Paris1972-Versailles2003

I could not resist coming back to this sentimental town of Lavaur. We have criss cross this beautiful cathare area of France for many years, and Lavaur is the native town of my dear late wife Martine ,late father Pierre, who still had cousins in the area but now moved further closer to Gaillac (see posts). We spent many trips walking the streets of this lovely old town of the Tarn dept 81 in the region of Occitanie , of my belle France. Do see the capital of the Cocagne country. Therefore, here is my rendition of this is Lavaur !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I.

The town of Lavaur is located 38 km from Toulouse, 26 km from Gaillac, 39 km from Castres, 675 km from Versailles, and 742 km from my current house. It is a town bordering on the department of Haute-Garonne no 31. The town can be reach by the A68 highway at sortie/ exit 6. However, we are base in Toulouse so came by the road D112 right into city center ,and parked free at the Allée Jean Jaurés by the old grains market .  Before thus as you turn into the parking you come into a small square call the Place  de la Patience and a very nice fountain statue , a very nice way to welcome you into the town. For information as never done it you have the Lavaur train station served daily by TER Occitanie which carry out trips between the stations of Toulouse-Matabiau and Mazamet. The town is also served by regular lines of the LIO bus regional network, there said to have line 705 to Albi by Graulhet; The Express line 709 links to Albi by Saint-Sulpice-la-Pointe; line 710 links to Gaillac; line 756 links it to Toulouse and Graulhet; Line 765 links to Castres and Saint-Sulpice-la-Pointe. The Toulouse-Blagnac airport is close at about 52 km.

The local LIO public transports bus network LIO : https://www.lio-occitanie.fr/

The nearby Toulouse-Blagnac airport : https://www.toulouse.aeroport.fr/en

The SNCF train station of Lavaur : https://www.garesetconnexions.sncf/en/stations-services/lavaur/timetables

The TER Occitanie trains on Lavaur station : https://www.ter.sncf.com/occitanie/se-deplacer/gares/lavaur-87615476

Some of the things to see here that I have posts on them are : Saint-Alain cathedral, place Saint-Alain (13-15C) and its Jacquemart (the first was installed in 1603), the only automaton of this type in the southwest of France. The bishopric gardens, ancient French gardens of the bishops, set up in the 19C in the so -called “English” style, The Saint-François Church, grand-rue known as Cordeliers (13-15C) with its large Puget organ pf 1866. Former conventual church of the Cordeliers (Franciscans), the Clarisses monastery, rue Jouxaygues Grande. founded in 1642 destroyed during the French revolution, it was rebuilt in 1802. The current chapel (1837), has housed since 1852, in a shrine, the body of Saint Clémentine, Virgin and Roman martyrdom, discovered in a catacombe in Rome. The Plô site, of the castle now gone,bought from the king by the consuls in 1622, was set up as a public walk and then as an esplanade from the 17C. The Tour des Rondes ,one of the last vestiges of the old town’s fortifications current Tourist office, Halle aux grains old covered market erected around 1880, currently the performance hall, Pont de Lavaur, or Pont des Etats de Languedoc, and later Pont Saint Roch a bridge in stone masonry above the agout river, built between 1773 and 1791, The Hôtel de Ville was initially located in the building of the College of Doctrinaires, now Lycée Las Cases (high school) ,and in the Hôtel de Clauzade-Mazieux (built at the end of the 18C), between 1838 and 2011, the city hall was installed in the former courthouse in historical and heritage continuity,

