![[Flag of Langon]](../images/f/fr-33-lg.gif)
Last modified: 2012-05-12 by ivan sache
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Flag of Langon - Image by François-Jean Blanc, undated
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The municipality of Langon (7,272 inhabitants in 2007; 1,321 ha) is located 50 km south-east of Bordeaux, on the left bank of river Garonne. Langon became a sous-préfecture in 1926 when the arrondissements of Bazas and La Réole were merged.
Langon appeared as a town in the 12th century, made of two boroughs
named "bourg Notre-Dame" and "bourg Saint-Gervais" for their
respective parish churches. The Notre-Dame church was suppressed
during the French Revolution; in 1926, the owner of its remains sold
the capitals to an American collector, eight of them being now shown
at The Cloisters in New York. The St. Gervais church keeps an
"Inmaculada Concepcion" painted in 1661 by Francisco de Zurbarán
(1598-1664); offered to the church in 1863 by the banker Émile Pereire (1800-1875), MP for Langon in 1963-1869, the painting was forgotten
and incidentally rediscovered in 1966.
In the 17th century, Langon was a wealthy town whose river port
competed with Bordeaux for the export of the local Graves and
Sauternes wines. In 2004, the port was revamped for the landing of the
huge barges (75 m x 13.8 m) shipping elements of the Airbus A380
aircraft, further routed to Toulouse by trucks.
Langon is the birth town of the chief Raymond Oliver (1909-1990),
owner of the restaurant Le Grand Véfour in Paris and a great
defender of the rich Gascon cuisine against the nouvelle cuisine.
Oliver ran the first cooking show on the French TV, Art et magie de
la cuisine, broadcast every Monday from 1953 to 1967.
The novel Genitrix, published in 1923 by François Mauriac
(1885-1970), takes place in Langon, where the writer's family owned a
big house close to the railway station, used to export timber from
their estate.
Sourves: Municipal website
Ivan Sache, 15 October 2011
The flag of Langon is yellow with three vertical red stripes. The flag is a banner of the municipal arms, "Or three pallets gules". These are the arms of Foix, recalling that lords from the house of Foix were once lords of Langon.
La Banque du Blason claims that Jean de Foix de Candale was made lord of Langon in 1453 by King Louis XI, which is not supported by other sources (for instance, Foix-Candale genealogy by Alain d'Anglade). A Jean de Foix de Candale (d. 1486), who took the English party during the Hundred Years' War, was captured during the Battle of Castillon in 1453; pardoned by Louis XI in 1462, he was reinstated Captal de Buch and retroceded his domains in Aquitaine and Gascony. However, Jean de Foix's grandson, Pierre de Foix is mentioned as Baron de Langon (but this could be another Langon, located in Brittany).
Ivan Sache, 15 October 2011
