Saint-Blancard

Saint-Blancard
Commune
The main road in the village
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Coordinates: 43°20′42″N 0°38′51″E / 43.345°N 0.6475°E / 43.345; 0.6475Coordinates: 43°20′42″N 0°38′51″E / 43.345°N 0.6475°E / 43.345; 0.6475
Country	France
Region	Occitanie
Department	Gers
Arrondissement	Mirande
Canton	Astarac-Gimone
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Christine Huppert
Area 1	14.87 km2 (5.74 sq mi)
Population  (Jan. 2018)[1]	338
• Density	23/km2 (59/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	32365 /32140
Elevation	227–357 m (745–1,171 ft) (avg. 356 m or 1,168 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Saint-Blancard (French pronunciation: ​[sɛ̃ blɑ̃kaʁ]; Gascon: Sent Blancat) is a commune in the Gers department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France.

Geography[]

Localisation[]

Saint-Blancard is located on the ridge between the valley of the Gimone in the east and the valley of the Arrats in the west . The D228 crosses the D576 in the village. Auch is at 40 km, Toulouse at 80 km and Tarbes at 60 km from Saint-Blancard.

Saint-Blancard and its surrounding communes

Hydrography[]

The Arrats runs in the west of the commune.

South of the village is a small lake for the farmers.

There is a privately owned watermill. To the southeast lies a 6 km long reservoir with a surface area of 263 hectares, Lac de la Gimone. The lake forms the border between Gers and Haute-Garonne. It was created by the placement of a dam on the river Gimone. The commune has a system of streams and small lakes that serve the agriculture.

Small lake near the village.

History[]

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Politics[]

The office of nine communes united under the name Les Hautes Vallees,^[2] is located in the village.

Population[]

The inhabitants are called Saint Blancardais.

Services[]

With a small shop, the village is still self-supporting. At the store is a gas depot. There is a hairdresser and a post office in Saint-Blancard. The municipality encourages the middle class by counting low rents for buildings. In a former convent school is now a hotel / pub / restaurant next to the town hall. There is a school. There are Bed & Breakfast and there are cottages. There is a football field. In the village is radio Coteaux, 97.7 and 104.5 FM located . At the lake is a nautical center. There is a swimming facility. There is a field for motorized paragliding.

The village has a rehabilitation center. There are also homes for rehabilitation treatment.

Sites of interest[]

The church and the castle

Inside the church.

Remains of the windmill.

The most striking building in town is the castle. The 15th-century church Saint-Pancrare is built next to the castle. At the junktion west of the castle is a monument to a former Count Armand who was also mayor of the village. In a pasture north of the castle stand on a hill, the remains of the windmill (moulin à vent fr) from Saint-Blancard.^[3] That place is called Chez Baptiste. In front of the castle is a monument to the fallen, a cross and a statue of Mary. Between these statues is a boules alley with lights located.

In the middle of the village stands a cross aging from 1895 in memory of the famille (family) Furgatte. In the east of the village stands a twelve-foot-high wooden cross back from the seventeenth century.

Notable people[]

In the village is the Château de Saint-Blancard (Castle of Saint-Blancard). Among the barons and marquesses that lived in the castle were:

• Bernard d'Ornezan,^[4] Baron of Saint-Blancard in the diocese of Lombez, around 1400,
• and Armand de Gontaut, baron de Biron and Maréchal de camp, mid sixteenth century.

See also[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saint-Blancard.

• Communes of the Gers department

References[]