|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| site map | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
new : the
6th bridge at Rouen: Pont Gustave Flaubert, new vertical lift bridge |
franceon first arriving in France - driving the French umbrella & Aurillac the forest
as seen by francois mauriac, and today the Citroën 2CV: Marianne - a French national symbol, with French definitive stamps the calendar of the French Revolution mardi gras! carnival in Basque country what a hair cut! m & french pop/rock country life in France: the poultry fair |
Motorway aires are designed to provide a suitable environment for relaxing, refreshing and recovering during the long, hard journeys. As well as facilities of often dubious nature, picnic tables and seats, a telephone kiosk, there are often optional extras such as a play area or a display related to some local interest or event.
At the western end of the A64 autoroute [motorway] that hugs the Pyrenees from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Mediterranean Sea in the east, is a clean, well-maintained and well-appointed aire with an exhibition centre, fuel station, shop and snack bar, picnic areas - one with a children’s slide, and even ‘cooling showers’. The focus of this aire is on the pilgrims’ route that starts from many points in Europe, and goes down to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella in Galicia, Spain.
Pilgrim statue The approaches to the neat exhibition centre symbolise the various routes to Saintiago de Compostella. They are also a giant version of the international pilgrimage shell logo, which is widely and thematically used at this aire.
Sketch map locating Hastingues aire. Hastingues nord aire, with its exhibition centre, is only accessible from the west-bound side of the motorway, going towards Bayonne. If you are approaching from the east and wish to visit, you will have to overshoot to Peyrehorade, exit the motorway and come back on the west-bound direction. The east-bound aire is very sparsely appointed by comparison. Hastingues aire is in Département 64 - Pyrénées-Atlantiques. saint james and the pilgrimage of compostelleThe exhibition centre houses displays showing the pilgrim routes, the history of this pilgrimage and of the apostle James the Greater, the focus of these pigrimages, together with statues and a few related historic artefacts. James the Greater was one of Jesus’s companions. There are various versions of his connection with Santiago de Compostella in Galicia, Spain. One is that he was banished there. Another is that after his execution, James’s body was banished to the (then) furthest point from Rome: Compostella on the tip of Spain. Then there is a less plausible version starting after James’s death, with the body being put in a boat to drift from the Holy Land, ending up on the Galician coast. Compostella was a popular medieval pilgrimage destination. This pilgrimage route has been rediscovered, recovered and expanded in recent years. This was the medieval version of the tourist industry. Thus it paid places to discover ‘holy relics’ to bring in the customers. There are even said to be five different monasteries in England who claimed to possess the result of the circumcision of Jesus!
Pilgrims walk old paths through France and Spain to reach Saintiago de Compestella
(or de Compostelle, depending on the nationality of the speller), where it
said that the apostle James the Greater was buried. Many of the pilgrims are
christianist, this long walk widely believed to afford them special spiritual
benefits for their future.
Two statues of pilgrims. The nearer
wears the The pilgrim journey can take many months; in the past, it was fraught with danger from robbers and from traversing the high Pyrenean passes. Hostels along the way provided food, shelter and care for the pilgrims. Pilgrims were absolved of some or all of their ‘sins’ after participating in religious ceremonies at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostella. Note, according to legend, the pilgrims found their way by following the Millky Way. The exhibition centre has a path of stars on its ceiling to reflect this astral signposting, visible in the photo above.
James the Greater and Giles weighing souls, with interference from the ‘devil’. The tableaux [tableaus] in the exhibition centre show stages along the pilgrim’s route in the Middle ages and other more magical incidents related to James the Greater and the pilgrimage. One such is shown above, where James is using the greater charitable and religious buildings built by Emperor Charlemagne to help tip the scales so a soul will not go to hell.
Hastingues bastide villageThrough a small side gate and about ten minutes easy walk up the hill from the aire, is Hastingues, a bastide village. Bastides were built to protect the inhabitants from outside attack. Bastides were founded during the Hundred Years War between England and France, mainly in South-Western France. The bastides were mainly set up on frontier and disputed lands to establish a border and a defensive presence. People were subsidised to settle there, in a manner very similar to the kibbutz settlements in Israel. Although Hastingues is not amongst the best examples of a bastide town, it still has several of the characteristics of these fortified settlements: perimeter walls, grid layout of fairly narrow streets, open central area for a market, built on a hill, houses built with a narrow separating gap (an androne) between them to limit the spread of fire and enable rain and waste water disposal. For more, go to bastide towns: Monpazier, pearl of England.
Fortified gateway to Hastingues bastide.
One of the streets in Hastingues, on the brow of the hill.
An androne between two houses at Hastingues.
Sketch map showing access to Hastingues
bastide
end notes |
||||
|
|
| abstracts | briefings | information | headlines | loud music & hearing damage | children & television violence | what is memory, and intelligence? | about abelard |
|
email abelard at abelard.org © abelard, 2005, 7 may the address for this document is http://www.abelard.org/france/motorway-aires7.php |
