Sorèze Trip - July 24th 2005 - A mini-Ken Ancestor Tour

On Ken's first ancestor tour, he was unaware that certain places that he nearly went near were associated with family members. As the Principality of Verdun was West of Toulouse & within an easy day's explore of Sorèze, we decided to look up these places:

Sunday 24th July 2005 A mini-Ken Ancestor Tour

We set off at 0915 & got back at about 1630, Avis thinking that a bit long & crashed out immediately while I made tea. We had driven on the southern road to Toulouse & had a minor problem with the roads there, soon sorted out. Then, we headed West to L'Isle Jourdain, which had had a bad write-up by Patrick but which was full on interest. The church had a strange tower & there was a clock museum, opened by Mitterrand. Bernard Jourdain from here may have been an ancestor.

On to Cologne (!), which had another huge church, interesting on the outside but not inside but with a charming square. The next town, Mazamet, had a bigger square but the market was not in the middle, which seems the pattern elsewhere. But the surprise of the day was Beaumont in Lomagne, where for E2 each, we were allowed into their festival. We were visiting because of Azeline de Lomagne, the wife of Bernard de Fourcès, a very important ancestor. An added bonus was that they theme the festival to other French regions & this time, it was Euskal Herria! Many people on the stalls, none of them actually Basque, it seemed, were wearing berets & red neckerchiefs over white shirts. I explained my interest twice but had to be explicit about Euskal Herria being "Pays Basque" in Grenouille, even though there was a large ikurrina with that painted on it.

We could not get fed because of the crush, so carried on to Labourgade but the road was closed & we had to go through a village called Montain on a hill to get there, as we wanted to go to Chateau Terride. This is huge, tatty on the outside, about 14thC at the earliest i.e. not directly to do with my family but inside showed all the signs of being a posh hotel. Wriggling back to the main road, we went through St. Sardos, which had nothing to photo & to Mas Grenier, which does have family connexions. Still everything closed up but we went down to Verdun & struck lucky. We caught an Algerian take-away just before it shut & had donor kebabs. We had done Verdun but before, had not found Savènes.

This time, we did. The church was impressive but there was a 'chateau' signed. We went up the track to it & prowled around the outside, to be challenged from a window. I explained the interest in my execrable French & even Avis had to ask afterwards what I had said. 'Trop nouveau' - it was too new at 500+ years old to be connected. The guy accepted the explanation, so he had managed to understand. The village iteslf was not very exciting, though. We went on to Grenade, crossed the Garonne & took the motorway (E1.40) to Toulouse. We came back on the D1, as I thought we might be a bit early but I should have used the motorway to Castelnaudary. I edited the photos while Avis rested. Vicky did a chicken for dinner.