Venice of france dordogne6/22/2023 ![]() Every year in July, illuminated floats festooned with flowers parade along the Sorgue’s canals at nightfall. Its traditional fishing boats, long and thin (called nègo chin, which means ‘drowning dog’ in Provençal) are manoeuvred by boatmen standing at the rear, like gondoliers. A few waterwheels remain and the town’s layout is not unlike the City of the Doges: the collegiate church, Notre-Dame des Anges, with its Roman-style façade and rich 17th-century interior decoration, is also reminiscent of Italian churches. Today famous for its antiques market, the third largest European market after London and Paris, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is traversed by canals, along which watermills once allowed the development of silk, wool and paper factories. It’s in fact an old fishing village built on stilts along the Sorgue, whose waters were once rich in trout, crayfish and eels. Staying in the south, it’s also due to old fishing traditions that L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue has long been known as the ‘Venice of the Comtat Venaissin’, after the territory once controlled by the popes in Avignon. Martigues, which can be visited by boat via its canals, also has many tourist attractions, including the Ziem Museum and the Chapelle de l’Annonciade, a jewel of Provençal Baroque art. Today, with three canals, fishing boats anchored everywhere and the famous Miroir aux Oiseaux, an inlet spanned by the Sébastien bridge and reflecting façades of brightly coloured fisherman’s houses, it’s almost like being in the City of Water. The association with Venice came naturally.” Other painters such as Dufy and Van Gogh followed him, all fascinated by its setting and colours. In addition, around 1860, the Orientalist painter Félix Ziem, who had painted seascapes and landscapes in Venice and Constantinople and remained nostalgic for these places, settled in Martigues and opened a studio. Until the 19th century, nine canals, used by fishermen, traversed Martigues. Martigues is situated between the Mediterranean and the Étang de Berre and the Romans created a canal there. “Actually, this merely confirmed an already established reputation for which there’s no lack of justification. “As early as 1934, the singer and actor Alibert sang about Martigues in the song Adieu Venise provençale, for which Vincent Scotto wrote the music,” explains Didier Cerboni, director of the town’s tourism office. Italian churches Almost as old is the title ‘Venice of Provence’ given to the town of Martigues, in the Bouches-du-Rhône. Read More: Dordogne Travels: The Lure of Périgord The abbey is said to have been founded by Charlemagne and its bell tower is one of the oldest in France. ![]() The most visited monument is undoubtedly its abbey, built at the foot of a steep wooded cliff, where the Cave of the Last Judgment houses two monumental bas-reliefs sculpted by 15th-century monks. In addition, Brantôme shares with Venice a great architectural wealth. The term will no doubt remain because the whole village is surrounded by waters of the Dronne, which was partly transformed into a canal in the 16th century by Benedictine monks. As he crossed the Coudé bridge, which spans the Dronne, he was struck by its bucolic setting and its river, and exclaimed, ‘This is the Green Venice of Périgord!’. ![]() “It was invented in 1913 by French President Raymond Poincaré, who came to visit the village. “In Brantôme, one thing is certain: it’s not a marketing term,” says Julie Martinet, director of the Tourism Office of Brantôme-en-Périgord, one of the most picturesque spots in the Dordogne. ![]() In all cases, there are no gondoliers or Doge’s Palace in sight, but these towns, large or small, have one thing in common: they’re located on waterways and are usually crossed by picturesque canals which make them comparable to the Italian Serenissima. From the port cities of Provence to the towns and villages of Alsace, Normandy and Picardy, the list of French ‘Little Venices’ in tourist guides is long: at least 50. ![]()
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