Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Monpazier - France

Damien always sends me nice cards and I especially like this one. 
Monpazier is a village in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwest France. The village is a member of the Les Plus Beaux Villages de France ("The most beautiful villages of France") association. 

Photo Edition "France Regard"
This beautiful village is a bastide. Bastides are fortified new towns built in medieval Languedoc, Gascony and Aquitaine during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries...
Some of the first bastides were built under Raymond VII of Toulouse to replace villages destroyed in the Albigensian Crusade. He encouraged the construction of others to colonize the wilderness, especially of southwest France. Almost 700 bastides were built between 1222 and 1372.
The bastides were so successful against their opponents in the Hundred Years War that the English adopted them for themselves, first in France and later in Wales. - in: wikipedia
Monpazier dates back to 1285. It was founded and built by King Edward I of England, who was also Duke of Gascony. It was home to Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard II of England for a time.

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