A Tale of Two Cities: Villevielle (our village) & Sommieres (our town).

As you may already know, this year we changed French houses, selling our house in Laurens, France to come here to Villevielle, France, a small village looking down over a city (Sommieres) of 4,000-5,000 people down below. Both have chateaux, & both have Roman & medieval history. Both are totally different, but complement each other so well. Living in Villevielle (quiet, peaceful, very high), we can walk down the hill to busy Sommieres (lots of restaurants, a huge market, many commercial shops) within 20 minutes. Walking back up, a bit steep, but do-able, takes a bit longer. We call it "the Heidi Walk".

The town of Sommieres has always been in a strategic location which linked bigger cities like Nimes & Toulouse, as well as the regions of the nearby mountains (Les Cevennes) to the plains & the Mediterranean Sea below. As in our last French town (Laurens), a river runs through it. This one is called the Vidourle, & can be quite vicious at times (1907, 1933, 1958, 2002, & last November, 2014. This "crue" (or huge flood) of November, 2014 affected us in Laurens as well. The water comes very quickly from the mountains, & heads directly & swiftly to the Mediterranean, with a strength that somebody described to us as "biblical". Last November the winds coming from the Mediterranean were so strong that they actually stopped the water from entering the Sea. In Laurens, the water (at least 20 feet high) backed up & into our garage, & wiped out a washing machine & the few items we had stored there until the move, & then crashed our garage door into pieces. Luckily enough, the Swedish couple who had a contract on the house, agreed to proceed with the sale as long as we provided a new garage door, a new washing machine & a clean slate. Thanks to a lovely English couple (he a carpenter, she his assistant), all this was accomplished by the time of closing, in early February, 2015.

Here in Sommieres, the entire first floor of the medieval part of Sommieres was again flooded. And we're sure it will happen again.

But we live high up above it, in Villevieille, which started out ages ago as a Roman camp. There are "digs" very close to us, that archeologists say show urbanisation towards the middle of the first century BC. A bit later, the 2 cities became an "agglomeration romaine" under the rule of Julius Ceasar, & susequently under my favorite Roman Emporer, Octavian. The Gauls were encouraged to blend their culture into a Gallo-romaine culture. The archeologists have found coins minted from that era as well. See the panel & picture in the Weeks 2 & 3, 2015 picture album.

The river in Sommieres does has a "pont romain", an old Roman bridge that proved very valuable in the Middle Ages, when this area was controlled by The Count of Toulouse & his vassal the Lord of Anduze-Fauve. During that time, the bridge became a town itself, with factories & shops built into its arches. Stairs built into the bridge are connected to the the market square.

A market fair was established in the 12th century & Sommieres became a strategic point in the regional economy, thanks to crafts & the production & storage of woolen fabrics. Sommieres had a monopoly on cloth & flannel products until the 19th century, with many mills close to the Vidourle, using the power supplied by the river. We had dinner in a former such mill.

Sommieres & its surroundings became a royal stronghold until the end of the 17th century, & that's a big part of the history of its chateau.

A Tale of Two Chateaux:

The Chateau de Sommieres:

We just visited the Chateau de Sommieres Saturday, June 27. It has a beautiful square tower called the "Tour de Bermond", named after a very early political family here, dating from the 12th century. They have just finished a long & expensive renovation of the chapel, where they show a wonderful video of Sommiere's history. As in most cases, the chateau morphed over the years with different lords & kings, & at one point was a barracks for the military (after the Revolution--no more kings!), a sort of tenement system for poor people, & a water reservoir. Most of it has been sold back to the town who has great plans to embellish it further.

The Chateau de Villevielle:

We haven't visited this chateau yet, but we have walked past the front door. It's right around the corner from us, & if we look for it, we can see its tower from our terrace. It has its own "park", & it's linked to a little walled city through which we walk on our way to Sommieres. All of the houses are vertical, & stuck to each other. (We are really enjoying not being in a medieval wall anymore. It's nice to have some space between other houses!)

All the houses, villa or medieval, urban, suburban or country, look like nothing from the front, but that's the way it is here. The Roman villa took over here. Throughout the south of France, people don't spend much money on curb appeal. The idea is a wall against the outside world, the blanker the better. But I just could NOT resist, for our house, tearing down the ugly green plastic on the fence, adding some plantings, &, of course, painting the front door (& the shutters) Basque Red. Just couldn't help myself!

We will build a picture album exclusively for both chateaux as soon as we visit the Chateau de Villevielle. We know that the Chateau de Villevieille has a music festival featuring classical music once a week, starting sometime in July. We are looking forward to our little walk for some great music! Stay tuned....