Our Blog - European Heritage Days

You have probably seen these blogs before ... it is the European Heritage Days (in French, the Journées Européennes du Patrimoine). Each year, there is a weekend where many of the cultural locations are open and, in some cases, have a special program available. We had wanted to take a few guided tours of different neighborhoods in town, but we waited too long and all of the tours were full. So instead, we just headed to a couple local places.

The Notre-Dame du Taur Church has been closed for over a year for renovation work but they were open just for the weekend. We have been to this church multiple times and have a previous blog for the details. They are still doing work, so all of the pews has been removed as well as part of the flooring. They have cleaned a lot of the interior walls and paintings, including the masterpiece above the 3 main chapels. This painting was done in the 19th-century by a local artist and shows the martyrdom of Saint Saturnin on the lower register. In the middle is the dead body of Saint Saturnin and to the left is the bull that he had been tied to and dragged through town, causing his death.

I don't know if I remember seeing the bull in the metalwork around the high altar before, nor the head of the pull sculpted in the column capitals.

This is the middle chapel, which had previously been boarded up and was reopened as part of the renovation work. You can see the 16th-century Our Lady of the Rampart statue at the bottom of the picture. She had previously been in a niche on a different wall but returned to her rightful place in the center chapel. The side walls of this chapel have also been restored to their original colors with the intertwined "ND"'s for Notre Dame.

The other event that we went to was at the Musée Raymond, which is the archeological museum in town. This year, they presented a Festival called "Living History" with several demonstrations throughout the weekend. This included clothing and weapons from the Greek era, the period of the Celtic Gauls, 1st century gladiators, 5th century Visigoths, 15th century English military, and (the one that we saw), a recreation of a 19th century infantry brigade.

Mental note .... look at the program and sign up EARLY next year!!