Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Narbonne

  • Narbonne – Eglise Notre-Dame de Lamourguier (and Narbo Via Museum)

    Narbonne – Eglise Notre-Dame de Lamourguier (and Narbo Via Museum)

    This is Eglise Notre-Dame de Lamourguier in Narbonne, a beautiful thirteenth century Gothic church. I visited in 2017, not just because it looked an interesting church, but because it housed nearly 2,000 blocks from the Roman period. They had been used in the construction of the city walls in the sixteenth century and when in the 1860s the walls were taken down, they clearly didn’t know what to do, so they dumped them all in the church. And there they remained until very recently, although fortunately, I saw them in situ.

    When I visited I tried the door and it was shut. I assumed that I had misunderstood the opening times or that they were perhaps a little fluid, so I meandered off, probably slightly grumpy. A staff member then rushed out of the door and said something random in French (it probably wasn’t random to her), which transpired to be her telling me she had forgotten to unlock the doors and had wondered why the museum was quiet. Fortunately, I banged about on the door because I’m slightly clumsy, so she heard me. Very friendly welcome incidentally, I was given a sheet in English telling me what to look out for.

    I accept that this looks like some arrangement that I’ve set up, stacking up thousands of pieces of Roman stone in an historic building.

    Perhaps at first it looked like it might all fall down, but it was in fact all quite safe. Or, at least, I didn’t knock anything over. So, here are some photos of the stone and it’s pretty clear to me now that I’ve forgotten to take a photo of the information sheet, so I have no bloody idea what half of this is. Or indeed any of it. But I know I spent well over an hour looking for the stones the curators thought were of particularly importance.

    I thought that this was quite magical, especially as I was the only person meandering their way around the museum, which was primarily I suspect because the staff member had forgotten to open it.

    One sad thing though, and as usual, I’ve found something to moan about. I visited here in 2017 and I’ve discovered that they’ve moved all this to a brand new museum designed by Foster & Partners. The museum isn’t quite yet open and having looked at the plans that have been published, I completely hate the new building.

    This looks hideous to me, creating a sense of distance between the stones and the visitor, and instead getting them to use a screen to no doubt find out more. They’re stacking up these items up so they can’t been engaged with and it looks like an Amazon warehouse, bright, but not really conducive to a useful visitor experience. If that means you can see the objects up close like at the National Railway Museum stores, then that is quite marvellous, but in the image above the barrier that forces visitors several feet away from the stones is visible. The plan is to split the nearly 2,000 stones that were in the church so they heap a load in a wall which has no relevance to anything, and put hundreds of others of them in a reserve store. A great deal of bloody use they’ll be there.

    This is the other design image. Well, what a lovely cafe the museum will have. Who needs heritage when you can have a lovely cafe?

    I’ve spent a little time trying to find out what the reaction of other people in the locality is, as I tend to have an instant dislike to museums where they put technology ahead of the thing they’re meant to be displaying. I haven’t found much, but what I have found is pretty negative about the presentation of the stones and one person has said they’ve shoved them all behind wire mesh. Anyway, since the museum isn’t open yet and I haven’t visited it in its new location anyway, perhaps it’s all lovely and better than I expected.

    But, I still love how the stones were presented in the Eglise Notre-Dame de Lamourguier, making it one of the most memorable museums that I’ve visited.

  • Narbonne – Narbonne Cathedral (Finished Bit)

    Not all of the Narbonne Cathedral is finished (the unfinished bit) and the above photo shows what there actually is. What would have just been the choir area was built, but the crossing area where the tower would have been and the rest of the nave weren’t finished.

    This is what the cathedral looks like inside, all rather crammed in compared to what the original plans would have envisaged. The choir area has been pushed back to a small area at the rear and what is effectively the nave has been constructed in the space that’s been freed up. The proportions are now of course entirely wrong, as the height is way too high for the floor space, although that doesn’t take away from just how impressive this building feels.

    I can’t help thinking of just how irritating it must have been for the architects to see their designs never quite completed.

  • Narbonne – Hotel F1 Narbonne Sud

    Hotel F1 is the cheapest brand of hotels in the Accor chain and they’re mostly, but not entirely, located in France following some rebranding of many of these locations as Ibis Budget. The remaining Hotel F1 locations are normally just outside of town centres and they’re keenly priced with plenty of car parking (not that this element matters to me).

    The rooms are similar to Ibis Budget hotels, but they have shared bathrooms. As shared bathrooms go though, these are some of the best as it’s clear which ones are in use and there are also so many that there isn’t usually any wait. The rooms, like Ibis Budget, have bunk beds and are relatively small in size.

    Hotels in France are usually expensive, so these locations offer a much affordable option. This particular hotel in Narbonne cost around £28 per night, as opposed to the nearly £100 per night accommodation options in the town centre. This hotel was clean and well presented, with the staff members being helpful and friendly. It’s all rather basic, but it’s well managed so that it’s still sufficiently comfortable. There’s also free wi-fi offered at the hotel, and it was surprisingly fast.

    The breakfast costs around £2.50 and allows for unlimited bread, jams, cereals, orange juice and coffees. It might be one of the most basic breakfasts offered by Accor hotels, but the price means that it’s still excellent value for money.

    The F1 hotels routinely get poor reviews, so perhaps they’re not managing expectations particularly well. This hotel is 20th out of 21 accommodation options on TripAdvisor for the town, and I sometime wonder what people actually expect.

  • Narbonne – Narbonne Cathedral (Unfinished Bit)

    I’ve told a lot of people how much I was fascinated by Narbonne Cathedral following my visit there in 2017. It’s really intriguing as it’s a cathedral which was never finished, with only the choir section having been completed. So what is left is the first part of the nave and the choir area, with the nave section having never been roofed.

    The unfinished nature of the structure gives an indication of how buildings like this were constructed, and it almost feels like being on a medieval building site. Where the rear of the nave would have been is now built on, but the central nave area has remained as it would have looked in the thirteenth century.

    The cathedral was never completed for numerous reasons, partly funding but also it would have meant moving the city walls and this would have been an expensive and time-consuming exercise. The cathedral itself was also one of the largest which was being built, so it would have been a huge commitment to see it through to the end.

    The unfinished elements are also visible from the side of the cathedral.

    This is the bit of the cathedral that was finished, which was effectively only the choir area. Today though the interior has been reconfigured to try and make the whole cathedral fit inside the space that they have. I’m unsure why the first section of the nave area was never finished, as this could have been done relatively cheaply since the walls were already up, but perhaps there was just never the need.