Among these 100 French administrative divisions, GARD county (30) headed by famous Nimes local Prefecture (a 3-hour TGV ride from Paris) is one of the most beautiful with lots of old villages and towns dating from the 8th till 18th centuries.

Easiest way to get there  from Paris is to book a TGV train ticket, both comfortable, cheap and good for the planet EARTH (with very low CO2 consumption). Then book a local rented car to tour around these delicious villages and towns.

Half way between Nimes and Ales (also worth to visit), you’ll find UZES, a Southern pearl with incredible towers, the castle of the former duke of Uzes (le ‘duché’), with most beautiful cathedral and churches (St-Etienne has an impressive old oak door). Try and park your car in one of the many parkings, my favourite being the cathedral one, though very disputed.

You may also book a night around this place as you have so much to see between delicate places and their stone arches, lots of local shops and restaurants, including a local hats and clothes creator, called ‘Petit Béguin’ (means ‘Small love’ in old French), 30 rue du Dr. Blanchard, 30700 UZES. They have incredible original hats and dresses, as well as jewels created by two sisters and the daughter of one of them (photos herewith). You will also find several painting and sculpture galleries with original artists.

This incredible town of UZES owes its riches to both its bishop and duke who have built from the 11th century (most major buildings) to the 16th century. You will also embrace delicate internal courtyards where you dine and stone arches between buildings, most of them thought to be mutually supportive to both buildings, as were built the roman and gothic churches from the 10th to the 15th centuries.

Only 25km from UZES, you will find the delicious small town of SOMMIERES, where the brown colour of the Renaissance painters originated (‘Terre de Sommières’) and alongside the Vidourle river, with the Roman bridge and Town Tower. Do walk along the tiny streets and the colourful places (go to place Jean Jaures, among others) with a visit to local bakeries and patisseries, among which Patisserie Rosso, 30 rue Antonin Paris, 30250 Sommieres. You may also pay a visit to neighbouring château de Pondres, where all rooms and flats as well as restaurant summer bookings are booked long in advance.

In Sommieres, do also pay a visit to the church, with its magnificent architecture and to the tiny courtyards, in the old buildings, as well as the castle.

Author : François P. VALLET, Coach, consultant and lecturer.

Cet article DISCOVER Old towns and villages in the South of France : UZES and Sommieres est apparu en premier sur Actualités en France : Start-ups, PME, Arts, Histoire.

Then this Simeoni saw a tiny farm in the land called ‘Gergovia’ and too quickly wrote he had found the ‘actual’ place of the battle. Limited search by Stoffel in the 1860s under the request of Napoleon III, interested in French history, brought a too quick decision of renaming a small ‘Merdogne’ village into ‘Gergovia’ in January 1865.

For about 151 years now, French and international historians are looking for the archeological tracks of the Gergovia battle won by the Arverns and their Gaul allied people over the Caesar troups and legions. And … they are finding nothing in the ‘official Gergovie’, Merdogne, a tiny village plateau on a volcano, some 8km South of Clermont-Ferrand, except later AD Gallo-Roman buildings.

On the contrary, the geographical descriptions given by Julius Caesar himself in his book ‘De Bello Gallico‘ are showing that he actually speaks of the ‘Côtes de Clermont‘, a series of small volcanoes surrounding the 21st century capital of Auvergne : Clermont-Ferrand and its 500,000 inhabitants.

Furthermore, the searches have permitted to lodge the ‘main camp’ of Caesar in the old town of ‘Montferrand’ and the ‘small camp’ in Chanturgue, now a park and private houses above city center.

Already in 1933, a French historian Maurice Busset publishes a book ‘Gergovia, capitale des Gaules et l’Oppidum du plateau des Côtes’. He is followed in 1952 by Paul Eychart (PhD in Archeology, 1969), who conducts private searches for 30 years and finds numerous proofs of neolithic and human buildings in the ‘Côtes de Clermont’ centuries before the battle of Gergovia. Eychart is supported in his searches by a large association counting up to 200 members, from different countries.

In 1993, another historian Yves Texier, after 5 years of searches, inventories and active dedicated work, concludes in his PhD thesis presented to Clermont II University professors, that there is no doubt Gergovia battle actually was fought on the ‘Côtes de Clermont‘ site.

But the public clarks and local authorities are slow and often conservative and surprisingly no public search on ‘Chanturgue’ or on the ‘Côtes de Clermont’ with scientific tools have been conducted on the actual sites since 1930, maybe for fear of telling the people the ‘official version’ has been mistaken for 150 years…

You will then be amazed to discover in Clermont-Ferrand :

• a beautiful black-stone cathedral with two Viollet-le-Duc peaks.

• Notre-Dame-du-Port, an exceptional restaured roman church, dating back to the 12^th & 13^th centuries, on the road of Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle.

• a nice Gallo-Roman museum, 45 rue Ballainvillier, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand.

• old towns of Clermont and Montferrand with exceptional old houses from 13^th to 18^th centuries, including the beautiful Town Hall court. See rue du Port on your way from Notre-Dame to the cathedral (30mn).

• antiquarian shops in the same old streets near Notre-Dame and the Cathedral.

• access to the 120 volcanoes of the ‘Chaïne des Puys’ including the ‘Puy-de-Dôme’ on which Blaise Pascal tested atmospheric pressure

François P. VALLET, on May 16^th, 2016

Cet article The famous ‘Gergovia’ Victory of the Gauls vs Caesar could well have taken place in Clermont-Ferrand, capital city of the ‘Arvernes’, one of the strongest Ancient Celtic people, now Auvergne est apparu en premier sur Actualités en France : Start-ups, PME, Arts, Histoire.