Once again looking at my vault found me these old paper pictures of wonderful memorable Gironde dept 33 that got me to do again a post on it. This is an area I have criss cross for years even in the time of no pictures taken, but glad to do with the new findings in my vault on these wonderful towns, However, I like to tell you on the curiosities of the Gironde 33, part II !!! Hope you enjoy the story as I.
The village of La Rivière owes its name to its location nestled on the banks of the Dordogne river. It is 35 km from Bordeaux, 4 km from Fronsac, and 7 km from Libourne, on the RD 670 connecting Fronsac to Saint André de Cubzac.
I have written before, but found me another picture, as had taken more than a peek was the Château de La Rivière. Wine is grown there and the historic cellars are open to visitors. The estate covers 100 hectares, including 65 hectares of vines producing AOC Fronsac wines, The current castle was completed in 1572! The castle was heavily indebted and is seized. The castle crossed a complex judicial period linked to the succession under François de Mons ,then in 1639 Marthe Viaud, wife of Samuel Eusebe Campet de Saujon, became the owner. The Cardinal de Richelieu, Duke of Fronsac, gives her the La Riviére and the lordship to stop the judicial problems. Since the end of 2013, the Château de la Rivière has been turned to the future under the aegis of the Bolian group, owner of hotels in China, in Yunnan province , The castle was left to Mme Lau. Howeve, no mention of it in the official Bolian webpage……
The other interesting thing to see here are the Church Notre-Dame ,dating back to the 11C. In the 19C, a bell tower was added to the church. It is said that Charlemagne installs a watchtower on a promontory at the site of a Gallo-Roman tomb in 769. It serves as a lookout to alert the military camp located further at Fronsac, In the 18C the city operated stone quarries and it had a gabarier port for the routing of stones to Bordeaux ,The village economy is based on viticulture and fishing. The town owes its fame at the famous Château de La Rivière.
The Village of La Riviére on its history : https://lariviere33.fr/histoire-de-la-commune/
The official Château de La Riviére on the property : https://www.chateau-de-la-riviere.com/en/the-estate-grand-vin-de-bordeaux-rive-droite-merlot-cabernet/
The town of Saint-André-de-Cubzac is located crossing by the 45th north parallel, therefore located at equal distance from the North Pole and the Equator (approximately 5,000 km). The town is the crossroads between the RN 10 of Hendaye- Paris between Bordeaux and Angoulême and the old RN 137 of Saint-André-de-Cubzac to Saint-Malo, today Department road along the A 10 highway which goes to Paris and heads towards Saintes. Formerly a roundabout between the RN 10 and the RN 137, the crossroads between the A10 and the RN 10 is now a junction. The D 670 road starts from the city center and goes to Libourne.
The château du Bouilh in the 8C appeared on the limestone promontory, the castle of the four sons Aymon, to which will succeed several castles, seats of the lords of the Cubzaguais until the 16C where Cubzac-les-Ponts will give up the Place de Fief at the Château du Bouilh in Saint André de Cubzac. The castle is made up of a set of buildings: honor and common pavilion arranged in hemicycle which date from the 18C. It included only a limited number of rooms: a low room, a high room, four bedrooms, a kitchen, cells. This castle was surrounded by walls and moats crossed by a bridge. The fright is circular in shape and its diameter is 12 meters. Its walls are dug with 1,200 pigeon cupboards. A large quadrangular water tower pierced with several doors extends under a terrace. In the center of the hemicycle formed by the Galerie des commons, there is a neo-Gothic chapel where the owners are buried. Behind the castle, the cellars and the cuviers take place in a stone quarry divided into several pieces.
The Château du Bouilh belongs to Jean-Frédéric de la Tour du Pin Gouvernet, count of Paulin, marquis of La Roche-Chalais and Cenevières, count of Chastelard, viscount of Tesson and Ambleville, viscount of Calvignac, Baron de Cubzac and from Cubzaguais, lord of Formarville. He was a lieutenant-general of the king’s armies in 1781. The half-ruined castle of the Bouilh could not agree to such a character to whom the royal favor smiled more and more, and as one day Jean-Frédéric de la Tour du Pin Gouvernet stressed Louis XVI to appear in his province of Guyenne, and the latter having replied: “But there is no castle to receive me! “, The camp marshal resolved to offer his king a stay worthy of him. The construction works were in progress when the Lord of the Cubzaguais was appointed deputy to the Estates General of 1789 by the nobility of Saintonge and left for Paris where he was appointed Minister of War by Louis XVI to 1790. In this tormented period, so as not to be suspected of using the state’s money, the Minister immediately stopped the construction of the castle. Indeed, compromised three years later in the trial of Queen Marie-Antoinette, Jean-Frédéric de The Tour du Pin Gouvernet was a defendant of her, then arrested as suspect and sentenced to death and guillotined as well as his brother Philippe-Antoine on April 28, 1794. In 1864, Noéline Hubert Delisle married Édouard de Feuilhade de Chauvin. The castle today belongs to their descendants.
Other things to see here, me think are the Saint-André-du-Nom-de-Dieu Church includes parts whose construction dates spread between the 12C and 19C, It was built by the Benedictines of the Sauve-Majeure abbey and was formerly used by a priory founded after 1115 depending on this abbey, The château de Robillard from the 16C; shows are regularly given there. Originally from Saint-André-de-Cubzac, the family of the famous commander of La Calypso had a pharmacy at 83 rue Nationale. It was in this house that Commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born who, after a life to travel the oceans, chooses to be buried in his hometown.
A bit of history I like tell us that the medieval period is especially marked by the notable importance of the Royal Fortress of Cubzac, built in 1249 by Simon V de Montfort on the banks of the Dordogne, however, the close small town of Saint-André had been endowed by the abbey de la Sauve, from the end of the 12C, of a priory. It was the center of a development of the floors, organized itself with streets drawn from the first two ancient axes, the Cardo and the Decumanus. It was at the very crossroads of these two routes that the first Saint-André Church had been erected, enlarged since, and a little higher in the town another, more modest, the Saint-Etienne Church. After Castillon’s victory in 1453, English towns returned to France and Cubzac, the vocation at the origin was mainly military was no longer really reason to exist. Following this decline, the headquarters of the castelery moved from the Château de Cubzac to the noble house of Bouilh.
The City of Saint André de Cubzac on its heritage : https://www.saintandredecubzac.fr/mon-cadre-de-vie/histoire-et-patrimoine
The local Blaye Bourg Terre d’Estuaire tourist office on Saint André de Cubzac : https://www.bbte.fr/itineraire/sur-les-pistes-de-robin-chasse-a-lenigme-a-saint-andre-de-cubzac/
There you go folks, a dandy road warrior trip in wonderful beautiful Gironde dept 33, a lot more than wine country for sure. The beautiful scenery ,history, the beaches, and architecture blends can’t beat the combinations ; love it. Again, hope you enjoy this post on curiosities of the Gironde 33, part II !!! as I.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 