Lauzerte : Quercy Pays de Serres

The Tarn-et-Garonne department boasts no less than ten natural micro-regions or terroirs, each with their own character, shaped by their differing natural features, their particular architectural styles and by the intimate relationship between man and his environment, the contours of the land, the climate, and the local produce.
Our region, in the north-west of the department, overlaps two of these geographical and landscape areas aptly named Quercy Blanc, evoking the white limestone and Quercus pubescens or pubescent oak typical of the region, and Pays de Serres, where fertile parallel valleys are separated by long arid crests, or serres.

“You take the high road and I’ll take the low road”
The natural contours of the land consist largely in little hills and valleys defining gently sloping bucolic landscapes, and clay limestone serres, the pale rocky outcrops along the crests.
What runs but never gets tired?
Running parallel to each other from north-east to south-west, the little streams and rivers - Barguelonne, Petite Barguelonne, Lendou, Séoune – finally merge before joining the Garonne river.

A landscape fashioned by man
The Quercy Blanc Pays de Serres area remains highly marked by agriculture, its main economic activity. The influence of the Atlantic and Mediterranean type climate and the diversity of its natural contours giving many different types of soil and exposures, encourage mixed farming and generate a wide variety of crops: cereals, fruit, forage and grazing. Cereal production takes up a large part of the agricultural land. Cattle also play a major part in the economic life of the area, the Blonde d'Aquitaine breed being raised for beef, and the Prim'Holstein for milk production.

The valley land is taken up by traditional crops such as wheat and maize, oil-producing plants (sunflower, soy and rapeseed), and pastureland, while the slopes, with their clay limestone soils exposed to the South and the West, tend to be planted with orchards (apples, plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines), vines producing so-called table grapes, the pride of which is undoubtedly the Chasselas de Moissac (AOC – Appelation d’Origine Contrôlée or certified area) and the Quercy melon (PGI, Product Conformity Certification).

The uncultivated north-facing slopes and arid plateaus have been taken over by the pubescent oak (Quercus pubescens) and its undergrowth of box wood, hazelnut trees, juniper etc.
Working the land shapes the landscape, nature is tamed into garden or orchard, dictating the pace and rhythm of the lives of local people and varying their market stall produce.

The area’s micro-climates and mixed farming have preserved areas highly conducive to flora and fauna. The varied and essentially limestone environment encourages the growth of several types of orchids, as well as a large range of wild flowers and plants.

The presence of many insects is characteristic of the local fauna; green lizards can frequently be seen basking in the sun, and magpies, ravens or great spotted woodpeckers are easily startled from their perches. Early to rise walkers may be lucky enough to cross a deer, a hare, a European rabbit or a covey of partridges.

Orchids thrive on clay limestone soils, and more than twenty species can be found locally. Less spectacular than their tropical forest cousins, they nevertheless occur in many colours and are remarkably delicate in appearance. The most widespread are the orchis and the ophrys genera (bee, fly, late spider orchids, etc. which owe their names to their resemblance to the insect in question). The particular and difficult way in which orchids reproduce makes them fragile species, now protected, and in some cases very rare.

In villages and hamlets, valleys and plateaus alike, the area will gradually unveil its charms. Rural architecture dominates the built heritage; marks of the passage of time are ever present: Romanesque chapels, traditional farms, pigeon towers, mills and fountains are dotted across the landscape. The colour of the limestone, the shape of the stones used for building, and man’s needs and skills have given rise to a characteristic form of architecture, the quality of which remains true to this day.

Pigeon towers were very common here, not being the sole privilege of the aristocracy, and served to collect precious guano (pigeon droppings), an extremely rich fertiliser.
The oldest are pigeon towers built on pillars, preventing predators from reaching the precious birds’ nests. The most typical of these is that of the Domaine équestre (equestrian centre) near Lauzerte, but the sharp-eyed walker will spot many others dotted around the landscape.

Churches and chapels
With its pleasing combination of light-coloured stone and the warm tones of the tiles and bricks so evocative of the south of France, the built environment of the Quercy Blanc area is not restricted to domestic buildings.
The strength of the Christian faith and the relative density of the population during the Romanesque period led to the construction of many churches and chapels, benefiting from their spiritual proximity to Moissac abbey and from the general movement of expansion, so aptly expressed by the Benedictine monk and contemporary chronicler, Raoul Glaber (985-1047), as the “white mantle of churches”. Although many have disappeared, the area remains remarkable for its concentration of such buildings. Moving in the simplicity of their architecture, they are scattered throughout the landscape, often isolated in a shallow valley. The most typical local example is arguably that of the chapel of Saint Sernin du Bosc.

A countryside chapel on a legendary route
On the Route of Santiago de Compostela, in a little valley aptly named Combe de Miel (honeycomb), nestles the
little Romanesque chapel of Saint Sernin du Bosc (11th century, listed Monument Historique). Though small, it has some interesting features: a semi-circular apse with radiating vaulting, a triangular gable bell wall, a Romanesque cornice on corbels. A local charity, set up in 1991 for its restoration, collects donations, handles administrative matters and monitors work on the building (now completed).
Association pour la sauvegarde de St Sernin du Bosc
Mairie 82 110 Lauzerte.

Extract (translated from the original French) from Dictionnaire des Paroisses du Diocèse de Montauban (a dictionary of the parishes of the diocese of Montauban)
by Canon P. Gayne.

The present parish of Saint Sernin du Bosc was created at the beginning of the 19th century by adding to its original territorial limits those of Saint Symphorien, Saint Nazaire and Saint Jean de Salles. This consolidation, which was contrary to all logic in human and geographic terms, gave major importance to a church which – until the Revolution – had only ever been an annex of Saint Symphorien and which was isolated in a little valley not easily accessible and the poetic name of which – Comba del Mel (honeycomb) – gives a foretaste of its rustic and semi-wild nature.
The church is named in the Bulls of 1097 an 1240 as belonging to Moissac Abbey, which in the 13th century ceded it to the Bishop of Cahors. The latter thus became its direct patron. In 1789, the parish numbered only 65 inhabitants.
The Romanesque structure, though small, has some interesting features. The exterior has been little altered, the interior has been somewhat disfigured by clumsy restoration, particularly in the 19th century. The semi-circular apse with radiating vaulting is preceded by a straight, slightly wider bay which constitutes the choir and which has a vaulted ceiling. The two arches at either end of the nave are different in shape: one is pointed, the other semi-circular. Recent work has uncovered and reopened the original axial window.
The nave, wider than the choir, has a barrel vault which although in dressed stone, is not original.
The entrance door now faces south, the original on the west side having been walled up. Recent work has uncovered a horseshoe arch here. A small triangular gable bell wall is set on the west-facing façade; its single opening houses two bells, one above the other; one is from the church of Saint Symphorien which was demolished in 1908.
Outside, the Romanesque cornice can be seen resting on variously carved corbels.
The last priest to serve there was Abbé Joseph Servières, who was posted to Saint Théodard school in 1920.