Walking Around: Visit to St. Pierre-du-Mont

Last week, I made a plan to walk to a nearby city called Saint Perdon. The town supposedly has a old church worth seeing From the map I was viewing it was about five to six kilometers outside of Mont-de-Marsan. To get there I needed to follow a series of local roads, but would spend the largest amount of time shadowing a national route. I reached the end of my city limits in less than a half hour and twenty minutes later I came upon a WWII memorial and a tunnel in which the regional train passes over. The sidewalk through the tunnel was narrow (about the length of my foot) so I pressed my back against the wall as I moved as cars passed by with the usual French reckless abandon.

At the end of the tunnel, about three hundred meters away, I saw the roundabout (rond-point en français) that sends cars all over the region. From where I stood, I could see the terrain was not going to allow me to pass. I would be walking along barbed wire fences, in mud, and darting across highways to reach my destination. This was badly calculated misstep. I did not realize the shoulders of national routes were not kept us and inaccessible to pedestrians. (Consequently, after doing some research, I found it would be best to limit future long-distance excursions to departmental routes which are smaller, have less cars moving slower, although not better maintained.)

Faced with this, I had the choice of turning back or going southeast to the town of St. Pierre-du-Mont. A city on a hill. I referenced a guidebook and did not find much information on the town (except that it had an old church, imagine that!). Not to call the trip a loss, I started scaling the hill, hugging the guardrail of a windy, steep road. Cars were surprised to see someone walking on the road, but this is common reaction when walking on the outskirts. Everyone here has voitures (cars) to get around as there is very little public transportation.

St. Pierre-du-Mont is a satellite town of Mont-de-Marsan, but not with lack of historical roots. The central feature of the town is a church dating to times when Romans took much of France in continental conquest (1st C. BC – 5th C. AD). It was built by the monks of St. Sever, a town twenty or thirty kilometers south (and hopefully a destination). It is probable that the importance of Mont-de-Marsan as a trading hub was cemented because these monks chose the hill to build the church. Here are images of the church . . .




I also visited the cemetary behind the church.


Receptacle in the cemetary. The signs read: "Plastique" and "Organique".

There was not much else in the town, a small shopping area with a flower shop, bakery, and salon. This was the mayor's office, but is not impressive compared to many in most other cities.


Then I walked home. These are the signs to indicate you are leaving one town and entering another. They are to the point, none of that frilly "Welcome to ......" on a wooden carved sign with pictures.


If the post lacks excitement, it is a reflection of this particular walk and the diminished expectations that I am now forced to accept living where I do. More exciting destinations unfortunately can not be walked to as the sides of roads are too rough. Because the area retains features of the swamp (marais) that it used to be, the ground is often muddy and unwelcoming to pedestrian travel. Walking several kilometers in these conditions is terrible. But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel . . . the bicycle I bought upon arrival may be the perfect tool to get me from town to town in Les Landes.