Fongrave – With Hidden Depths
The timber pontoon at Fongrave (river Lot PK 27) is a most delightful place to moor up. Not only is the pontoon itself superb and recently renovated (with water and electricity available) but the village that the pontoon adjoins is beyond comparison. It is our perfect French village.
Fongrave – Heritage and History
Fongrave village has almost certainly always been a typically quiet tiny rural community, as it remains today – sadly even quieter than was the case formerly, with the closure of all village shops and the village garage (always sad to see). Its historic region – the Agenais – was an agricultural hinterland, part of far flung Gascony (as viewed from Paris).
Old postcard views of Fongrave – c. 1910 (1976 top r.) – www.delcampe.net
Abelard and Héloïse, Eleanor of Aquitaine, King Henry II, Richard the Lionheart, the Hundred Years War, the Wars of Religion, the French Revolution . . . and Fongrave
Fongrave’s perfect tranquillity is deceptive; it actually has deep underlying connections into the history of France and Western Europe. This heritage and history gives it an air of civilised elegance that contrasts with its deeply rural setting. Of course, it was significant in the first place because of its position alongside one of France’s great rivers, the Lot.
This riverside location probably led not only to its origins but also to the establishment of an important religious house, the Priory, with a church and a monastery.
The Fongrave priory belonged to the Plantagenet Fontreviste order, which was founded in 1101 in Anjou. One of the founders was Hersende, the mother of Héloïse, the lover of Abelard in the tragic tale. The order, based at Fontrevaud Abbey near Chinon, became important and influential. The Abbey became home to Eleanor of Aquitaine, widow of the English King Henry II. He, and Eleanor, and King Richard the Lionheart, were buried at the Abbey.
In Fongrave, the priory was founded somewhat later, in the 12th or 13th century, and accepted only young girls from noble families into the select order. There were ‘twin’ churches, one for parishioners and one for the nuns. The priory at Fongrave would then exist in one form or another for another 400-500 years.
Between 1337 and 1453 the Guyenne region (roughly east from Bordeaux), part of the province of Aquitaine, was raked by the so-called Hundred Years War whose geographic starting point was at a nearby village – Saint-Sardos. The causes of the conflict are complex, within both France and England (which country included Aquitaine) but coalesced into a series of engagements between the two throughout France (including at Agincourt and Crecy) that saw France victorious but with many consequences for both, including the de facto independence of Burgundy. Whilst much of the military activity involved the nobility, it was the general populace that suffered widespread abuse and looting. This would have applied equally to the occupants of Fongrave.
The region was again devastated a century later during the Wars of Religion (1560 to 1600) between (simplistically) Catholics and Protestants. Southern France was mainly Protestant. During this period the village was occupied by Protestant forces for the first time in 1564 (possibly 1574) who pillaged the church. In 1586, Geoffroy de Vivans at the head of Protestant troops, helped by artillery from Clairac, once again took the town which was by that time held by a large Catholic garrison. All the soldiers were put to the sword and more than 200 people massacred in the church. The priory and the priory church were destroyed by fire and this priory church was never rebuilt.
Having been forced to seek refuge elsewhere at nearby Sainte-Livrade the order could return to Fongrave in 1591. An extensive rebuilding programme then took place from 1643 thanks to the generosity of Jean d’Estrades, Bishop of Condom. Inside the former parish church the notable altarpiece (retable) was commissioned by the then prioress Françoise de Campet and carved in the Spanish style between 1645 and 1650. Columns and niches are garlanded with vines, flowers and fruits and there are statues of the Virgin, St Peter and St John. The centrepiece painting Adoration of the Magi follows the style and composition of one by Rubens and may include a saintly representation of Prioress de Campet.
In 1782, nearly 150 years later, river commerce was flourishing, the population was growing and the parish church was reported still to be in good condition. Various alterations and rebuildings took place during the 19th century, including in 1895 a new bell tower and spire (restored in 1997).
The remains of the priory were sold as national property during the Revolution and by 1837 were largely destroyed. All that now remains is a groin vaulted cloister gallery, an arcaded gallery opening onto Town Hall square, and part of the Abbess’ house, the interior of which has been completely redesigned, with a distinctive separate pigeonnière building (pigeon house). The presbytery, a part of the former priory owned by the mairie, has been renovated and converted into giîte accommodation.
Fongrave’s other architectural gem is its 19th century town hall, built in stone by the river in a neoclassical style facing its town square shaded by plane trees, once also used as the village school. This is where ‘night markets’ take place on summer evenings, featuring local produce, local wine, music and dancing.
The Fongrave Chapel – Notre-Dame-de-Tout-Pouvoir
Fongrave already had an important church and the substantial remains of an historic priory by the river when, in 1742, livestock in the surrounding countryside was ravaged by virulent disease. This caused immense consternation amongst the villagers, so much so that they promised that if divine relief from the scourge was granted, a new small chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the ‘All Powerful’ would be built.
