Saturday evening in Uzès

Before dinner we did a circuit of the village and wandered around the Duchy, the Dukes Palace, in the centre of the town. The current Duke is the 17th Duke of Uzès and grew up in the castle. These days he lives in Paris but makes a point of coming to Uzès once a month, and spends most of the summer here. Just like the Queen, his family’s flag flies when he's in residence and it's flying at the moment.

Apparently, thanks to ancient laws that were never revised, the reigning Duke has a veto right about anything that can change the way the town looks. For many centuries the Duke and his forefathers have stuck to the rule that no visible modernising is allowed for anywhere that can be seen from the palace. So they started preserving the unique medieval character of the town long before anyone else thought about things like that.

The roof of the Dukes Palace

The palace in the late sun

The palace entrance

The palace gates

The exteriors of the buildings around the palace can't be modernised

The palace tower

The flag flying means that the Duke is in residence

This Romanesque bell tower built in the 12th century is part of the cathedral

Another part-time resident of Uzès is better known to NZers. Chef, author, entertainer and broadcaster Peta Mathias lives here in summer. She does cooking classes which on Wednesdays and Saturdays include a tour of the market we went to this morning. In fact according to her website, her “…chic new house in Uzès is available and willing to be inhabited by fabulous people while she's not in residence. It is in a quiet pretty street, right in the middle of Uzès. Three storeys, two bathrooms, one bedroom, large terrace at the top. Air-conditioning, professionally equipped kitchen, entire front facade of glass and steel”.

We haven’t spotted Peta or her house.

After our walk we went back to the square for dinner. Pastis and wine, goats cheese (Linden) and battered sardines (Matthew) entres, pasta with veal, mushrooms and truffles (Linden) and spaghetti with clams (Matthew) and a crepe soaked in cognac for dessert. It’s good to be back in France.

My first pastis

Pasta with veal, mushrooms and truffles

There are a least seven restaurants on the square