Another wonderful town in the south of France to visit is Uzès.
We’re in Languedoc, which is just to the west of Provence, typical of the region and
a very charming town.
The main street has got some little craft booths set up almost every day, the Old Town
is a pedestrian zone, as usual you'll find in these beautiful villages in the south of
France.
There are some up-slopes and down-slopes, but it's a fairly level, small Old Town.
The road around it follows the route of the original medieval fortified wall, so this
is one of those limestone towns that is really well-preserved and the arcades around the
main square create a wonderful ambience, a place to shop a place to eat and drink and
just hang out.
This main square, Place aux Herbes, has been the center of Uzès ever since before the
Roman days, back when it was a Gallic village.
It's right in the heart of the Old Town, a fairly large space with these plane trees
all around that were planted to provide shade.
Sometimes in the summertime it’ll get hot but we're here in the fall and the weather
is perfect.
You can see it's shirtsleeve weather for some, the families are out but it's not a very crowded
day.
We’re here in the middle of the week.
If you come on a Saturday there is a large outdoor market that takes place in the town,
but on a weekday it's really pretty quiet, especially where you’re here in November.
And this main square is surrounded by the arcades, these kind of loggia with the cafés,
with the shops.
Originally in the seventeenth century it was wooden structures around the main square.
Limestone is a great building material in the area so it makes it convenient to construct
these classic and immortal buildings.
Nice fountain in the middle of the square.
Just a place to relax.
You want to just drop anchor here for a while and hang out, get a drink.
There are nice restaurants around the square as well.
And then of course there are the little streets that come into the square that are ideal for
shopping and meandering.
When you're visiting any one of these beautiful small stone villages in France, one of the
most interesting activities is simply strolling through the little lanes, the little alleys.
Don't worry so much about the history, the dates, or who lived in what building.
Just enjoy the view.
Appreciate the history that these buildings have survived 500 years, 600 years made out
of this very sturdy limestone.
It's a small village, just 8,500 inhabitants altogether in the area, and the Old Town is
just about half-mile across.
And yet big enough to keep it interesting for several hours.
You're not going get lost.
Note the baguettes tucked away in the stroller, the staff of life here in France, the staple
food.
You will certainly see some local families out for a stroll, and you get the feeling
that you're in safe zone, there's no apparent danger to be found here.
Perhaps it's a remnant of the history with the old encircling wall in the Middle Ages
that protected this town from outside invaders.
And today, envelops it in a cocoon of security and peace and harmony, comfortable feelings
that are increasingly difficult to find, as we travel in our modern world.
It was nice that we have the services of our local guide who could stop and point out some
of the history of various buildings and lead us so we don't get to lost, but you can do
this on your own.
It's so small you won't get lost in this little town but if you've got a chance, take the
guided walk.
As we walked around with our small group and our local guide it seemed like we were about
the only tourists in town, mostly locals out for a stroll.
Although it's a small town, there really are a couple miles of these narrow pedestrian
lanes that are so inviting.
There might not be shops or restaurants on many of them.
They’re residential, occupied for over 500 years with many of these original buildings
intact.
You'll probably run into some friendly people.
Maybe they're fellow travelers or local residents responding to the vibrations of this calm
town.
It’s a great place for the aimless wanderer that the French called the flaneur.
It was the French back in the 19th century who perfected the art of walking for sheer
pleasure, where you're just walking along, alert to your surroundings, observing even
unimportant details, not worried about your destination, but enjoying the journey.
This casual walking strategy is especially easy to pull off in Uzès, because every little
lane is interesting.
It's not like a place where you've got some dead ends or some dark and dirty little alleys
you want to avoid.
And you'll find shops scattered throughout that are sometimes rather funky with their
individual personalities.
No chain stores in the Old Town.
There's even an antique little motor scooter that still runs, something like a symbol for
the city.
Of course there's a lot of history attached to this 2000-year-Old Town.
This became an important area for the ancient Romans about 2000 years ago, because there
was a good supply of water, a big natural spring in the area.
You do get a beautiful view across the valley where the water came from when you stand on
the edge of the Old Town.
It’s a verdant and lush natural landscape out there.
And they needed to bring that water about 16 miles away over to their city of Nimes,
and thus they built an aqueduct, a long canal, mostly underground and above ground at the
famous Pont du Gard, and all away on into Nimes, and the water came from this area,
so it was an important settlement for the Romans.
They continued their occupation right up through the end of the Empire, about the middle of
the 5th century, and they developed a civilized and tolerant urban life, contrasted with more
strict regime in the Frankish north.
For example, Jews were accepted as part of the community through the late Roman times
and it wasn't until Christianity arrived in the early seventh century that Jews were expelled
from the region.
In the early 8th century Uzès became a fortified town and a bishopric under the Archbishop
of Narbonne.
A cathedral was first built here about 1000 years ago.
What we see today, this present cathedral dates from 1652.
One of the unique structures in town is La Tour Fenstralle, it's the bell tower next
to the cathedral.
It dates from the 12th century in the Italian Romanesque style.
It's the only round Romanesque bell tower in France.
