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Location
The village of Vazerac is positioned in the Quercy Hills between the two charming market towns of Cahors and Montauban in the region of Tarn-et-Garonne. The Quercy Hills are to the north of the department of Midi-Pyrenees, near to, but less populated by tourists than the popular Dordogne. Local places of note include the church and Roman apse at Valeilles, Lauzerte, a town dating from the Middle Ages and Montpezat de Quercy, once encircled by ramparts, with it’s covered square, many attractive old houses and the nearby leisure centre at Faillal not to mention the beautiful Mossiac. In this region are many wine producers where you can taste the local wines, prune making establishments and also a hat maker whence came the famous boaters of Maurice Chevalier. The variety of produce in this department is extensive ranging from apples, prunes, peaches, nectarines, cherries and kiwis, to garlic, especially l’ail de Lomagne, black truffles, the familiar dishes featuring duck and goose, patés, terrainbes, cassoulet and a variety of wonderful meat dishes.
Vazerac itself is a village of historical significance being on the ancient pilgrims route to Moissac and today contains a small general store, boulengerie, church, coiffure, bar and restaurant, post office etc. This photo is was taken on the walk into the village from the house. The walk from Negreval to Vazerac takes about 20 minutes each way if you are taking it fairly easy, just enough to work off the croissants.
Montauban, the prefecture of the department is where the celebrated artist Ingres was born in 1780. Known as the pinkest of the pink towns, Montauban has a fascinating history, best known of which is the origin of the ‘boulets de Montauban’ when during a long siege by Louis 13th he finally launched 400 rounds of cannon fire against the inhabitants of Montauban to try and break the siege. They retaliated by manufacturing in the night piles of black ‘sugared ‘ canon balls which so scared the King he beat a hasty retreat, little realising that these presented no real threat, so convincing was their appearance. Today the ‘boulets’ are hazelnut sweets covered with chocolate with a hard sugar coating.
Cahors (middle photo) to the north has one of the best markets in the region and stunning architechture, not to mention pretty decent wine!
Getting there
The nearest airport is Toulouse (an hour's drive), Easyjet provides a low cost Saturday morning flight from Gatwick to Toulouse. The house is also easily accessable from Carcassonne, Rodez and Bordeaux airports which are all about a 2-3 hour drive away. Ryanair is the low cost option to these airports.
Negreval is roughly a 9 hour drive from Calais if you use the autoroute.
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