French Heritage
There is a bit of France connected with this beautiful neighborhood! It begins with the name “La Bon Vie” which means “The Good Life”.
One of the most unique features of this development is that every street is named after a city or a commune in France. When you become a resident, you have become a part of living history.
As you enter the majestic front gate, you enter the neighborhood on Saint Girons Drive which leads down the center of the neighborhood. Montauban Drive circles the neighborhood going south then becoming North Montauban at the back of the neighborhood. Cross streets are Nanterre, Vallauris, Quiberon, Epinal, Mont-de-Marsan, and Bayonne.
Saint Girons Drive
The Capital of the Couserans, Saint-Girons takes place in the heart of the region Occitanie, Ariège. Near Saint-Lizier, the town is one of the two sub-prefectures of the department, with Pamiers. Located in the Pyrenees, the town is located at a crossroads, between the mountain, the plains and the Salat valley. Situated not far from the Spanish border, it is ideally situated to enjoy a holiday in the countryside, near the most beautiful architectural sites of the surroundings.
Appeared as a town at the beginning of the twelfth century, that which was called Lunoque to the railway at the end of the nineteenth century, gives it a great economic place in the region, and opens it to the great cities like Foix. It was at this time that Saint-Girons developed an economy linked to the driving force of rivers, such as flour mills or sawing wood, as well as milling machines for the textile industry. The first paper mills make their appearance, always present on the commune.
Rich in architectural heritage, Saint-Girons seduces for its monuments, but also its ancestral culture and its preserved traditions. The city is named after Saint Girons, a saint from fifth-century Landes who evangelized Novempopulania. In the ninth century some of his relics were supposedly buried in Saint Girons’ Church, around which the city later developed.
Montauban Drive
Montauban is a town and commune of southwestern France, 31 miles north of Toulouse. The town, built mainly of a reddish brick, stands on the right bank of the Tarn River at its confluence with the Tescou. With the exception of Mont-de-Marsan, Montauban is the oldest of the bastides of southern France.
Nanterre
Nanterre was built in the 1960s on the outskirts of Paris as an extension of the Sorbonne. It was set up as an independent university in December 1970. Based on the American model, it was created as a campus (as opposed to the old French universities which were smaller and integrated with the city in which they were located).
Nanterre is the second largest campus in France after Nantes, with its own Olympic-sized swimming pool and a stadium. It welcomes 35,000 to 40,000 students every year in all fields of studies: Social Sciences, Philosophy, Literature, History, Languages and Linguistics, Economics, Law and Political Sciences, as well as Teacher Training, Acting, Cinema, Physiology and Sports. The university is widely renowned in the fields of Law and Economics.
Vallauris
Vallauris – a town located near Antibes and Cannes. The cooking pottery was for centuries the specialty of this town. However, at the beginning of the twentieth century, thanks to family Massier, the artistic ceramics started its development. Currently Vallauris is called the “French town of ceramics”. The expansion of Vallauris is of course linked to the development of tourism, and especially the arrival of the railroad in the second half of the nineteenth century. Illustrious personalities built their hillside villas. After World War II, there was a very good period where famous artists, attracted by the reputation of Vallauris, settled there, including Pablo Picasso.
Quiberon
The Battle of Quiberon Bay on 20 November 1759 was one of Britain’s greatest naval victories over the French. The British Admiral Sir Edward Hawke with 23 ships of the line caught up with a French fleet with 21 ships of the line under Marshal de Conflans seeking to embark an army at Quiberon for landings in Scotland. After hard fighting, most of the French fleet were sunk, captured or forced aground. The battle was a turning point in the Seven Years’ War which foiled a planned invasion of Britain and broke the power of the French Navy for a generation.
The bay is roughly triangular in shape, open to the south with the Gulf of Morbihan to the north-east and the narrow peninsula of Presqu’île de Quiberon providing protection from the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The islands of Belle-Île, Houat and Hœdic add to the bay’s protection. There are many dangerous shoals at the entrance to the bay.
Epinal
Épinal, town, capital of the Vosges département, Grand Est région, northeastern France, on the Moselle River, south-southeast of Nancy. The town, located on two arms of the Moselle, is divided into four parts. The town proper, known as the grande ville (“large town”), or vieille ville (“old town”), stands on the right bank of the main river. The petite ville (“little town”) is on an island between the two branches. On the left bank of the smaller branch, called the Canal des Grands Moulins, stands the Quartier de la Gare (“Station Quarter”), divided by the railway line from the Quartier de Chantraine to the west. The town lies between forests to the west and lush meadows to the east.
The Place des Vosges in the grande ville has preserved its ancient arcades and some old houses. Nearby stands the basilica of Saint-Maurice, parts of which date from the 11th century. The town originally developed around a 10th-century monastery. It passed to Charles VII, king of France from 1422 to 1461, and was then ceded to the dukes of Lorraine in 1465. It was incorporated into France in 1766. The town became famous in the 18th and 19th centuries for making coloured picture prints, and the museum houses a collection of them. In the 20th century Épinal became a centre for the manufacture of cotton goods, rubber, paper, and synthetic fibres. The town is also a centre of administrative and commercial services that cater to the population of much of southern Lorraine.
Mont-de-Marsan
Mont-de-Marsan (French pronunciation: [mɔ̃ də maʁsɑ̃]; Gascon: Lo Mont de Marçan) is a commune and capital of the Landes department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. The French Air Force operates the Constantin Rozanoff Mont-de-Marsan airbase about 2 kilometres north of the town. The base includes CEAM (the French air force military experimentation and trials organisation), an air defense radar command reporting centre and an air defence control training site. Mont-de-Marsan airbase was formerly home to France’s first operational squadron of nuclear bombers, the Dassault Mirage IVA.
Bayonne
Bayonne is a city in southwest France and is the main town of Labourd/Lapurdi in the French Basque Country. It was the site of a Roman military base which quickly became a key place between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean sea. Bayonne has the longest tradition of bull-fighting in France and each year the walls of Grand Bayonne is the focal part of a celebration of parades, music, dance, fireworks, food and drink. Quiet streets lined with families spending time together, a place that speaks of “The Good Life”.
Come and discover the peace and tranquility we enjoy and discover your own reasons for making La Bon Vie your home.
