Pézenas

Pézenas
Town hall
Pézenas
Location within Languedoc-Roussillon region  Pézenas
Administration
Country	France
Region	Languedoc-Roussillon
Department	Hérault
Arrondissement	Béziers
Canton	Pézenas
Intercommunality	Hérault Méditerranée
Mayor	Alain Vogel-Singer (2008–2014)
Statistics
Elevation	3–96 m (9.8–315 ft) (avg. 15 m or 49 ft)
Land area1	29.56 km2 (11.41 sq mi)
Population2	8,439  (2008)
- Density	285 /km2 (740 /sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	34199/ 34120
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Staircase in Pézenas

Paulhan's monument

Pézenas is a commune in the Hérault département in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France.

Name

"Pézenas" is derived from the older name Piscenae, probably from the Latin word piscenis, meaning fishpond. According to legend, there was a lake full of fish behind the château. Inhabitants of Pézenas are Piscenois.

Origins

The origins of Pézenas are unclear, but were influenced by three factors: water from the River Peyne, an ancient pre-Roman route from Rodez to Saint-Thibéry and a defensive hill site.

Population

Historical population of Pézenas

Year	1793	1800	1806	1821	1831	1836	1841	1846	1851	1856
Population	7149	6903	8059	8250	7847	7978	7759	7713	7375	7215

Year	1861	1866	1872	1876	1881	1886	1891	1896	1901	1906
Population	7204	7574	7314	7966	7364	6927	6720	6595	7073	6928

Year	1911	1921	1926	1931	1936	1946	1954	1962	1968	1975
Population	6940	6946	7327	7364	6937	6397	6530	7198	9103	7707

Year	1982	1990	1999	2008
Population	7519	7613	7443	8439

Sights

For details of the castle site, see Château de Pézenas.

The French Ministry of Culture lists 115 historical edifices in Pézenas. The main sights include:

• The old town centre with narrow streets and Hôtel Privet (rather grand Town Houses from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, when Pézenas was the seat of the Governors of Languedoc).
• The Collégiale Saint-Jean church (18th century), designed by Jean-Baptiste Franque, contains an organ by Lépine.
• Church of Saint-Jean-de-Bébian, romanesque, classed as a Monument historique (Historic monument).
• The church of Sainte-Ursule, built in 1686 by the master mason Antoine Carrier, became the parish church after the Concordat.
• Molière Monument (1897) by Jean-Antoine Injalbert.
• L'illustre Théâtre, theatre in converted warehouse, open all year
• Musée de Vulliod Saint-Germain : museum with collections illustrating the town's history and a room dedicated to Molière. The hôtel particulier that hosts the museum was donated to the city by François, Baron de Vulliod, during the Second World War.
• Door museum

Transport

• Road: Route nationale 9, which used to pass through the town centre, has been replaced by a bypass which now forms the final few miles of the A75 autoroute from Clermont-Ferrand, soon to be extended the last few miles to join the A9 at Béziers.

• Rail: The nearest main line station is Agde. Two single track lines used to serve Pézenas. The track from Béziers has been removed, though the station (Gare du Nord) still exists as a cultural centre. Although notionally still in occasional use for by freight trains from a quarry further north, in reality the line from Vias, near Agde, is closed. A visit to the line during August 2011 revealed that a section at St Thibéry, some five miles to the south of Pézenas, is now in use as a 'Pedalorail' leisure facility. However, the track remains in place throughout and the Gare du Midi is extant and in use as a medical centre.

• Air: The nearest international airport is Béziers Cap d'Agde Airport. Daily flights to Paris ceased in early 2009 but, since 2008, international services to the UK and Denmark have been established. Montpellier, Nîmes, Perpignan and Carcassonne are all within easy reach. A small grass airstrip is nearby at Nizas.

