Pernes-les-Fontaines
Vaucluse
Pernes-les-Fontaines, ancient city at the foot of Mont Ventoux,
was capital of the Comtat Venaissin until 1320. It is famous for
its 40 fountains (of which 10 are classified as historic monuments),
for his mansions of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth
century for its
walls
and doors, for the keep of the Castle of the Counts of Toulouse,
for his Tour Ferrande magnificent frescoes of the thirteenth century,
for his chapel, for his Roman Church, for its Cross-Covered (the
last existing Provence), but also for its life, its gardens, alleyways
and squares. Pernes-les-Fontainees is proud of its traditions,
it reveals through its comtadin museum, in a true store of the
nineteenth century, its traditions museum, at the home of Spirit
Fléchier famous speaker of the court of the Sun King and
his museum of the Old School in the small town hall in the 1930's
Hamlet Valayans. Pernes-les-Fontaines is a welcoming city, with
its Office of Tourism, your camper, its hotels, its guest rooms,
restaurants, shops, landscapes, the hills.
Pernes-les-Fontaines is also a place famous for production of
fruits and vegetables from Provence (strawberries, melons, cherries,
asparagus and grapes), we drink the great wine of the Côtes
du Ventoux and enjoy it in its many restaurants, Provençal
cuisine. With its label "cities and Art trades ", you
will discover the craft in its purest tradition. Pernes-les-Fontaines
is a town full of color with its weekly market, numerous and various
summer events (Arts in the street, Pernes photos, Melon Festival,
Feria, Folklore Festival of Music and Drama street, night of legends
,...), its Christmas traditions, the sun, his accent and Heritage
Festival celebrated every four years (next in September 2004).
Pézenas
Hérault
Located in the Hérault,
between Béziers and Montpellier, 25 km from the Mediterranean,
the country has Pézenas qualified Pays d'Art et d'Histoire
awarded by the Ministry of Culture. The historic center of Pezenas,
classified as "protected sector", keeps the charm of
its hotels
,
at the courtyard or garden, and its cobblestone streets. The governors
of Languedoc (Montmorency and the Prince de Conti) have made it
their capital. From its prestigious past, Pézenas keeps
a homogeneous architectural XVth to the XVIIIth century. Molière
stayed and Boby Lapointe, a native of Pézenas, spent all
his youth before writing his first songs in Paris. Mardi Gras
is the celebration of Pezenas and its animal totem since 1226:
the Poulain. The summer begins with the Mirondela dels Arts, including
street entertainment, exhibitions and shows. Some animations are
nocturnal opening shops on Wednesdays and Fridays in the summer,
visits dramatized in the evening. Show re-enactment: "Pézenas
in the sight Molière" (June 21 and 22). The 3emeweekend
of September took place the Heritage Days and the 1st weekend
of October the International Festival of the Image Maker.
The Saturday market and fairs to flea market in May and October
the local rhythm. Pezenas is also City of Traditional Arts; thirty
craftsmen-designers costume designers, puppeteers, mosaic artists,
jewelers, modistes, metalworkers, stone masons, carpenters, potters
working in the year.
Small Pâtés, specialty "salty-sweet" based
on sheep, made in 1768 by Lord Clive, Governor of the Indies,
yet enjoy it as well as berlingots, sweets with different natural
flavors, made by craftsmen from two or three centuries ( visit
the factory in the morning by appointment).
Pont-Audemer
Eure
A1 h 30 de Paris, the center
of the triangle formed by the regional capitals Rouen, Caen and
Le Havre, Pont-Audemer is a true heart of life. Surrounded by
wooded hills, rich meadows, ponds built, it offers the pleasures
of relaxation varied. Its development was held at a point where
the sea water to yield fresh water, the rock star of the valley
floor between which the river branches into many channels. Nested
in each other, memories of the time when they shake in the fortifications,
the houses have undergone only small changes to help them come
slowly in this century maintaining their authenticity.
The frame is smooth, it may display a certain ease without
being ostentatious, like habitat merchants tanners, which since
the Middle Ages, experienced in Pont-Audemer a true prosperity.
