On Wednesday, we took a long planned journey south, about 1.5 hours from Lectoure, to visit two painted churches, with our friends, Judy and Laurence. Our first stop was at Eglise Saint-Laurent in Mont d’Astarac. We have visited Saint-Laurent several times, and it never ceases to amaze us! Built in the 15th century, its interior walls were painted with murals from the 1490’s.
We drove a bit further south, with the Pyrenees growing larger in our view, to Notre-Dame de Garaison, a sanctuary attached to a private school south of the tiny village of Magnoac. It was Papa and my third visit, but the first for our friends. The sanctuary of Notre-Dame de Garaison was built in the 16th century, after the Virgin Mary appeared three times to a young girl in 1515, and said to her “I want a chapel to be built here.” The chapel was completed in 1540, and a convent was added, later becoming a school, and an internment camp between 1914 and 1919. Currently, there are 650 students going to school there, with 250 boarding students.
We had a tour, first of a long hall with posters and photographs of the well known people considered “enemy nationals” during World War 1, that were interned at Garaison, including German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Bulgarian families, living in France. Albert Schweitzer and his wife were among those interned at Garaison. We toured the Sanctuary and then the Sacristy, all hand painted, with scenes of the Bible and 16th century peasant life.
After our tour of Notre-Dame de Garaison, we had lunch at La Taulada in Castelnau-Magnoac, with a brief stop at a 4th century Roman église, located in field. We had a good day!
