Garonne

“ The mingled sounds of various tongues and nations were heard from the soldiery as they watered their horses in the stream or busied themselves round the fires which began to glow here and there in the twilight--the gay chanson of the Frenchman, singing of his amours on the pleasant banks of the Loire or the sunny regions of the Garonne ”

“ The southern provinces of France, Poitou, Saintogne, Auvergne, Perigord, Limousin, Angoumois and Guienne, received of the Romans the classic appellation of Aquitaine. This beautiful land, watered by the Garonne and Loire, whose clear and sparkling streams, flowing from vine-clad hills, stretched their silvery arms to irrigate the fairest fields and to enclose the finest harbors in the world, was in the twelfth century, inhabited by the most civilized and polished people on the face of the earth. ”

“ There are not, in fact, two more differing meanings in the world than those attached to our "Country Life," and the French Vie de Chateau. The French proprietor is a Parisian out of Paris. He takes the rents, shoots the quails, and the clowns do the rest.
An Englishman ought to feel at home in the south-west of France. That fair town, rising beyond the yellow Garonne, was for three hundred years and more an English capital. ”

“ However beautiful and fertile may be the valley of the Garonne, one cannot lag there. The distant summits of the Pyrenees exercise on us a too powerful attraction. But it is a serious matter to reach them. Whether you take the way by Nérac, a doleful seigneurie of the Albrets, or whether you follow the coast, it is all the same, you must either traverse or skirt an ocean of landes, covered with cork trees and vast pine forests, where nothing is met save black sheep under the conduct of a shepherd of the department, that have left the mountains for the plains in quest of warmth. ”

“ Is worth an age without a name!"
The long and bloody war of the Peninsula had now been brought to a final close, and the troops looked forward with impatience to the day of embarkation for their homes. The presence of the allied army was no longer necessary in France; but the British forces yet lingered about the Garonne, expecting the long-wished and long-looked for route for Britain. The Gordon Highlanders were quartered at Muret, a small town on the banks of the Garonne, and a few miles from Toulouse. ”

“ At this point the Garonne enters a fertile plain, and supplies the motive power to several mills. It is joined on the right by various streams fed by the snows of the Pyrenees. Such are the Salat, at whose confluence river navigation proper begins, and the Arize and the Ariège (both names signifying “river”) . From Toulouse the Garonne flows to the north-west, now skirting the northern border of the plateau of Lannemezan which here drains into it, the principal streams being the Save, the Gers and the Baïse. ”

“ Five miles further, and we left the Pique valley for that of the Garonne, passing through the village of Cierp, which lies to the right of Marignac, the station where passengers alight for St. Béat. This is a very picturesque village, about three miles east, perched above the Garonne in a narrow defile, possessing an ancient church and a good inn. The Pic de Gar (5860 ft.) , which rears up to the north of the village, is very rich in flora ”

“ Flour-mills, iron-works and brick-works are numerous. Railway communication is furnished by the Southern and the Orléans railways, the main line of the former from Bordeaux to Cette passing through Toulouse. The Canal du Midi traverses the department for 32 m. and the lateral canal of the Garonne for 15 m. The Garonne is navigable below its confluence with the Salat. There are four arrondissements—Toulouse, Villefranche, Muret and St Gaudens, subdivided into 39 cantons and 588 communes. ”

“ Each of the copartitioners assigned to themselves, to the south of the Garonne and on the coasts of the Mediterranean, in that beautiful region of old Roman Gaul, such and such a district or such and such a town, just as heirs-at- law keep to themselves severally such and such a piece of furniture or such and such a valuable jewel out of a rich property to which they succeed, and which they divide amongst them. ”

“ The lack of opposition surprised de Montfort, Antony says.
Under mediæval conditions, Muret was naturally strong. The general shape of the town is a right [Pg 150] triangle with a short base. The Garonne flows north-east along the perpendicular of the triangle; the winding Louge flows in a general direction east along the hypotenuse and falls into the Garonne at the apex of the triangle where the castle then stood. ”

