Places to Go, Things to See

You don’t really need to go anywhere of course. Relax on the terrace armed with a bottle of the local wine, perhaps a few olives and a few other local delicacies, and watch the world go slowly by.

Albas on the River Lot - 15 minutes to the North.

Should you be feeling a little more energetic you may like to visit one or two of the neighbouring villages.

The bastide town of Montcuq was on the medieval pilgrim trail to Santiago de Compostella, and the tower you can see as you approach, has a twelfth century dungeon…. It’s quite a friendly place now though!

A little further to the south there is an even more impressive bastide town.  Lauzerte has been beautifully preserved, and although a thriving community, the old town looks very much as it must have done five or six hundred years ago.

If you travel a little further to the west, to Tournon D’Agenais, you will find not only yet another splendid medieval bastide, you will also find the countryside beginning to change, you are coming out of the Quercy Blanc (named after the local white stone that covers the fields and valleys) and leaving the vines behind.  You are now in the lush, fertile district that produces the world famous Pruneaux D’Agenais.  Look around and you will spot field after field of fruit trees, bearing the luscious plums.

Feeling a little thirsty and perhaps a trifle peckish after all this travelling?  Stop at the bottom of the Tournon hill, on the roundabout you will spot a café called The Voyageurs.  It doesn’t look much, but park outside, walk through the bar area, and you will find yourself entering a huge, cool dining room.  A perfect place for lunch, still undiscovered by many tourists.  Shhhh!!!

As you return to Rouffiac from Tournon, why not stop at one of the many vineyards along the route.  This is the famous Cahors AOC wine.  Once (a fair while ago, admittedly) the only wine permitted for mass in the Papal Palace.

Travel east from Rouffiac and after twenty five minutes you will enter one of the most beautiful cities in France.  Cahors is not a period piece, it’s a busy, bustling market town, but it is still beautiful.  It was built in a loop of the river Lot and is bisected by the Cours de Gambetta (named after Leon Gambetta, who was born in Cahors).  On the western side of this broad street, lined with plane trees, you will find the offices and the newer part of Cahors.  On the eastern side, the labyrinthine streets of the ancient city, the old (and still current) market place and the cathedral of St Etienne.

Stop for a rest and a café crème in one of the many cafes that line the Cours de Gambetta, then travel down to the river.  The most famous landmark for many hundreds of kilometres is Cahors’ Pont de Valentre.  This early medieval bridge with it’s three distinctive towers, is now fully restored, it is beautiful and it must be seen.

If you leave Cahors and continue to the east towards Rodez, you will quickly come across St Cirq De Lapopie, a stunningly beautiful little village that tumbles precariously down the side of an almost sheer precipice.

To the north you will find stone built Rocamadour, a larger and more famous medieval town that, like St Cirq, seems to cling improbably, to the side of an outcrop.  Return to Rouffiac via the little back roads through the golden villages of the Dordogne, and you will notice as you cross the river again that the colour of the stone grows noticeably paler as you re-enter the Quercy Blanc.