Bonjour mes amis! Today, May 28, Lee and I went with our good friends and neighbors, Valérie and Geoffrey to Pérouges, a restored medieval village in the Rhône-Alps region of eastern France. In its days of glory from the 11th to the 19th centuries, Pérouges was a prosperous and well-defended village. The city was strategically built on a hill and was the most sought after village in the area. Enemies could conquer all of the surrounding villages, but their attempts were useless unless they could take Pérouges. At the beginning of the 20th century, historians, artists and intellectuals decided to restore the city. When trade routes around Pérouges were moved by Napoleon III in the 19th century, the population quickly dropped from 1,500 to 90. The city was virtually deserted. Today, just over 1,000 people live in the village. We learned many interesting facts about Pérouges as we explored this medieval town. The walls surrounding Pérouges were made with small holes (meurtrières) so that soldiers could shoot arrows to the outside without exposing themselves to attack. When citizens of Pérouges died, the doorways or windows their corpses passed through were sealed with a cement-like material. This was thought to prevent the souls of the dead from lingering. We sampled galettes which are a specialty of Pérouges. They look like slices of pizza, but are made with flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and lemon. Délicieux!!!
Mme. Wallace
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