Personalities

Pézenas was the birthplace of:

• Hippolyte Annex (b. 14 February 1933), French middlewight boxing champion
• Jean Bène (1901–1992), politician and Resistance leader
• Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845–1918), geographer, regarded as the father of modern French geography
• Eric Dubus (1966- ), former middle distance runner
• Boby Lapointe (1922–1972): writer, singer, comedian
• Emile Mazuc (b. 24 July 1832), author of Languedoc dialect grammar - Grammaire Languedocienne:Dialecte de Pézénas (1899, reprinted 1970 by Slatkine Reprints, Geneva)
• Louis Paulhan (1883–1963): pioneering French pilot
• Bernie Ripoll MHR (b. 6 January 1966), Australian politician, Member for Oxley, Queensland

People linked with Pézenas

• Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (1622–1673), playwright, stayed in Pézenas with his theatre group l'Illustre Théâtre.
• Gabriel François Venel (1723–1775) chemist, author of l'Encyclopédie méthodique de chimie (1796), inventor of seltzer water, lived and worked in the town and has a street named after him. (See French wikipedia article)
• Edmond Charlot (1915–2004), editor in Free French Algiers during the 1940s, and discoverer of Albert Camus, lived in Pézenas from 1980.
• Lord Clive (1725–1774) stayed in the town in 1768, supposedly giving it the recipe for the petit pâté de Pézenas
• Alexandra Rosenfeld Miss France 2006 and Miss Europe 2006, (born in Béziers and living in Saint-Thibéry, is studying tourism in Pézenas)
• Jean-Baptiste Pillement, a Rococo painter, famous for his chinoiserie and landscapes.

Local specialities

• Le petit pâté de Pézenas: a small sweet/savoury pie supposedly made to a recipe from Clive of India. (see below)
• Le berlingot de Pézenas: boiled sugar sweets

Le petit pâté de Pézenas

The size and shape of a large cotton reel, these little sweet, spiced mutton pies are a golden brown, crispy pastry with a moist, sweet inside. They can be eaten as an hors d'oeuvre, with a salad or as a dessert. They are cooked in patisseries all over the town, but their origin is far from local. Tradition has it that Lord Clive brought the recipe from India and taught it to the pastry makers of Pézenas when he was staying at the Château de Larzac in 1768. It is more likely is that his servants were responsible.

In the BBC TV programme MasterChef: The Professionals, broadcast on 27 November 2012, Michel Roux, Jr. demonstrated how to cook the dish and set it as the classic recipe for contestants to make.

Le Poulain de Pézenas

Main article: Hobby horse#Le Poulain de Pézenas

The Poulain from Pézenas (visiting Steenvoorde, in northeast France, for the Festival of Giants in 2006)

Like several of the surrounding towns and villages, Pézenas has a "totem animal"; in this case a huge hobby horse called Le Poulain (lo poulain or lo polin in Occitan), which means "the colt". It is said to commemorate a visit to the town in 1226 by Louis VIII, during which the king's favourite mare fell ill. She had to be left behind in Pézenas while Louis continued with the Albigensian Crusade. On his return he was astonished to find that not only was his mare now fully recovered, but she had also given birth to a fine colt, which was duly presented to him, adorned with ribbons. In return he decreed that the town should construct a wooden colt to be used to celebrate all its public festivities. The first mention of the custom is in 1615. The earliest publication of the legend accounting for the horse's existence dates from 1701.

The Poulain appears for Mardi Gras and other festive occasions. It is carried by nine men and led by another, accompanied by a band of musicians. The Poulain has a realistically carved wooden head, with snapping jaws and an extending neck that can reach up to first-floor windows; l'obole (small amounts of money) or other offerings put into its mouth tumble down inside its neck. Its semi-cylindrical body is covered with a dark blue cloth decorated with stars and the coat of arms of Pézenas. Below the frame it has a tricolor skirt.

The Poulain carries two effigies on its back, one male, one female, called Estieinou and Estieinette or Estieineta (sometimes spelled Estiénon and Estiéneta in the French manner), recalling another royal occasion when Louis XIII visited the town in 1622. A follower of the King, the Maréchal de Bassompierre, was crossing the river Peyne on horseback. He saw a peasant-woman attempting the crossing on foot and gallantly offered her a seat on his horse. The unlikely couple's arrival in the town caused great amusement and the two effigies were made to remember the event.

Twin towns

Pézenas is twinned with Market Drayton, UK, birthplace of Lord Clive.

See also

• Communes of the Hérault department

References

• INSEE

• Bonnefont, Marie Elise Pézenas: le temps d'une balade (Bonnefont, 2003) ISBN 2-9520940-0-4

External links

• Official website (French)
• Tourist office
• Pézenas entry on the Ministry of Culture database
•  "Pézenas". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.