Monflanquin

Monflanquin

Monflanquin crowns a pech of the Haut-Agenais, some thirty kilometres south of Bergerac. In 1252 Guillaume Amanieu, lord of Calviac, ceded the mount to Alphonse of Poitiers, who began there in 1256 a bastide endowed with customs and confirmed in 1269. The regular plan is set within an ellipse of about 300 metres by 250, around a square 45 metres on each side surrounded by arcades, the cornières of the Agenais. Having passed to England in 1279, the town received an enclosure with four gates and eleven towers and changed sides until 1453; the wall was dismantled in 1628. The place des Arcades, the house known as that of the Black Prince, the sloping lanes and the church of Saint-André with its doorway of the 13th century make Monflanquin one of the most complete bastides of the South-West, listed among Les Plus Beaux Villages de France since 1989.

Getting there : Free access to the village. Market on Thursday morning and a producers' market in summer, according to Wikipedia and the Fédération des Bastides; Cœur de Bastides tourist office (coeurdebastides.com). Les Médiévales are held over three days in mid-August.

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

Ambient sound