Introduction

THE GASCON VILLAGE of Saint Puy stands on a high shoulder of land overlooking the valley of the Gèle, about half-way between the two towns of Fleurance and Condom, in the very heart of south-western France. Its walls of corn-coloured stone and its red roofs climb gently up the hill towards the castle, an 18th-century manor house built above mediaeval fortifications, from which immense views stretch out in all directions over the surrounding countryside. Below the castle, the church of Our Lady, with its square tower and its wide, unexpectedly low-pitched roof, looms over the village like a stone galleon anchored in a diminutive harbour made of houses and streets.