Revel, a royal bastide in the Lauragais and its Saturday market hall

Founded in 1342 by Philip VI of Valois, Revel keeps its grid plan, its vast oak market hall and one of the liveliest Saturday markets in south-west France. Our guide to exploring it from Le Falga.

Revel is a royal bastide founded in 1342 by King Philip VI of Valois at the foot of the Montagne Noire, about an hour from Toulouse in south-west France, and it still keeps every promise of its founding charter: a grid plan converging on a central square, an immense market hall carried on oak posts, a belfry watching over it all and, every Saturday morning, a farmers' market whose tradition goes back to the founding of the town itself. It is the little town where we go shopping, meet producers and take a coffee under the arcades, some twenty minutes' drive from the Château du Falga. Here is what to know before you go, and how we like to spend a Saturday there.

Why is Revel a royal bastide?

In the fourteenth century the south of France was dotted with new towns: the bastides. Kings, counts and abbots founded these planned settlements to populate the countryside, develop trade and strengthen their authority. Revel was among the last of them. Its founding was marked on 8 June 1342 by the ceremony of planting the "pal", the post symbolising royal possession, in the reign of Philip VI of Valois. The town's central square bears his name today.

The charter, drawn up by the seneschal of Toulouse and the Albigeois, has 89 articles. It granted privileges designed to attract families: building plots, freedoms of trade, a municipal organisation. The town was governed by consuls — six at first, then four — while a bayle represented the king in matters of justice. The new town rose on the Via Tolosane, an ancient road, which was a real advantage for trade.

From 1355, against the backdrop of the Hundred Years' War, a wall was built to protect the bastide, which then had around 3,000 inhabitants. It was pierced by four gates, named after the towns they faced: Carcassonne, Toulouse, Castres and Sorèze. The ramparts have gone; in their place, the boulevards of the "tour de ville" still trace the outline of the medieval town, and that is precisely where the market spills over on Saturdays.

How to read the bastide's grid plan?

Revel is a lesson in medieval town planning best read on foot. The streets meet at right angles, the blocks were divided into equal plots and the streets laid out at identical widths: a town conceived in a single stroke, in a spirit of equality among its inhabitants. Everything converges on the central square, the commercial and administrative heart.

Around the square run the galleries, known here as "couverts" or "garlandes". The charter already provided for them: owners could set up stalls and benches beneath them as long as they left the way clear. Several houses burned down over the centuries, and the pillars, originally of wood, were rebuilt in brick, stone or masonry, which gives these arcades their charming irregularity. A major renovation took place in 1999, and the square itself was redesigned in 2019.

Revel's prosperity was no accident. Between about 1450 and 1550, the cultivation of woad (pastel), the plant that yielded a blue prized throughout Europe, enriched the whole Lauragais, and the town became a major trading centre for it. The Wars of Religion then turned it into a Protestant stronghold, whose fortifications were dismantled in 1629 after the Peace of Alès. To understand this landscape of hills and past wealth, read our article on the Lauragais, land of plenty and woad.

What to see under the market hall and in the belfry?

Revel's market hall is one of the largest in France: a square of about 39 metres a side, its timber frame resting on 79 oak posts. Inherited from the fourteenth century, it was planned by the consuls as soon as the streets were laid out. Standing beneath it, you take the measure of the forest of wood holding it up, and understand why, seven centuries on, it remains the whole town's natural meeting place.

In the centre rises the belfry, in its neoclassical form of 1834, the work of the architect Urbain Vitry. Over time it has housed the consuls' house, a guardroom, a watchtower and a prison — the town held rights of justice in the Middle Ages — and one cell door is still preserved upstairs. The tourist information office is based here. The hall and belfry have been protected as Historic Monuments since 2006.

Time had left its mark: cracked pillars, weathered stone, damaged cornice and campanile, a tired roof. The town launched a major restoration project at the end of 2024, with a call for patronage. Throughout the works, the Saturday market carried on under the hall. Visits to the belfry are offered on certain dates, notably in summer and during the European Heritage Days: ask at the tourist office or check the Revel town hall website.

Why is the Saturday market so famous?

Local farmers have come to Revel to sell their produce every Saturday morning for more than six centuries: a market already existed when the bastide was founded. Today it brings together more than 200 stalls spreading under the hall, along the boulevards of the tour de ville and as far as the place de la Mission. Fruit and vegetable growers, poultry farmers, cheesemakers, market gardeners, and sellers of flowers, clothes or tools rub shoulders in a joyful bustle.

Its reputation reaches well beyond the Lauragais. It is regularly cited among the most beautiful markets in France, and in 2024 it won the regional vote of the "Votre plus beau marché" competition run by TF1's lunchtime news, representing the former Midi-Pyrénées region ahead of sixteen other markets. One of ten national finalists, it finished eighth. But it is the locals who speak of it best: people come from far away, and many families in the area could not imagine their week without this ritual.

What we like to bring back to the château:

• seasonal fruit and vegetables from the farms of the Lauragais and the Montagne Noire;
• poultry, duck and charcuterie for a family meal, or the ingredients for a cassoulet (our article on cassoulet and the food of the Lauragais tells you everything);
• goat's and sheep's cheeses from neighbouring producers;
• flowers for the long table in the dining room;
• a bottle of South-West or Malepère wine for an aperitif by the pool.

Revel, capital of fine furniture: where to discover marquetry?

At the end of the nineteenth century Revel forged another identity: that of the "cité du meuble d'art", the town of art furniture. The arrival of the cabinetmaker Alexandre Monoury in 1888 marked a turning point, and the town became a centre for cabinetmakers, upholsterers and marquetry craftsmen whose skills have been handed down from generation to generation. Revel is still a training town for the woodworking trades today.

The MUB, Museum of Wood and Marquetry, close to the market hall, tells this story "from tree to art furniture". It is housed in a seventeenth-century building known as the Maison du Sénéchal and presents techniques, tools and marquetry pieces, along with temporary contemporary art exhibitions, children's workshops during the school holidays and, from late November to late December, a makers' Christmas market. To see the craft alive, the association Ébénistes & Créateurs shows the work of some twenty workshops in a shared space of about 400 m², and can point visitors to craftspeople able to make a piece of furniture to order.

What links Revel, Saint-Ferréol and the Canal du Midi?

Revel is closely tied to Pierre-Paul Riquet, the creator of the Canal du Midi. A banker, he lent money to the town, and a house known as "Riquet's house" features on the town-centre discovery trail. Above all, it was on the doorstep of Revel, at the foot of the Montagne Noire, that from 1667 he had the Bassin de Saint-Ferréol built, the reservoir designed to feed the canal. This 67-hectare lake, closed by a dam long described as the largest in Europe, is a listed Historic Monument.

From the lake, the Rigole de la Plaine carries the water across the Lauragais countryside to the Seuil de Naurouze, the canal's watershed. It passes the Moulin du Roy in Revel itself, and a greenway follows it for some forty kilometres in two sections: the stretch between the Lac de Lenclas and Saint-Ferréol is paved and ideal by bike. At the foot of the dam, Le Réservoir, the Canal du Midi discovery centre, presents the history of the canal and its designer. We devote a whole article to the Lac de Saint-Ferréol, and another to the Montagne Noire feeder channel.

Where to wander in Revel after the market?

Once your basket is full, the town lends itself to an aimless stroll. The tourist office offers a discovery trail with 28 stops; here are our favourites:

• the place Philippe VI de Valois and its galleries, for coffee under the arcades;
• the church of Notre-Dame-des-Grâces, looted in 1567 and rebuilt in 1736, whose bell tower dates from the mid-nineteenth century and which houses a remarkable organ;
• the Fontaine des Trois Grâces, then the Protestant temple, a reminder of the town's Huguenot past;
• the Maison du Sénéchal, home of the Museum of Wood;
• the former distilleries: the Get family produced its famous mint liqueur here until 1988, and Revel once had as many as five distilleries;
• the boulevards of the tour de ville, shaded by plane trees, along the line of the old ramparts.

How to make the most of a Saturday in Revel from Le Falga?

Set off early. This is a morning market, the best produce goes quickly, and parking spaces grow scarce as the hours pass. Take a large basket and some change, and let the stalls guide you rather than a strict shopping list.

Around midday, as the stallholders fold their awnings, have lunch on one of the bastide's terraces, or head back to the château to cook with what you have brought home: the kitchen and the south-facing terrace are made for it. In the afternoon, carry on to the Lac de Saint-Ferréol for a lakeside walk, or to Sorèze and its abbey school, a few kilometres away, where the Caffarelli brothers studied. To plan a full stay, our guide to what to do around Le Falga over a weekend gathers our favourite itineraries.

Frequently asked questions

When is Revel market held?
The main market takes place every Saturday morning under the hall, along the boulevards and on the place de la Mission. For the day's arrangements, the tourist office remains the best source.

When was Revel founded?
The bastide was founded in 1342 in the reign of Philip VI of Valois, with a charter of 89 articles, making it one of the last bastides of the south of France.

Is Revel's market hall a listed monument?
Yes. The hall, with its central belfry of 1834, has been protected as a Historic Monument since 2006. It rests on 79 oak posts and ranks among the largest in France.

What can you do in Revel when there is no market?
Visit the Museum of Wood and Marquetry, follow the bastide discovery trail, then head to the nearby Lac de Saint-Ferréol and the Canal du Midi discovery centre.

Stay at the Château du Falga, close to Revel

Our house, in the same family since 1681, lies in the heart of the Lauragais, some twenty minutes from Revel's market hall. In summer, the château welcomes up to 21 guests around its pool and park; all year round, the Petite Maison hosts four people for a more intimate stay. To plan your market Saturday or any other project, do write to us.

Sources: Wikipedia (Revel, Haute-Garonne); Revel town hall (patronage brochure for the restoration of the hall and belfry); Aux sources du Canal du Midi intercommunal tourist office (Revel discovery trail); Tourisme Occitanie (MUB, Ébénistes & Créateurs, Le Réservoir, Rigole de la Plaine); Toulouse Secret and Ozap ("Votre plus beau marché" 2024 competition).