Bastide de Monflanquin

About 15 km north of the Lot valley, perched in the oval of a pech, the bastide of Monflanquin dominates a landscape of round hillsides streaked with orchards. This village, classified as one of the most beautiful in France, organizes its streets and carrerots in a checkerboard pattern, with half-timbered or stone facades decorated with flowers, buildings of character such as the house of the Black Prince, numerous pontets (covered passageways between two houses), a central square lined with arcades and the church of Saint-André.
Monflanquin was founded in 1256 under the aegis of Alphonse de Poitiers, representative of the King of France. Like so many others, the bastide had a turbulent history, being fortified and then dismembered in 1632 by order of Richelieu. Above the Tourist Office, a museum of bastides presents the phenomenon of the creation of new towns in the Middle Ages.