The inscription over the door records its construction in 1749 and pilgrimages and processions were held every year in May. Whilst this no longer happens, it is still in occasional use by its faithful congregation. Its interior is small, simple and pretty.
The chapel is not as originally built. It once stood right at the end of the main village street (the Grande Rue). This position became untenable when the road between Ste-Livrade and Castelmoron needed to be widened. So in 1899 the chapel was completely dismantled and rebuilt close by. In 1992 the building was renovated and the exterior rendering removed, revealing its attractive brickwork. The brickwork itself is interesting and points to the status of the little building – local masonry domestic and enclosure walls are usually made using thick flat rectangular clay tiles (from the former tile-works on the outskirts of the village) set in soft lime mortar.
Fongrave – Welcome to the Farm
The Ferme des Tuileries no longer bakes tiles. Like so much of the rolling Lot countryside, the farm grows fruit and vegetable produce, especially the plums (prunes) for which the Agenais region is world-famed and which has been for at least 100 years. The orchards are arrayed with carefully tended and regularly spaced trees. After harvesting (the trees are shaken and the fruit falls into nets) the plums are washed, heated, dried and rehydrated to become prunes. This is a very traditional practice, hundreds of years old.
The Tuileries farm, on the outskirts of Fongrave, has been owned by the Chauvel family since 1974, when Pierre and Lucienne settled there. The farm shop was opened in 1995 and was later managed by their daughter Elodie who also demonstrated making the local apple tart delicacy Tourtière to the celebrity chef, Rick Stein. Pierre and Lucienne’s son Jean-François took charge of the farm in 2009 and his wife Céline now greets customers to the farm shop, which is packed full of their farm-fresh fruits, vegetables and delicious local produce.
The farm also has a superb river pontoon, a gite and welcomes motor caravan visitors. It also regularly encourages educational visits from schoolchildren, to learn about farming, nature conservation and care of the rural environment.
Next to the farm is the very impressive Château Caillac, which provides self-catering week-long luxury with seven bedrooms during the summer and guided fully-catered tandem bicycling holidays in spring and autumn.
On the northern edge of the village, the Potager Bio specialises in growing organic produce, sold at the local markets of Agen, Cancon, Ste Livrade, ,Villeneuve-sur-Lot and Castelmoron.
Fongrave – the river is transformed once more
Besides agriculture, Fongrave was almost certainly a place of fishermen and it was also a place where a ferry crossing was located, using river craft typical of the area. The village was positioned high above normal river levels, with ramped slipways descending down to the water, where the village women did the laundry. High banks protected Fongrave from the ravages of winter and spring flooding from the river, which rose dramatically and flowed ferociously.
The river Lot is one of the longest channelled (managed) rivers in France. Navigation once extended 260km upstream from its junction with the river Garonne (or 230km upstream from Fongrave) to within a few kilometres of the former industrial centre of Decazeville. Opencast mines here produced coal for steel works and other heavy industry throughout south-west France. The intense traffic thus generated was the reason for improving the navigation originally developed by the early 19th century, and a series of new locks and weirs was built from 1830 onwards. Like all the other navigable rivers in south-west France, the Lot was abandoned following the decline in commercial traffic due to railway competition. The river was closed to through-navigation in 1926.
Development of hydroelectric power became important for France in the post-war years and two large holding dams were built in the locality in the early 1950s, at Villeneuve-sur-Lot and Castelmoron-sur-Lot. That at Castelmoron raised the historic river by more than 6m (20ft), the effect spreading upstream well past Fongrave, including the creation of an inland lake at Le-Temple-sur-Lot, the neighbouring downstream village on the opposite bank.
The barrages inevitably divided the river into sections, with no connection between the sections that would allow leisure boating, expanding greatly in the 1980s, to explore any significant length of the magnificent ‘secret’ river. A campaign to rehabilitate the river started in 1971 and, with government and regional encouragement, facilities were provided along the river and two deep locks constructed in 1990 to enable the dams to be by-passed.
Where once the mairie stood many tens of metres above the water, it is now just a few metres above. The former watercress beds, down at the river’s edge, have been submerged and buried. And in their place a new pontoon has been constructed for the use of those hoped-for visiting pleasure boaters.
February 2021 – the River Level Drops
When there are very heavy persistent winter rains the chain of reservoirs and dams feeding and controlling the river, that start high up in the Massif Central, fill and overfill. Huge amounts of water can accelerate down the river’s course, as has happened for centuries. The flood marks that one can see in many towns and villages up and down the river bear witness to that.
In this infrequent yet regular occurance the barrage sluices at Castelmoron have to be fully opened to relieve pressure on the dam and its turbines. The river level downstream of the dam, at Castelmoron and beyond, rises. And the river level above the dam, at Fongrave falls. In 2021 this happened to an unusual degree, sufficient to expose the top of the former ramp wall and steps down, in front of the mairie, and the spring which once fed the watercress beds, now under the pontoon.
Did you spot our friendly donkey? (find the tiles!)