“ Lingeringly and wofully does he record the deaths of dukes, and viscounts, and even simple knights and squires, who have done their devoirs gallantly; but as to the life-blood of the varlets—the vilains—the kernes—the villagios—the Jacques Bonhommes—foh! the red puddle—let it flow; blood is only blood when it gushes from the veins of a gentleman!
JASMIN. The evening was closing, and the mist stealing over the Garonne, when we came alongside the pier at Agen. ”

“ Ocean-steamers go up the river as far as Bordeaux and small craft as far as Cazeres. At Toulouse it is joined by the Central Canal, which, running eastward to the Mediterranean, forms with the Garonne a means of communication between that sea and the Atlantic. The valley of the Garonne is noted for its beauty. ”

“ The basin of the Garonne, situated to the south of that of the Loire, extends to the Pyrenees. It comprises the secondary basins of the Adour and the Charente.
The vast country we have thus described is protected on the north, west, and south by two seas, and by the Pyrenees. On the east, where it is exposed to invasions, Nature, not satisfied with the defences she had given it in the Rhine and the Alps, has further retrenched it behind three groups of interior mountains—first, the Vosges; second, the Jura; third, the mountains of Forez, the mountains of Auvergne, and the Cévennes. ”

“ Our last halting place, before we fought the battle of Toulouse, was Grenade, a small town, or large village, a few leagues below the scene of combat, on the left bank of the Garonne. Come, I'll just give you a short account of my entertainment in one more billet, and then we'll rush into the thick of the fight. ”

“ Gironde (794) , a maritime department in SW. France, facing the Bay of Biscay on the W. and lying N. and S. between Charente-Inférieure and Landes; the Garonne and the Dordogne flowing through it form the Gironde estuary, and with their tributaries sufficiently water the undulating land; agriculture and some manufactories flourish, but wine is the chief product. ”

“ At the end of that time she appealed to Charles VII when he was at Toulouse, and Matthew was forced to surrender her into the King's hands. Then Margaret, to vent her spite against her husband, made over the county of Cominges, in 1442, along with all her estates, to the Crown of France. Next year she died at Poitiers at the age of eighty.
The Garonne does not rise in France, but in Spain, and, by what is an apparent caprice, the frontier does not follow the crests of the highest mountains, but runs north, making a loop so as to include the Val d'Aran in Spain. ”

“ It included Saintes with Saintonge south of the Charente, Bordeaux and the Bordelais, Dax and the diocese of Dax, and Bayonne and its territory. But in no place did the boundaries go very far inland. Along the Dordogne, Libourne and Saint-Émilion were the easternmost English towns. Up the Garonne, the French were in possession of Langon, while, in the valley of the Adour, Saint-Sever, perched on its upland rock, was the landward outpost of the diminished Gascon duchy. ”

“ A partizan officer cut off fifty men sent by Lord Dalhousie over the Garonne; the peasants of the Landes formed bands and burned the houses of gentlemen who had assumed the white colours; forces of various descriptions were being assembled beyond the Garonne, and General Decaen was sent by the emperor to organize and command them. General Beurman also, who had been detached by Suchet with six thousand men to aid Lyons, was now directed to descend the Garonne towards Bordeaux, where a counter-insurrection was being prepared. ”

“ Besides Bordeaux, Libourne, La Réole, Bazas, Blaye, Arcachon, St Emilion and St Macaire are the most noteworthy towns and receive separate treatment. Among the other places of interest the chief are Cadillac, on the right bank of the Garonne, where there is a castle of the 16th century, surrounded by fortifications of the 14th century ”

“ And what reason has any man to suppose that the same general and troops who passed the Nive and defeated a like counter-attack near Bayonne, would be deterred by the fear of a battle from attempting it on the Garonne? ”