Sometimes, in response to these beautiful architectural elements
in fine lines, the habitat is more modest, as these small houses
with wood, hung along the canals and accompanied by drying skin
clear path. They housed workers and artisans. Around the church
remarkable for windows and the organ considered and its cobbled
old preserved, Pont Audemer has everything to become a city museum.
But, to be the cream of local values, but prefers to restore the
house of Alfred Canel rich collections, a small firm Amateur increased
temporary exhibition rooms, he says. Is its image. The city itself
has never stopped, it grows with beauty and enthusiasm by developing
areas of activity to the treatment.
The life here is also a theater and music major, and the pleasures
here is the greed. Chocolate, Caterer or cheese have marked many
memories. Cafes and restaurants filled terraces from May to November.
Markets Monday and Friday are a large part of downtown. Les, stalls
dies garden space, pots smoking sausage, live poultry are so authentic
that some speak of atmosphere unreal.
Prades
Pyrénées-Orientales
Prades, at the heart of the swell, the upper
part of the plain of Roussillon, is south on the foothills of
the sacred mountain of the Catalans, the Canigou, and extends
north side on the alluvial basins of Tet. At the foot of the mountain
area of the department,
Prades
enjoys an exceptional view on the drains of the Pyrenees. His
church is lavishly furnished with Baroque altarpieces (the largest
in France at the high altar), and to discover his treasure composed
of the furniture of the nearby Benedictine abbey, Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa,
jewels of the Romanesque art. The heart of town, with its fountains,
laundries, home ... Jacomet hosts every Tuesday morning a very
large market attracting many picturesque conflentois and every
Saturday morning the market for local producers. The town and
its surroundings have a particularly rich heritage taking both
local (Pablo Casals Museum and Martin Vives, silk museum ,...)
as those of surrounding abbeys of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa and Saint-Martin-du-Canigou,
Villefranche de swell city founded in 1090 with its medieval ramparts,
the fort Liberia built by Vauban, and Mosset Tour des Parfums,
the site of Eus ...
The highlight of the summer season, the Chamber Music Festival
"Pablo Casals", created by the developer in 1950, has
become an international meeting that attracts more than 8,000
people from July 26 to August 13 Summer also includes other major
events such as the Days Romanes, the Ciné-Rencontres, the
Catalan Summer University, ...
Redon
Ille-et-Vilaine
Ker vihan, brud Vraza! Small town, famous "
Southern Brittany between Rennes, Nantes and Vannes, at the crossroads
of the Oust and Vilaine, the two largest rivers of Brittany, Redon
"The Venice of the West", home of Brittany, is a small
city that has its importance to the development of a Benedictine
abbey, once very influential founded in 832 by Conwoïon.
Of marriage between the Earth and Water, born a commercial port.
Seaport of Rennes, he knows a certain splendor through an intense
activity, so the ships of the Compagnie des Indes back in Redon
with spices, fabrics, rare woods, jewelry ... In the mid-nineteenth
century, the opening of the Canal from Nantes to Brest Redon gives
its new architecture and is the crossroads of waterways in the
west.
In the streets pedestrian (XVII), the salt Granaries, Hotel Carmoy,
Tour Richelieu (when it is commendataire abbot of Redon), the
castle Mail (XVIII), the owners of houses (XVIIth-XVIIIth ), the
half-timbered houses, the monastery of Calvairiennes (XVII) are
reviving their prestigious past. The building major Abbey St Sauveur
(with its Romanesque tower XIIeme triple floor) was a catalyst
cultural, spiritual, political and economic of the Duchy of Brittany.
Redon will revive his reputation, in returning this summer, a
step on the road to St Jacques de Compostela (inauguration of
the "European Cultural Route" July 25). Deserted by
the three masts, the commercial port is intended to the marina,
more than 3000 vessels each year crossing the lock basin. To discover
the Brittany canals by boat trips and rental Pénichettes.
Highlights: Touring the West France (1er/06) in July-August: Friday
Harbor (chants of sailors) and Thursday: initiation dances of
Brittany in October: month of brown, chapter of the Confraternity
of the Brown, Fair Teillouse and Bogue d'Or (25-26/10), Salon
du Livre Ancien et d'Occasion (15-16/11) and December: Christmas
markets and the Advent calendar for children. Take a visit of
the city flower (4 flowers): Market Monday.
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