From the beginning the Bastide was divided into two parishes with two churches: Saint-Vincent and Saint-Michel. Both churches are lovely places to visit and I often find myself in them. Our apartment is about 150 metres from each, one to the north and the other to the south.

In 1825 the City decided to convert the bastion at the south-west corner into a Calvaire, renaming it the Bastion du Calvaire.

Although it's not a long walk, you do have to go up an incline to reach the Cité. This can be steep in parts, but there is an excellent little train service that runs from the lower town to the fortified Cité during the summer months.

I don’t know how old our building is, but, whatever its age, I doubt it has any historic significance. Most of the window panes are made of “old” glass, i.e. glass that was manufactured before the “plate glass” process was developed at the beginning of the 1900s.

For every example of decrepitude in the Bastide one can find another of lost beauty restored.

Some of the most interesting buildings have lost their shine. It is hard to see how magnificent they once were, and easy to see how soon they will be gone.