I don’t know if it was me who chose Libourne as a subject of study when I was still a student in geography or if it was Libourne itself who chose me, but it is a proven fact: fell in love!
Like escaped from a dream, the city rises above the river like a vessel from the depths of time…
Born from a confluence, it has itself become a confluence: of rivers of course, but also of soils, landscapes, climates, languages and people.
For nearly thirty years, I have studied its history, architecture, heritage, in every corner…
How else can you do it when you follow in the footsteps of Eleanor of Aquitaine or Charlemagne, when you meet the Knight of Leyburn through his history and are invited to his home in England by the owners of his birthplace?
Did you know that Roger de Leyburn was born in Leybourne near London and that he gave his name to the pretty bastide of the confluence?
All these characters and many others (the Black Prince, Du Guesclin) lived in the famous Château de Condat (first name of Libourne), whose pretty chapel is today orphaned. Thousands of pilgrims on the road to Saint Jacques de Compostela flocked there regularly, coming to pray to Our Lady of Condat or to venerate the famous thorn of the Crown of Christ offered by Charlemagne in the year 811 …
Libourne is a legend, it is like the painting of a great master in perpetual completion …
Let me tell you about it!