Other things to see, me think with more time as so many good ones are : The statue of Immaculata, Place Saint Alain (see pic). Pigeonniers (dovescotes) ,there are eighteen, all different os they said, the Lavaur hospital beautiful brick building designed in the first half of the 18C under the impetus of the bishops of Lavaur. The hospital was opened in 1733 to receive five poor ,later added a silk manufacture in 1748 and became on December 10, 1756 a royal manufacture, In 2009, an agreement was signed uniting the Lavaur hospital at the Center Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) in Toulouse for making a regional hospital center, Hôtel de Voisins, 31 rue Carlesse built around 1678, Hôtel des Posts, previously Bertrand Hotel, passenger hotel built at the beginning of the 20C on the Allée Jules-Jaurès. La Poste (post office) settled there in 1925. Hôtel de Glanouze, built at the beginning of the 18C. Lavaur viaduct, railway bridge in masonry on the agout river the railroad track of Saint-Sulpice-la-Pointe to Castres, built between 1882 and 1884, The Pech considered as a feudal clod. Dominating the vast meander of the agout river surrounding the city of Lavaur by around 70 meters, a hole was reported near a path leading to the Butte du Pech. There is a small monocellular cavity dug in the rock, of indeterminate age, under it the chapel built in 1904 on the summit platform, at the origin of a pilgrimage which would have justified the construction of the chapel ,The castles in and around Lavaur are de Bellevue , En Dumes, Jonquières, Mirabel, Laval, Poudéous, Reyniès, Roquenaud and Tyr. The médiathèque Guiraude (media library), installed in the former convent of the sisters of Christ, in 2008. The Museum of the Pays de Cocagne has nearly a hundred works by Édouard Debat-Ponsan, Georges Artemoff, Clément Gontier, or Etienne Mazas. The museum chapel is a temporary exhibition hall and hosts a large exhibition each summer.

A bit of history I like tell us that in 1025 the small fortified town was described in several writings. In 1035, first mention of the Castro de Vauro. A castrum must exist north of this primitive castle (PLô site). In 1065, constitution of the Sauveté de Lavaur, granted to the monks of the Sainte-Foy abbey of Conques. In 1098, construction of the Saint-Alain Church on the space of a priory offered to the monks of the Saint-Pons abbey in Thomières, by Isarn then bishop of Toulouse. In February 1182, the Count of Toulouse took the city from the Viscount Roger Trencavel; Raymond V had asked for help from Henri de Marsiac, abbot of Clairvaux and they besiege Lavaur, which constituted the Adelaide dowry wife of Roger Trencavel, and Raymond keeps the city. On May 3, 1211, Lavaur was taken by Simon de Montfort (Crusades of the Albigensians) after a siege of more than a month. The Dame Guiraude, Châtelaine responsible for the city, is precipitated in a well (still story telling in town!). In 1220, following the death of Simon de Montfort , Lavaur was taken over by the future Raymond VII. In 1226, Louis VIII, following his campaign to submit Languedoc, made a stopover in Lavaur. In 1229, castrum’s fortifications were destroyed following the Treaty of Meaux between Louis IX and Raymond VII. Around 1230, the Cordeliers with the help of Sicard VI Viscount de Lautrec, were established in Lavaur outside the city and built the church and the Saint-François monastery. On May 15, 1255, the construction charter of the new church of Saint-Alain was established. In 1271, the city went from the county of Toulouse to the royal estate of France. In 1439, the dolphin, future king Louis XI, went to Lavaur. In 1462 or 1468, Louis XI raise Lavaur in County. In 1483, the town returned to the royal field of Charles VIII in 1540, a session of the States of Languedoc was held in Lavaur and debate of a project of a channel of navigation between Garonne and Mediterranean, the future Canal du Midi. In 1642, During the Great War or WWI, the wounded soldiers were neat at the hospice or the higher school of boys on the town hall transformed into a volunteer hospital and then complementary.

The city of Lavaur on its heritage : https://www.ville-lavaur.fr/votre-ville/visiter-lavaur/patrimoine/

The Tarn dept 81 tourist office on Lavaur:  : https://www.tourisme-tarn.com/patrimoine-culturel/lavaur

The local Tarn Agout tourist office on Lavaur :https://www.lepaysdecocagne.fr/lavaur-cite-historique/

There you go folks, a quant old town that Lavaur is with a rich history some of which are told in my blog. Again, hope you enjoy this post on this is Lavaur !!! as I.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!