Brive-la-Gaillarde

le blazon du Brive-la-Gaillarde

Tour de Cesar/ Allassac

Yesterday, I took an entire day to go to my big city, Brive-la-Gaillarde to do a few errands and generally just hang out. Brive? Well, it is a real town, with a population of around 50,000. It is the biggest town in the Correze. I live just across the border, I can walk to the Correze. The stones of the buildings change from region to region, The stones of the Dordogne are limestones that are light grey or  in the south, golden yellow. Here at the edge of the Dordogne, as the topography begins to change, the predominant stone is ochre red sandstone. The elevation gets higher, the mountains of the Massif Central can be seen in the distance. As we cross into the Correze, the land is ridges and valleys and a typical form of conical sloping hill called a Puy. The Puys are topped with ancient fortified villages that were here before the Romans came. In this part of France, the roofs change. Most of the Dordogne is red clay tiles. The truly old buildings are topped with pieces of limestone called lauzes. As we get closer to Brive, black slate, ardoise, is the traditional look. The last real working ardoise quarries are here. My house has an ardoise roof as well as my village, Badefols d'Ans. In fact, as you get closer to the Brive area, ardoise becomes a construction material. It is cut into rectangular bricks and then sealed with white chalk mortar. Some of the ancient churches of the villages in the region, such as Allassac and Objat are magnificent examples of this technique. Allassac, just north of Brive is dominated by a huge tower that looks like a giant Chess piece, a huge surreal rook made totally of black ardoise "bricks". The  ancient architecture of the area is quite unique as well. Massive, an organic gothic eccentric hybrid, with fantastically shaped cupolas. Like nothing else I have seen in France. My drive to Brive takes about an hour, which shows how rural and remote I am. Perhaps, that is why it is so exciting for me. If I go there, it is a big deal. I have to group my errands. Computer, hardware, a good butcher, underwear...It's not like I can just jump in the car and drive to The Mall.

l'eglise d'Objat

Brive itself is located in a great basin, la bassin du Brive, the confluence of rivers, The Correze and the Vezere. It has been a crossroad of culture and commerce since prehistory. The Pont du Cardinal over the Correze was around since the Romans as part of the rout to Toulouse. It is a major connections for trains.

Brive-la-Gaillarde / la bassin du Brive

Brive was mentioned in the works of Gregory of Tours, the medieval historian who wrote his very entertaining history of the Franks around 600 ad. The name, Brive, is a Occitanian version of the original Latin name given to it by the Romans, Briva Curretiae (Correze Bridge). The central medieval section of Brive was defined by walls. The city is still built on a circular plan. The walls exist in a vestigial form as part of some of the buildings, but the outer wall is now defined by a road canopied by ancient pruned plane trees  that circles the inner city with great old stone houses that still give testament to the mercantile power of this important commercial center.
The town was always Brive, but it gained it's sobriquet, la Gaillarde...which translates to "the gallant" after WW2. Brive was an important center for the French Resistance and was the first French city to officially liberate itself from the Nazis. Indeed all over the medieval center, there are many monuments remembering individual heros and squares renamed in their honor.

It's a rough hewn city. The massive architecture of the Correze constructed with carefully cut stone blocks of brownish grey limestone or carefully cut asymmetrically fitted pieces of granite  define the look. It is an massive architecture defined by eccentric detail. As you walk through the circular maze of the old medieval city, you are constantly coming on unexpected cul-de-sacs hiding renaissance towers, elegantly hewn masonry...architecture that reveals the unplanned civic evolution of almost 1000 years. But Brive is not a historical monument frozen in time. This is a culturally vibrant living city. The home of France's biggest festival of literature, out side of Paris, Le Foire de Livre in November is host to hundreds of authors with a special train that comes from Paris to transport the writers. Brive is the best sports town in Central France...CA Brive Rugby is the premier regional team.As a passionate bicyclist, I am always amazed at how many cycling stores are in the region and how many serious teams they support.  Then, of course, the food. Sigh....Perhaps worthy of a totally different post. This is seriously gourmand town. What do you like? Patisserie? Chocolate? The best cul noir, maigret ou boeuf de limousin? Charcuterie? The area is well known for the distillation of specific alcoholic products, like Gentiane and  you can visit the Denoix Distillerie where their famous walnut aperative, among other varieties are made....All in all a great place to just hang out. So many little cafes,  the perfect place to perfect the lost art of wasting time with a great cafe corse in a sunny medieval square in a cul-de-sac off a seemingly forgotten medieval back street. Which is what I did, on a perfectly sunny freakishly pre spring day in a t shirt, warm in the sun.

So, yesterday I gave myself the entire day to hang out. As we crossed the medieval center of the town, we saw that the entire circular heart around the 12th Century church, La Collegiale Saint-Martin was enclosed by fences and being excavated. The Saint Martin is Saint Martin of Spain, who is buried there.
The church was originally from the Dark Ages, with Merovingienne crypts under the more modern structure dating from the 12th century. The pavement of the central oval the church is located on was interrupted by a huge fenced off pits that were being worked on by teams of archaeologists. The were uncovering, 6 feet below the present street, ground level of Brive prior to 1000 ad. Even more amazing, they had discovered graves dating back to the pre 500 ad and were carefully examining skeletons in the earth. I spoke with one of the researchers and she let me into the site. I think she was amazed that I was able to convey with my very clumsy French my passion for and understanding of what I was looking at. When we got home later that evening, I turned on France3 Limousin and saw a little report on what I had just seen in person....here it is:

Saint-Martin de Brive: archéologue en train de... par France-3-Limousin