Photo: Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Beaumont-de-Lomagne (town)

Pierre de Fermat was born in this house and nobody can say what year: there are baptisms recorded for 1601 and 1605, his epitaph implies 1607, and the parish register has a hole in it exactly where the answer should be. The theorem he scribbled in a margin — that the margin was too narrow to hold his proof — took until 1995 to settle. The 14th-century oak halle he grew up under still holds the Saturday market.

• Our pick

Their site ↗

← Back to the guide