Bastide de Lamontjoie

Lamontjoie

On the borders of the Agenais and the Condomois, Lamontjoie is a French royal bastide whose name recalls the montjoies, those heaps of stones or small structures which marked out the roads and kept a glorious memory. Founded in 1298 by the seneschal of the Agenais, it was confirmed in 1299 by Philip the Fair, grandson of Saint Louis, who sent it relics of his forebear: Lamontjoie-Saint-Louis became a place of devotion to the sainted king, whose relics the church keeps in a monstrance of 1874 and a goldsmith's casket of the 13th century. Having passed under English rule in 1315, dismembered in 1365, troubled by the Wars of Religion, the bastide has kept its regular plan around a square of twenty-five to thirty metres where a weekly market and two annual fairs were held, and saw two convents settle outside its walls in the 17th century.

Getting there : Free access to the village. Producers' markets in summer, on Thursday evenings, and a rare plants fair on the third Sunday of April, according to Wikipedia; no tourist office documented in the texts.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound