Since February 2018 and its unveiling to the Clairacais, our young association has made a tremendous start! In the beginning of 2019 well over 220 people have joined us with friendship and enthusiasm. People convinced that the time has come to mobilize interest around Clairac and its rich heritage. We thank them for that! This enthusiasm regularly manifests itself in the events we organize such as such as the symposium days: Clairac in the 18th century Clairac and the Reformation, 16th – 17th centuries, Clairac and its abbey Clairac aux 400 coups !
Since 2023, the Society of Friends of Clairac has been a member of the FHSO (Fédération historique du Sud-Ouest) founded in 1948, which brings together the most prestigious learned societies in our region. Its purpose is to bring together academics, students and members of learned societies with a passion for history.
Let us consider the age of our village, its history, its abbey, its rich cultivations. This small town in Lot-&-Garonne, whose creation cannot be exactly dated back in the past, has over the centuries been housing numerous peasants, winegrowers, craftsmen, merchants and boatmen. It has a famous abbey, thanks to which the kings of France – and today the President of the Republic – became canons of St-Jean-de-Latran in Rome; a fertile land which saw the appearance of the rationalized cultivation of plum trees to exploit their tasty plums, but also that of tobacco from the 1630's; well exposed hillsides where the vineyard allowed the production of famous wines, among which the “rotten wines” which had nothing to envy to the sauternes of Bordeaux; a generous river – even if sometimes impetuous – which allowed the early development of a trade to Bordeaux and then to Holland or to the “islands”... These are all we now share with you.
We offer thematic exhibitions, which have been presented at the Halle de Clairac: The children of Clairac, Shops of Clairac, Building in Clairac …
In the second half of the 20th century the relentlessness of a local scholar, Claude Martin - who passed away in 2018 - kept some people's attention. Therein lies one of our objectives: to revive the knowledge of the past, to collect memory and traditions, to make everyone aware of all this richness to consider the future by protecting what can be. There is now a lot of talk about heritage. So, Clairac is embarking on this beautiful adventure. Even if from generation to generation, snippets of history are recalled, the stories unravel, and the newcomers are curious to know what their new homeland was. Our proud motto “City without king, soldiers without fear” challenges many as to why these fearsome words were chosen; history has some nice surprises!
Today, this website offers many pages where you can find images, texts, references, stories to become aware of the formidable data base constituted. About the history of its rich Benedictine abbey as well as about the businesses which, under IIIrd Republic, were so important for the development of wealth; abundant farms, thanks to the generous floods of the Lot, industries which were famous: hat-making, barging, canning; scholarly books were written during the 19th and 20th centuries and postcards were produced which, when put together, offer a living chronicle; names that had their moment of glory, sometimes forgotten, such as Théophile de Viau, the chevalier de Vivens, Sophie Cottin, Étienne-Augustin Serres, Commander Reilhac, but also “ordinary” Clairacais who allowed our small town to have more than 5,000 inhabitants two centuries ago. Website that we have enriched since 2020 with a virtual museum: like an artistic wandering, we now present paintings, watercolors, gouaches, drawings, engravings and photographs that bear witness to the Clairac of yesterday.
So for the curious, the lovers of Clairac, the enthusiasts: join us! We rely on your energy and ideas. The more of us there are, the more weight we will have. And thanks to our recognition of general interest by the tax services, benefactor members can now deduct their membership from their tax return, through the tax code we send them.
