Narrow stone lanes between town mansions, with the square where Cartouche was shot.
What Centre Historique looks like
The centre is made of narrow lanes between town mansions, with small squares opening off them. Many of the lanes are cobbled, and many of the mansions date from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.
Ground floors hold shops and cafés, with arched openings and painted shutters on the floors above. Street fronts run from two to four storeys. A corner building with a rounded corner has a café terrace under a green awning.
has stone doorways with two kinds of surround. Some have rusticated jambs of banded stone. Others have a plain moulded lintel above a grey double door. The Hôtel de Landes de Saint-Palais is on the same street. The wooden doors are heavy, painted green or grey.
A pedimented building with a balcony and a bell tower fronts one square. A four-storey stone house with a red arched doorway and pale green shutters faces another.
is a square in the old town. The occupies a former town mansion nearby, and the is on rue François Oustrin. The runs through the historic centre nearby.
Shot in Centre Historique
Philippe de Broca's film Cartouche (1962) shot its main exterior scenes in the historic centre in 1961, and Place Gambetta is one of its Pézenas filming sites. Bernard Campan and Alexandre Jollien's film Presque (2022) was filmed on rue de la Foire in June 2020.
Cartouche, 1962
Place Gambetta
Cartouche was shot on Place Gambetta in 1961. The photograph is of a former shopfront on the square, with arched green doors and painted shutters above it. Street View
The Hôtel des Trésoriers de France is a hôtel particulier in the Écusson. It was almost entirely rebuilt from 1676, with its main facade on a rectangular courtyard. Pézenas's mansions are the same type of building, with stone doorways on narrow streets. It has no exterior facade, so a shot from the street will not show it. Try searching hôtel particulier courtyard now.
The Hôtel d'Angoulême Lamoignon is a Renaissance hôtel particulier in the Marais. It stands on the corner of rue Pavée and rue des Francs-Bourgeois, with its main facade on the courtyard. Shoot from the courtyard, so the street stays out of frame. Try searching Marais hôtel particulier now.
