Because of this relic, the monastery soon prospered and became an important place of pilgrimage in southern France.With the development of the great medieval pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela (the shrine of Saint James in northwestern Spain) in the 10th century, Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert became a recognized stage on one of the four major routes leading to Compostela. However, it is graced by a magnificent Romanesque church. The faithful claim that they provide protection against lightening.Guilhem is known by several different names, some of them reflecting his appearance, some his conquests, some his later religious life, and some merely confusion with other semi legendary Guilhems.

(Not everyone approved of such architectural and artistic extravagance. As a close kinsman of Charlemagne he spent his youth in the imperial court. The latter is an absolute tropical Eden, with its numerous pools, rapid river, paddling pool for the very young and its aquatic slides. Replicas made of biscuit are available in the Abbey Church. Now a vast basilica dominates Knock along with hotels, a heritage centre, a caravan park and, nearby, an international airport. In 1987, the Abbey of Gellone was classed as a French Historical Monument. Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. This has already been highly cherished by well-being aficionados!

But the Saint-Gilles sculptors introduced an urban liveliness into their frieze depicting the passion of Christ. As Christ is embraced by Judas, they are both observed by a most unclassical mob of medieval characters who exude an almost Rabelasian sense of life. Guillaume ou Guilhem de Gellone ou d'Aquitaine, surnommé le Grand (né entre 750 et 755 - mort entre le 28 mai 812 et le 21 mai 815 [1]) est un noble important et une personnalité militaire du royaume d'Aquitaine de l'époque carolingienne.Il fut comte de Toulouse, duc d'Aquitaine et marquis de Septimanie dans les années 790, avant de fonder l'abbaye de Gellone en 804 et de s'y retirer. Nestled in a dramatic landscape of gorges and waterfalls, the monastery of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, from which this cloister comes, was founded in 804 by Saint William (Guilhem), legendary duke of Aquitaine and a member of the court of Charlemagne. The prison tower is a vestige of the medieval village and still dominates it. It was only ever a modest fortress but has attracted colourful stories involving Visigoths, Saracens and troubadours. By the middle of the 11th century the monks were rich enough to rebuild their monastery on a larger scale in the latest Romanesque style. Look at the list of world regions at the top. It is a Benedictine foundation dedicated to Saint-Sauveur. The figures seem to plot, gossip, gesture and transact like a bunch of market traders, all against a background of arcades which conveys a sense of the urban forum. Elle fut fondée peu avant 804 par saint Guillaume de Gellone (v. 742 - v. 812), connu plus tard en occitan sous le nom de Guilhèm, ancien comte de Toulouse et proche de Charlemagne, qui s'était retiré dans ce lieu alors appelé Gellone, à proximité de l'abbaye d'Aniane, sous l'influence de son fondateur et ami, saint Benoît d'Aniane [1]. By the middle of the 11th century this influx of pilgrims to the Gellone valley enabled the monks to rebuild their monastery on a larger scale, using the architectural techniques of the early Romanesque style. Abbots were frequently praised for their building efforts and for putting into practice the words of David ‘Lord I have loved the beauty of your house and the place where glory dwells’. During the Saint-Gilles mass most of them preferred to pop out regularly for a fag and a phone call.Certainly, St Gilles is not a wealthy place. A pilgrims’ guide of about 1130 describes the various routes from France to Compostela and mentions 26 shrines that can be visited on the way. He married twice; his second wife, the Lady of Orange was apparently the widow of a Saracen Lord that he killed and whose estates he seized. Flowers WILLIAM OF GELLONE, the second Count of Toulouse, a cousin of Charlemagne and grandson of Charles Martel, who after a career in the military, built a monastery at Gellone in Gaul not far from Aniane which he filled with monks. In the 19th century the abbey was vandalized and fragments of its buildings are found scattered all over the region, even as far away as the Cloisters museum, north of New York City. I doubt if many of them realised that they were actually also off to a pilgrim destination, but with a better pedigree.

And not just one: Guilhem, the great-grandson of Karel Martel. The majority of Marseillan beach shops and restaurants are accessible on foot, whilst the hypermarkets in Agde and, of course, Cap d’Agde are accessible, being less than a quarter of an hour by road.Amongst the leisure facilities, which have proven a tremendous success with holidaymakers at the Charlemagne campsite, a prime example is the aquatic park. These were buildings inspired by Rome, even cannibalising the material of Roman ruins, but not limited to mere replication. The austere leader of the Cistercians, St Bernard, could have been referring to the great façade of St Gilles when he railed against contemporary sculpture: ‘those ridiculous monstrosities … those extraordinary deformed beauties and beautiful deformities’.