If you are interested in homeschooling, dyslexia or just plain old literacy, please check it out.

You can even see in online videos how in using "word families" my dad is able to get a young man, who thought he could never learn to read or spell, to correctly read the word malicious.


I am woefully behind in finishing up my travelogue of France, but know that I have not given up on doing it. My next post in that series will be about the city of Montauban, home of Ingres and my heroine Bradamante.

From Paris to the Midi-Pyrenees

With the idea that the third time is the charm, I shall once again try picking up where I left off on my travelogue posts regarding my trip to France last September.

This post is dedicated to covering some of the nuts and bolts of traveling as well as relating our trip from France to the Midi-Pyrenees where my husband and I stayed for two weeks.

In preparing for our trip we thought long and hard of what we needed to bring with us. At every turn we were exhorted to pack light and so we took that advice to heart. We chose clothes that for the most part we could wash in a sink (blue jeans were the notable exception to that ideal.) We knew we would be in Paris for a week, a few days in Provence and during those times we would not have any access to a Laundromat, nor did we want to. With that in mind, we packed several packets of detergent and before we set out in the morning for sight seeing, we washed our underwear, shirts, et cetera in the sink and hung them to dry on the line over the bathtub.

We took two suitcases with us and two carry on bags. We considered the possibility of one of our suitcases getting lost in transit, we divvied up our clothes with the shorts and short sleeved clothes for the south of France going into the checked bag and the cooler clothes for Paris in the carry on suitcase. The checked bag had our various liquids that are now contraband on board airlines such as shampoo, shaving gel, tooth paste, and laundry detergent. Thankfully, we had no problem with our luggage and our precautionary packing of warm versus cool climate clothes did not prove necessary.

One of our carry on bags was filled with books. Included were guide books, a large Michelin spiral bound map of France, my working manuscript, and a Tess Gerritsen novel. That bag was heavy. Very heavy. Since I was the one who insisted on bringing all those books, I wound up being the one to schlep it around on top of my rollered suitcase while Scott carried the lighter bag with an old and rather clunky laptop. We had the high hopes that we would be able to keep up on our emails and I thought I might be able to blog during the trip similar to other friends of mine.

The hotel we stayed at in Paris, Hotel Dieu (I blogged on that neat historical working hospital/hotel in a previous post) had a wi-fi connection, but we were so exhausted by the time we returned to our room that the most we were able to do was check our email and download pictures off our digital camera. Composing a thoughtful blog post was out of the question. Even posting a small “we are here” post with a picture seemed as if it would be a Labor of Hercules to achieve.

Saturday morning marked a major change in our itinerary. We were leaving Paris, picking up a lease vehicle, stopping at Guédelon in the Burgundy region, driving south to Montauban, going grocery shopping before the stores closed, then check into the villa we were going to stay at for two weeks in Monclar-de-Quercy. We knew it was going to be a full day and that is why we had to start our day at an insane time of the morning. We had a shuttle van scheduled to pick us up in front of the hotel at 06:00 in order to take us to the Paris Orly Airport where we were to pick up our lease vehicle from Renault.

That meant that we had to wake up, take our showers, pack the last items into our suitcases and be outside at insane o’clock all the while without any benefit of any caffeinated beverages. It was brutal, but we survived. My husband and I have gotten so accustomed to our routine of achieving our therapeutic level of caffeine at a slow pace by periodically slurping coffee from a mug near our bed that having to get up without benefit of coffee is brutal and almost torturous. We knew that the hospital cafeteria would not be open at five in the morning, nor was it likely that any of the various cafés nearby would be open at that time on a Saturday morning. So we suffered while stumbling around our hotel room with our eyes barely open.

Our driver arrived shortly after 6 a.m. and it was our first real exchange with a French speaking native that was not fluent in English, and it foreshadowed what was to come for us. He spoke a little English and we spoke a little French. Together, the three of us were able to piece together a conversation. The discussion at first was focused on making sure he understood which gate at the airport we needed to be dropped off. Once he understood we were picking up a car, he asked if we were going to drive around Paris. We laughed, and said no -- that was dangerous. He then laughed and agreed with us. We told him we were on our way to visit the south of his country near Toulouse.

Then, he did something I thought was very kind of him. He wanted us to be aware of the monitors on the auto routes which would issue citations if you drove faster than the posted speed limit. He pointed out the signs and also the cameras in boxes by the side of the road.

Later when he heard that we were from California, he expressed his love for our state because of its beauty. We thought he had visited our state, but he had not. He said he knew it from pictures and he would like to visit one day.

We had other conversations with French people during our trip which had similar results. Using as much French vocabulary to the best of our ability allowed us to have a pleasant if not sophisticated conversation. We felt as if we made positive connections with people from another country, another culture, and another language.

