Nérac: Henri IV's Château, Queen Margot's Garenne and the Port on the Baïse
Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France
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Queen Margot's Courtier
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200
XP
+100 France
= 300 total
1 day
Nérac: Henri IV's Château, Queen Margot's Garenne and the Port on the Baïse
200 + 100 XP
Marguerite de Navarre, sister of François I, married Henri II d'Albret in 1527 and made Nérac a haven for humanists and writers — Lefèvre d'Étaples and Clément Marot among them — and Calvin himself stayed here in April 1534 and met Lefèvre in the town. She was Henri IV's grandmother; his wife, Marguerite de Valois, is the Queen Margot of the Garenne, where she and the future king laid out the allée des trois mille pas along the Baïse that she describes in her own memoirs. Of the château's four ranges only the north wing survives, with its projecting half-vaulted gallery, and the museum inside it has been open since 1935; since 2016 it has told the Renaissance rather than the archaeology, with a room given over in 2020 to Marguerite de Navarre. From the Pont-Vieux the port looks across to the roofs of Petit Nérac.
Required Activities
1
of 4
Walk the projecting half-vaulted gallery of the north wing — the only one of the château's four ranges to survive the demolition begun in December 1793 — then find, in the room given to Marguerite de Navarre, the paper reconstruction of her dress made by the costumier Inge Zorn Gauthier from Jean Clouet's portrait of her
2
of 4
Walk the allée des trois mille pas along the Baïse, the enclosure Marguerite de Valois and the future Henri IV pushed as far as the hamlet of Nazareth, and find three things on it: the fontaine Saint-Jean, the grotte de Fleurette of 1896, and the fontaine des Marguerites of 1903 raised to both queens at once
3
of 4
From the Pont-Vieux, pick out the Pavillon des Bains du Roi on the bank below the château, then take a boat up the Baïse from the port and see the same front from the water. Back on land, find the bronze of the Nérac physicist Jacques de Romas, who worked out the principle of the lightning conductor
4
of 4
Find the salle des Conférences where the Edict of Nérac was signed in 1579, and work out from the street how close it stands to the château the Protestant court was keeping at the time
Walk the projecting half-vaulted gallery of the north wing — the only one of the château's four ranges to survive the demolition begun in December 1793 — then find, in the room given to Marguerite de Navarre, the paper reconstruction of her dress made by the costumier Inge Zorn Gauthier from Jean Clouet's portrait of her
Walk the allée des trois mille pas along the Baïse, the enclosure Marguerite de Valois and the future Henri IV pushed as far as the hamlet of Nazareth, and find three things on it: the fontaine Saint-Jean, the grotte de Fleurette of 1896, and the fontaine des Marguerites of 1903 raised to both queens at once
From the Pont-Vieux, pick out the Pavillon des Bains du Roi on the bank below the château, then take a boat up the Baïse from the port and see the same front from the water. Back on land, find the bronze of the Nérac physicist Jacques de Romas, who worked out the principle of the lightning conductor
Find the salle des Conférences where the Edict of Nérac was signed in 1579, and work out from the street how close it stands to the château the Protestant court was keeping at the time
Before you go
The château-musée is small: of the 8,810 items counted in 2010 only about three per cent are on show, and the archaeological collections have been in store since 2016, so do not come for them. The quays and the low ground by the Baïse flood — Nérac has been declared a disaster area for flooding seven times since 1982 — so check the river before parking a motorhome near the port. The Croisières du Prince Henry run in season, and the night tours of the town are July and August only.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
200 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
300 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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