Auch

Auch is the capital of Gers, the heart of Gascony, and its cathedral of Sainte-Marie holds two things worth the journey: a set of eighteen stained glass windows made by Arnaud de Moles between 1507 and 1513, unusually complete and mixing biblical figures with sibyls and pagan philosophers, and a choir enclosure of about a hundred and thirteen carved oak stalls that took most of the sixteenth century to complete. The Escalier Monumental of 234 steps drops from the cathedral terrace to the Gers, with a statue of d'Artagnan partway down; Charles de Batz-Castelmore, the real officer behind Dumas's character, came from this region.

History

When the Romans conquered the area in the 50s BC, the town belonged to an Aquitanian people they called the Ausci, who named it Climberrum or Elimberris; the Romans renamed it Augusta Auscorum, one of the twelve civitates of Novempopulana, and it became the provincial capital after the Vandals destroyed Eauze in 409. Dropping the "Augusta", its name became the Gascon Aush and the French Auch. The town became the seat of an archdiocese whose archbishops claimed the title of Primate of Aquitaine, Novempopulana and Navarre until the French Revolution, and its Hôtel de Ville was completed in 1778 (Wikipedia, Auch).

The main sights

• The Arnaud de Moles windows - eighteen Renaissance windows of 1507 to 1513.
• The carved stalls - about 113 oak stalls in the choir enclosure.
• The Escalier Monumental - 234 steps from the cathedral to the river.
• The d'Artagnan statue - the Gascon officer on the stair landing.

When to go

April to October; the choir enclosure has its own ticket and shorter hours. Gascony's markets and the Armagnac country are the reasons to stay longer. Summer is hot.

Practical notes

The choir and windows are behind a paid enclosure with limited hours, and missing them leaves little. The stair is steep. The town is small and quiet.

Nearby

Armagnac country surrounds the town; Larressingle lies west.