After being dropped off at Orly Airport the first item on our agenda was to find coffee and something to eat. Then we also drew more money out of an automated teller machine (ATM). For those from the United States who have not traveled overseas before, forget any thought you may have of formally exchanging money or using travelers’ checks. ATMs are the way to go because you get Euros at the current exchange rate and depending upon your bank you may or may not have any withdrawal fees associated with the transaction. The only sticking point is that there is generally a maximum amount of money you can withdraw on any day.

Another financial aspect to consider before traveling is to contact your credit card company and alert them to the fact you will be on vacation and will be making quite a bit of charges. This is to avoid them thinking that your card was stolen and freezing your account for fear that there are unauthorized charges being made. Tell them of the dates of your trip and where you are going ahead of time and you should not have to worry about frozen accounts.

European countries also have a security chip embedded in their credit cards which are not in American credit cards. This will sometimes render your credit card transactions as invalid, so you should be aware of this potential. It seemed more likely to be troublesome at petrol stations and having a backup of Euros on hand was important.

In obtaining cars for driving overseas, there are several companies who have lease programs. You actually purchase a brand new vehicle and will sell it back to the company at a guaranteed price at the end of the lease period. The minimum is seventeen days possession of the car, but Renault had a minimum charge of twenty-one days.

My husband worked on these details and had the contract drawn up months in advance with Renault USA for the date, time and place for us to pick up the vehicle. He chose the Renault Megane.

Another driver picked us up from the airport and took us to the Renault facility. Our car was waiting for us. We signed some papers and were given “smart keys” which are about the same size as a credit card but are thick and padded. They have embedded computer chips which activate the car, even if it is not inserted into the ignition slot. To start the car you simply press the “start” button. Those keys also unlock the car whenever you are even near the car which makes it difficult if you are like me and want to just check to see if the trunk is locked. It will not be if you are standing near the car with that smart key in your pocket no matter how many times you punch the lock icon.

Our next goal was to find a station and fill up the car with gazoil, a diesel fuel. Once that was accomplished we set dusted off our Garmin Nuvi GPS and started it up. We had purchased a package for France and was about to discover how it differed from using that electronic toy in the United States.

One thing that we noticed as soon as we left the autoroute was that the accent of the voice in the Garmin garbles the pronunciations of roads and towns in French. It butchered the language – to the point where we would turn and stare at it and say “Wha ?”

At one point we switched the voice’s language to French, but that did not help because then every word was said in an incomprehensible thick accent. We wound up reverting to the familiar American sounding female voice and read the street names whenever a turn was announced.

We also had to play around with the settings to convert to kilometers as well as the time zone we were in rather than our Pacific time zone.

The GPS unit did get us to Guédelon without any trouble and we had a lovely time there. I shall blog about Guédelon another day since it is well worth a post all on its own.

In the meantime, here is a picture from that site to serve as a teaser. Yes, they are building a castle using thirteenth century technology!

We left Guédelon and relied upon the GPS to find the best route to Montauban. The thing is, since we were in a rural area, it did not take us directly back to the autoroute. It took us on a convoluted path going from one rural road to even lesser traveled rural roads that made us start doubting the reliability of the unit. We also were in need of lunch and beginning to get cranky.

We had considered eating lunch at Guédelon for they have a cafeteria there, but alas it had not opened for the day by the time we left even though the stated hours made it appear that it should have been. There were towels draped over the areas where food was supposed to be, so we knew that even if someone stepped up and began puttering around in that kitchen that it would probably still take some time before we had food in hand. So we left Guédelon without eating.

We considered and rejected the idea of stopping at a village for a meal. Many of the small villages in France are economically depressed and if we stopped at a village restaurant for lunch, they would probably want to make sure that we enjoyed our stay. That would likely translate into the two hour lunch as is customary in France. We just did not have that kind of time that day, and did not want to insult anyone -- so we set our sights on the promised fast food restaurants that line the autoroute. Then rural road after rural road, our morning croissants became a distant memory. I then did something desperate and searched for food on the Garmin GPS menu and found a McDonald’s restaurant that was not too far out of our way.

Eating at a McDo’s in France was out of desperation and necessity. It actually was not as bad as I had feared. We had reasonable fast food, and in around twenty minutes we were back on the road again.

We eventually made our way to the autoroute and once on those really smooth roads we seemed to fly through the gorgeous countryside.

Our next big goal for the day was to go grocery shopping. The reason we needed to do that on a Saturday night is that many stores are closed on Sunday in France. If we had not made it to the large E. LeClerc supermarket on Saturday night before they closed, then we would have been dependent upon the small grocery store named 8 à Huit (pronounced wheat-ah-wheat) in Monclar-de-Quercy which is only open for a few hours on Sunday. And never is the store open from eight to eight as the name implies.

