Valence-sur-Baïse, Gers Département, Occitanie, France

🇫🇷 Valence-sur-Baïse is a commune in the Gers department in south-western France. Historically and culturally, the municipality is in the Condomois, a former constituency of the province of Gascony with county title.

Exposed to an altered oceanic climate, it is drained by the Baïse, the Auloue, the Manipau creek, the Gressillon stream and various other small rivers. The municipality has a remarkable natural heritage composed of a natural area of ecological, faunal and floristic interest.

Valence-sur-Baïse is a rural municipality. It is part of Condom's attraction area. Its inhabitants are called the Valencians or Valenciennes.

The architectural heritage of the municipality includes a building protected as historical monuments: Flaran Abbey, partially classified in 1914 and then partially listed in 1981 and 1999.

History Valence-sur-Baïse is a perched bastide founded in 1274 in the paréage by the abbot of Flaran and the Count of Armagnac Géraud VI. Bordering the county of Agen, Valence is a defensive bastide sitting on a rocky bank, at the confluence of the Baïse and Auloue, overlooking the valley of more than 50 meters. The church dates from the 14th century and is flanked by two towers. The northern one was built outside the walls in the 19th century.

Companies and businesses The five companies with their head office in the municipal territory that generate the most turnover in 2020 are: • Touja, construction of fluid networks (€15,240 k); • Alpha Distri, supermarkets (5,566 k€); • Barrere SA, local road freight transport (€1,467 k); • Eurotravi, crop support activities (€1,238k); • Pivotto Et Fils, carpentry work (€489k).

Agriculture The municipality is in the Ténarèze, a small agricultural region occupying the centre of the Gers department, transitioning between the "Pyrenean" Astarac, from which it originates and from which it extends and attenuates the model, and the Garonian Gascony of which it announces the landscape. In 2020, the technical-economic orientation of agriculture on the municipality is polyculture and/or polybreeding.

The number of agricultural holdings operating and headquartered in the municipality increased from 59 in the 1988 agricultural census to 45 in 2000 then to 43 in 2010 and finally to 34 in 2020, a decrease of 42% in 32 years. The same movement is observed at the level of the department, which lost 51% of its operations during this period. The agricultural area used in the municipality has also decreased, from 1,959 ha in 1988 to 1,628 ha in 2020. At the same time, the average agricultural area used per farm increased from 33 to 48 ha.

Places and monuments • Flaran Abbey

◦ Abbey of Cistercian monks, founded by the abbey of Escaladieu (Hautes-Pyrénées), in 1151. Today the abbey is the Gers Heritage Conservation Center, and belongs to the department. It is open all year round to the public, with many exhibitions, the Simonow collection [archive], as well as all monastic buildings, dating from the 12th to the 18th century.

◦ Mosaic taken in 1984 from the site of a villa, exhibited in the abbey's park52. • Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church in Valence-sur-Baïse and access to its belvedere between the 2 towers, for a view of the surrounding countryside and the Pyrenees.

Arcades on Victor Hugo Street, along the Saint-Jean-Baptiste church. • The town hall square, a typical arcaded place of bastides, with its 3 wells, out of the hundred that the village has. • The Porte de l'Hérisson (13th century), on the promenade of the ramparts, the longest of all the bastides of the Gers (1,275 m). On the south side, the fortification walls overlook a cliff naturally dug by erosion, with Mediterranean vegetation (barbarism firs). • The Hount de Las washhouse, from the 19th century. • The botanical path. • The marina, on the Baïse with its locks including Graziac, a double lock downstream of the village. Upstream of Valence-sur-Baïse, the river is closed to navigation. • The castle of Rouquette, 18th century, private. • The Château de Léberon, an armagnac production area. • The tower of Gardès, 13th century. • The Baïse path, a walk that leads from the port to the Abbey of Flaran, then extends to Condom, via the double lock of Graziac. • Many hiking trails and cycling routes start from the village, and allow you to discover the rich architectural and landscape heritage around53. • The hood district.