Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val is a picturesque medieval village of 2,800 people (2018) in the Tarn-et-Garonne region of France. It has a preserved largely medieval core which has many listed buildings, and is a major tourist attraction. Its Sunday market is extensive and draws many visitors and locals.

Understand

The medieval belfry

The town was used as a location for the 2001 film Charlotte Gray, starring Cate Blanchett.

It was used as a location in the film The Hundred-Foot Journey starring Helen Mirren released in August 2014.

History

The area has been occupied for over 10,000 years, as evidenced by the archaeological discoveries at the nearby Upper Palaeolithic (Magdalenian) site of Fontalès.

The town is named after Antoninus of Pamiers, who brought Christianity to the Rouergue. He was martyred c. 305 when, following this success, he then tried to convert Pamiers, his home town in the Pyrenees.

Get in

You can go to Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val with a bus, a train, a car or a taxi.

If you can start in Toulouse, the price of a travel with a bus is €2 but with taxi and train is €45-70.

Get around

You can visit Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val with a bike and a canoe and by foot of course!

See

Place du Buoc

• Around Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val you cans see and visit "La grotte de la dame blanche". "La grotte de la dame blanche" is a fabulous cave on the edge of the Aveyron. You can enter and visit this cave.
• The Old Town Hall (Maison des Consuls): Saint-Antonin reputably has the oldest town hall in France. The first recorded mention of the "New House" - which served as a lordly residence and court house - dates from 1155. In 1212 it was bought by the consuls (town councillors) and referred to as La Maio del Cossolat. It now houses a local museum. The facade features two carvings of very high quality; Adam and Eve with the serpent under the tree of knowledge, and the Emperor Justinian as law-giver, bearing a staff surmounted by the Imperial Eagle and holding an inscription which reads: it is meet that his Imperial Majesty should be empowered not just by force of arms but also by the power of Justice.

Several houses are designated as Monuments historiques:

• The Caserne des Anglais (English Barracks) house, rue Guilhem-Peyré, was a base for English troops from 1352 to 1354, and eventually became a royal barracks. After the Revolution, it was converted into a town house. The building has two stone levels topped by a third of half-timbered brick. The street facade is pierced by two entrances; the pointed arch on the left dates from the 13th or 14th century, and the simple moulded arch to the right features a 17th-century wooden door. Three mullioned windows illuminate the first floor (end 15th - early 16th century). Wooden galleries crown the top floor.

Maison Muratet

• The Muratet house is an interesting example of medieval civil construction. Partly built in the early 13th century and enlarged in the 15th, the original building was probably a farmhouse. The façade, despite changes in the 19th century, retains its ashlar dressing and all the elements needed to understand its original order: three levels bordered by projecting moulded string courses (the first string based on a series of carved corbels); a series of arches on the lowest level (ground floor shops); two rows of four double windows in a pointed arch, connected by transom strings. At the end of the 15th century, the pointed arcades on the ground floor were replaced by segmental arches and a door lintel decorated with an ogee arch. Most double casement windows were transformed into quads. The elevation facing the courtyard was rebuilt with rubble at the end of the 15th century. The first floor consisted of two rooms separated by a wood-framed cob wall, supported by a central masonry pillar. Important remnants of a mural depicting griffins on interlaced medallions and an upper frieze of heraldic knights, dating to the first half of the 13th century are preserved on this wall. A spiral staircase with load-bearing core is built into an oval shell half protruding through the side façade, starting from the street. With its ogee-arched front door and various openings, its construction can be dated to the late 14th or early 15th century. It is considered to be one of the first examples of the spiral staircases which gradually replaced older square staircases of wood or stone in Saint-Antonin.
• Le Maréchal house, rue Cayssac: is a 13th-century building which gives an insight to the layout of a medieval residence. It consists of two structures at right angles to each other, with a wine cellar, two residential floors and an attic. The house was built across an alley. On the first floor is a double window which is decorated with plants and false masonry and has window seats. Indentations indicate the position of ropes that supported curtains to divide the room.
• The Leris house, place de la Halle, is an interesting example of a 15th-century commercial building façade. At street level it has a door and wide low and moulded arches. In courtyard, the façade has two doors and the stone work is adorned with abundant mouldings and carved pinnacles. In the courtyard, another door is surmounted by a shield supported by two monsters with human heads and griffins' feet, and surrounded by a garland.
• The Ave Maria house, rue des Carmes, was the seat of the Brotherhood of the Virgin. The front door has an inscription engraved on pilasters up to the horizontal mullion: "Ave Mar. Gra. Pln. Na". It has an intact suite of four windows forming the first floor gallery. These cross-mullioned windows are separated by pilasters with pseudo corinthian capitals
• The Amour house appears to date from the 14th century. It has a ground floor built of stone, topped by a three storey brick-filled timber frame slightly jettied from the ground floor. The ground floor is broken by three bays. The front door is flanked by two low arches corresponding to former shops. The one on the right has a two-headed keystone of a man and woman kissing. This house was a brothel in the Middle Ages, which no doubt links to the sign.
• The Nut Oil Mill, in place Bessarel, is a much altered 15th-century stone and half-timbered building. The ground floor has a 19th-century vertical stone mill wheel which crushed the nuts. Pivoting on a bed of stone, powered by a donkey or a horse, this granite millstone created a paste. This was then heated over low heat in a copper cauldron and then passed under a press consisting of a beam of about five metres, fixed to a frame, having its axis of rotation at one end and a screw capstan the other end, and producing a pressure of approximately 30 tons for 20 kg of nuts under the third of the beam near the axis of rotation.

Do

L'Aveyron at St Antonin

• Backpacking in mountains
• Canoe on Aveyron
• Bicycling in the mountains and in the city
• Attend a concert in city
• In Aveyron you can fish.

Eat and drink

The most famous restaurant in the city is "La Fringale Chez Fred". All products of this restaurant are local products. On the menu there are more than 15 beers.

Sleep

In Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, you can sleep in many hotels , campings and gest houses, like "Gîte Chez Stéphanie et Jéromme". This house costs €55 for one night (2021). The house is equipped with a big pool and a beautiful view. Around house there are many hiking paths.

In the city there is a camping "le noble-Val". In this camping there is a pool a library a differents fields of football, pétanque and volley. The camping is a 15-min walk to go to the village.