There were some things we needed such as toilet paper and laundry detergent that we did not want to pack in our suitcases nor would be readily available at farmers markets.

I had corresponded with Sarah Rule for months prior to our arrival and she was kind enough to alert me to certain things that would otherwise have taken me by surprise. First was that the shopping carts require a Euro coin deposit to release them from a locking mechanism in the parking lot. We made sure that we kept at least one Euro coin at all times. Second was that grocery stores no longer provided shopping bags for your purchases. You are not asked paper or plastic, you are expected to bring your own.

So we packed some cheap flimsy plastic grocery bags from our local store and had them on hand for our shopping trip.

Each step in our journey in France seemed to be passing some kind of milestone that was worthy of celebration.

1. We made it to Paris. Check.
   
2. We made it through Customs without any hassle. Check.
   
3. We retrieved our checked bag. Check.
   
4. We found our shuttle bus to take us to our hotel. Check.
   
5. We enjoyed our week in Paris. Check.
   
6. We got our shuttle van to Orly Airport. Check.
   
7. Picked up our car. Check. Got petrol. Check.
   
8. Found our way to Guédelon. Check.
   
9. Found the grocery store in Montauban. Check.
   
10. Got our shopping cart and bags. Check.

We were giddy and getting pretty silly at this point in the day, but we felt as if we had accomplished something amazing just by finding our way in a foreign country without having to depend upon tour guides shuttling us from one over touristed spot to another.

Entering the large supermarket was another new adventure. One of the first aisles we went to was the wine aisle. There we became like kids in a candy store and just piled bottle after bottle into the basket. Their selection was almost exclusively French wines and we did not recognize any of the labels since we normally support our local economy and to us that means drinking Sonoma County wines. We rarely drink anything “over the hill” from Napa and treat that as being an import, so we really did not know which wines to choose and wound up picking what looked good. I did insist that we buy at least one bottle of champagne to celebrate our successes thus far. Most of the wine we purchased was a bargain at only about two to three Euros per bottle, but the champagne cost at least twenty Euros. I picked a bottle of Canard-Duchenne because I liked the name.

It was very tasty, and I have seen that label since returning to the States.

We then came upon the produce section and by watching other people realized that you need to hand your bags of fruit and vegetables to a clerk who will weigh it and create a price tag to be slapped on the side. I did not quite understand the subtleties of when it was and was not needed at first. I handed a head of lettuce to her, but she shook her head since it was priced by the unit and not by weight. A couple of other such examples happened until we understood how that system worked.

We felt good that we discovered this on our own and not after being embarrassed by a check out clerk telling us that we had neglected to follow that little step. I am also not so sure if we would have understood that verbal reprobation if it we heard it in rapid fire French and had people standing in our line glaring at us for slowing things down.

It was interesting to see in the meat section some animal products that are not available in the States, namely cheval and pigeon. The cheese aisles were filled with a wide variety of cheeses, but there was no cheddar to be found. That is a British cheese and therefore is not readily found in France. Neither could we find shredded Parmesan, although it was available in the familiar grated form that reminds me of fine sawdust.

We were unfamiliar with the brand names of the various products such as laundry detergent and dish detergent, so we went with the old “this looks good” method of shopping. Scott was determined to cook as many dinners as possible and so we stocked up on a variety of foodstuffs to last us about a week with the idea we would supplement as needed.

I mentioned this before, but it warrants repeat attention: the covers of the tabloid magazines at the checkout stands featured both Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. I felt ill at the sight. I cannot imagine that France does not have its own starlets that are worthy of public attention. Of all the possible American cultural exports the people of France could choose from, why would they want to fixate on those two air headed bimbos?

Once we bagged our groceries and left the store, we packed our trunk, returned the shopping cart in order to retrieve our Euro coin, and headed for Daramousque at Monclar-de-Quercy.

Sarah gave us fabulous directions to find their place and we arrived at around the time that Scott had planned: around 8 o’clock at night. It was a good thing we arrived before it was dark otherwise it would have been difficult to find their driveway.

As it was, we were welcomed by our hosts and shown to the cottage where we would be staying for two weeks. Scott then set out to make dinner. I thought he was planning on spaghetti, salad, and a baguette. Something simple, tasty and quick, but no -- he was in the mood for wild mushroom risotto. As he was knocking around in the kitchen, I unpacked our groceries and suitcases.

Here is the view from the patio of the cottage.

After a year’s worth of planning, we had finally arrived. We would soon be seeing and exploring places that were settings in my novel.