If you look carefully you'll see the windows do get smaller as you go up to give the illusion
of greater height.
A thousand years ago something quite significant happened: it became the first dukedom in France,
and that same noble family has the seventeenth Duke still reigning today from his castle.
This castle is open to the public as a museum with the paid admission.
The architecture is kind of a summary of the building history of France and expresses the
Middle Ages, the Gothic, the Renaissance.
There's touches of the seventeenth century and modern times are all there, and yet the
ensemble is a harmonious blend that's very pleasing to the eye.
The tower and Cathedral are the first sites you see while driving into town.
The façade you see was added later in the nineteenth century.
The other fascinating church in town is Saint Etienne, built in the 1760s in the Italian
Jesuit style, reminding us that this region was more Italian than French in those days.
The church is on the ring road that goes around the Old Town, and you'll find that road is
also a very interesting place to take a stroll.
It's much busier, obviously, especially along the look at the edge of town where you'll
find lots of shops and restaurants.
This part of town is nicely shaded by what looks like a tree tunnel.
This is long row of plane trees, a popular variety that grows fast and provides lots
of shade.
You'll undoubtedly find some vendors with tables set up for things to sell, maybe old
books or maybe it's arts and crafts on another day.
There is one particular spot along this road that's most charming, it's Place Albert, and
there you'll find cafés and also the Tourism Information Office if you want to pick up
a free brochure for a walking tour or a map.
That's a place to check in with, and they can help you find a hotel if you're looking
for accommodations.
A tip on selecting your meal, you might consider the Plat du Jour.
Most restaurants have got a special of the day.
And it would be a good price, freshly made, and you don't have to wait very long for it.
You can see why locals enjoy hanging out at this special place.
Place Albert is easy to find.
It's at the north end of the road going around the Old Town.
I had a lovely meal in this bistro, with very good service.
You'll find more restaurants along that encircling boulevard and perhaps a little bit less touristic
than those in the Old Town.
You can see how well olives grow in this region, they're thriving practically everywhere you
look.
This elegant mansion, called the Hotel de Baron de Castille, is built in an Italianesque
style with some Egyptian influence, built towards the end of the eighteenth century.
It resembles the Town Hall that was built in 1772.
A thousand years ago Uzès became for a while the most important dukedom in France and that
same noble family currently has the seventeenth duke still reigning today from this same castle.
The architecture is kind of a summary of the building history of France and expresses the
Middle Ages, the Gothic, the Renaissance.
There's touches of the seventeenth century and modern times are all there, and yet the
ensemble is a harmonious blend that's very pleasing to the eye.
This castle is open to the public as a museum with the paid admission.
Inside the castle museum you'll visit the Gothic chapel with its superb stained-glass
windows, there's a wine cellar, and some apartments dating from the time of Louis XIII through
Louis XVI, with original furnishings.
It seems that all lanes lead back to the main square of the Place aux Herbes.
It's not really a square, it's an irregular-shaped plaza that is the main gathering spot of town.
There are a few other attractions here there's a candy museum, there is a medieval garden,
you can go inside the Cathedral if you like, and then in the outskirts you'll find some
château to visit and a few other small museums.
But at the top of many a visit's list is just sit back at an outdoor café at the Place
aux Herbes and enjoy yourself, look at the sights, people going by, drink some wine and
have a meal.
The arcades run around the entire circumference of the place, creating open spaces within
a sheltered walkway, formerly used as the main place where merchants would sell their
goods.
All we have left to do now is find our way back to the meeting place and join up with
our driver at the van.
And we will show you once again some of this peripheral boulevard that goes around the
Old Town.
It too is a fun place to be walking and shopping, perhaps find a restaurant, take a final look
as we drive by.
And so we very much enjoyed our visit to this little town of Uzès.
It is somewhat off the beaten tourist track.
It's not as famous as Arles or Avignon.
That's one of the nicest things about it, it's slightly less touristic.
And we had a good look at it thanks to our local guides Provence Reservation, and that's
a package tour.
You can get it out of Avignon and they have several other locations.
In our case it was a full day trip by van from Avignon over to Pont du Gard, which we've
also shown you in another movie, and on to Les Baux, which w we ill be showing you in
yet a different film, and this wonderful visit to Uzès.
We got to take one more drive around town on departure, nice view of that old belltower
next to the Cathedral.
Driving around the city once more to review the sites.
If you don't have a car or a tour driver it's not that easy to get here.
There's a public bus that comes up from Nimes or over from Avignon, takes about one hour.
but there is no nearby train station.
So it's really ideal to visit on a guided tour.
We have many more movies about Provence and the south of France in our collection.
We’ll be taking you to the stone village of Les Baux, have some crepes, down to Nice,
the beach, the old town.
We’ll see it during the daylight and take you back there at night.
We’ll be visiting historic sites and meeting the people, Pont du Gard, ancient Roman aqueduct,
the quaint village of St Remy will charm you on market day with street music, you'll see
shop dogs and ancient arcades, the daily joy of life in the streets is one of our specialties.
We’ll do some downtown shopping and enjoy traditional recreation.
All the best of southern France.
Look for it in our collection.