“ Now these Landes (into which we will travel presently) are, for the most part, a weary wilderness of pine-wood, morasses, sand-deserts, and barren shingle. On the other hand, the low banks of the Garonne are generally of a fat, loamy, and black soil, called, locally, Palus. Well, between the Palus and the Landes, there is a longish strip of country from two to five miles broad, a low ridge or backbone, which may be said to be the neutral and blending point of the sterile Landes and the fat and fertile Palus. ”

“ In the middle of the night we were aroused and ordered to pack up and accoutre, and make a flank march to the right, over execrable roads, in order to support the second division, who were to cross the river Garonne above Toulouse, at the village of Portet. ”

“ Than all the world in arms.” From Toulouse we marched, in a few days, to Castle Sarazin, situated on the right bank of the Garonne, between the previously-mentioned town and Bordeaux. Here we came in for most delightful quarters, being billeted in the houses, where we all had excellent beds. ”

“ Garonne & Saone, Seine, Tar, & Gironde:
Outre les Monts dresseront promonitoire,
Conflict donné, Pau franchi, submerge onde. English.
Near the Tesin the Inhabitants of Logre,
Garonne and Saone, Seine, Tar and Gironde,
Shall erect a promontory beyond the Mountains,
A Battle shall be fought, the Po shall be passed over, some shall be drowned in it. ANNOT. Tesin is the River that passeth by Milan. Garonne, Saone, Seine, Tar, and Gironde are Rivers of France. Po is the greatest River of Italy.
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LXXX.
French. ”

“ Several redoubts were thrown up on the upper side of the Garonne; the old castle of Blancfort, which had seen the days of the Black Prince, was destined once more to receive a garrison; and numbers of the citizens worked day and night at the wall and trenches, in order to put them in a state for resistance before the approach of the royal army. By this time the Duke of Epernon was within a few miles of the city, and the first active operations were undertaken on the side of Blancfort, from which place Monsieur de Chambon, our maréchal de camp, was forced to make a precipitate retreat. ”

“ Bourg and Blaye were next subdued, and the fleet sailed up the Garonne to Bordeaux; but, failing to capture so great a town, it went higher up stream to Rions, which was captured, along with Podensac and Villeneuve. ”

“ In France horses are almost universally in use, while in Spain the hardy mule endures better the coarse fare of the road. In making my excursions I found myself reduced from a Spanish diligence with eight or ten mules, to a pair of horses and caleche, as the summer lines were not yet established. Another twenty hours’ ride from Pau, brought me to Bordeaux, upon the banks of the Garonne—the city most renowned in France for its wines, and having an extended commerce to all parts of the world. ”

“ On this side of the castle everything differs as much as it is possible to conceive from the view to the seaward, which is grim and desolate as any ocean scenery the world over. Few sails are ever seen on those dangerous coasts; all vessels bound to the mouth of the Garonne, or southward to the shores of Spain, giving as wide a berth as possible to its frightful reefs251 and inaccessible crags, which to all their other terrors add that, from the extraordinary prevalence of the west wind on that part of the ocean, of being, during at least three parts of the year, a lee shore. ”

“ I would advise new-comers to the Pyrenees to use it but gingerly. The garrison of Pau was changed while I was there, and the new [Pg 139] soldiers were going rolling about the streets—some of them madly drunk, from the effects of this fireily intoxicating, yet mildly tasting wine. Our road lay along the Gave—a flashing, sparkling mountain-stream, running amid groups of trees, luxuriant coppice-wood, and small fields of yellow Indian corn. Many were the cottages and clusters of huts, half-hidden amid the vines, which are trailed in screens and tunnels from stake to stake, and tree to tree ”

“ Five days later he and Aimar rode away toward Toulouse. Behind them, well mounted, rode their esquires, bearing lance and shield; behind these, threescore mounted men. The two knights kneeled for Sir Eudes’s blessing, they kissed the cheek of the Lady of Panemonde and of the dark-eyed Aigletta; they went away like a piece of the summer, and all the castle out to see them go. Here was the bridge, here the road, here a lime tree that Garin remembered, but in an autumn dress. ”