Le Duché d’Uzès

Uzès has a special place in French history, as "le premier Duché de France", and the de Crussol family being France’s oldest ducal peerage.  One suspects this was a big deal pre-Revolution, but translates to bragging rights only these days.  The motto of the de Crussol family is “ferro non auro” - by iron not gold (ie they fought their way to the top with swords, rather than by buying favours with gold) – which appealed to Andrew given his affinity for iron ore through working for Rio Tinto.  The current Duke is the 17^th since inception in the mid-1500s.  We were told by some locals that he, his wife, and two children, split their time between Uzès and Paris, and ‘"hey don’t do that much".

On Saturday, 11 May, Andrew and Kate visited the Duchy, the (nominal) home of the Duke and his family, and a significant local tourist attraction.  It is close to the centre of the Old City, and about 50 metres from our apartment.  Aside from Place aux Herbes (likely to feature in a future blog post), the Duchy probably has the largest open spaces in the Old City, both within and outside its walls.  The view below is towards the main gate, and highlights the Bermond Tower, which flies the flag of the Duke when he is in residence (we are somewhat sceptical as it has been flying every day since we have been here, and we are yet to see him).

Arriving after lunch, we were met by a very nice man at the gate, and between the two us we did a reasonable job of interpreting his French.  The key message was that we had just missed a tour, but if we hurried we could join it.  As tours are entirely in French, we were very kindly given small booklets with English overviews of the Duchy and the key areas shown during the tour.  Once inside the gate, the narrow streets of Uzès fade from memory, and you experience space and grandeur.

The areas where the current Duke’s family live are clearly designated as private (privé), and the tour takes in other areas of more historic significance.  The initial room we viewed was the portrait room, which looked like many similar rooms in other European grand houses, with the exception of the portrait of the current Duke (right hand side of photo), looking every bit like James Bond with the casual pose in tuxedo.

The second room was a guest bedroom, containing an eclectic set of historic items, including an old crib and a portrait of Anne de Mortemart (a great-grandmother of the current Duke).  This past Duchesse d'Uzès was a very interesting woman, firstly for being the granddaughter , and sole heir to the fortunes of, Mrs (Veuve) Cliquot, and second, due to her adventurousness (she was a skilled hunter, and the first woman to gain a driver's licence in France).

We were also shown a formal sitting room, with very nice furnishings, and a dining room featuring numerous deer antlers on the walls.

After this we ascended a very tight radius helical stairway to the top of the Bermond tower, which afforded excellent views over Uzès, including to our apartment (click on the photos below, especially the first, to see more detail).

View to North

View to East

View to South

View to West

Prior to completing our visit we took a quick look at the underground cellar.