Day 17: D’Agen à Sarlat-la-Canéda/Agen to Sarlat-la-Canéda

Dany et Alain ont fait un petit déjeuner pour nous.  C’était très français.  Après ça nous sommes parti.  Le canal du midi est pres chez leur donc nous avons arrêté à côte du canal et faisons une promenade. 

Canal du Midi

Nos premier arrête a été Cahors, une ville que j’ai vu pendant regarder le tour de France.   La ville est situe dans un méandre à le fleuve Le Lot.   La ville était très joli et peut être pendant un autre séjour nous restions là. 

Après Cahors nous avons trouvé un village appelle Rocamadour qui construit à la flanc de falaise.  Il y a une église qui était une destination pour les pèlerins  qui visitaient autre lieu comme le village Vézelay.  Nous sommes marché autour le village ou je dirais que nous avons monté le village.

Notre dernière destination était la ville Sarlat-la-Canéda, une autre ville médiévale où nous sommes resté pour la nuit. 

Rally car rally in Cahors?

We had a lovely breakfast provided by our hosts, comprising croissants and baguette to eat with their home made prune, apricot and cherry jams.  They also gave us some fresh Agen prunes to try.  After saying our farewells, we stopped by the Canal du Midi which was just around the corner from them and had a short wander along it.  While we were there a barge came along it and compared to the size of Lew and Janet’s (our Wellington friends) it was monster.  There were also one or two keen canoeists.

Cahors street

We avoided the auto-route and meandered our way through the Departement de Lot.  It is very pretty with a verdant green at the moment.  We happened on a very pretty medieval village sitting atop a steep hill and decided to have a look.  We had a coffee and wander around before resuming our travels. 

Pont - Le Lot, Cahors

Cahors was our next stop which is a town cradled in a loop of the River Lot.  Like many other places in this area it has a medieval heart which is very interesting to go through and realise that people still live here.  I first saw this place when watching the Tour de France and learning that this is where the cyclists finished the race. 

There seemed to be some type of rally about to happen as there was a huge number of rally cars lined up in the main square.  

One of the beautiful structures in the town is the bridge which spans the river. 

While in Cahors, when looking at postcards, we spotted a picture of a village called Rocamadour that seemed to have built on the side of cliff.

Rocamadour

The route to it wound its way through a series of valleys. We could have taken a quicker route but we would have missed out on the spectacular sight of the village appearing on the side of the cliff as we rounded a bend.  We had to stop to take a few photos before continuing on. We then spent a brief time climbing the many steps within the village.  Of interest was the fact that the pilgrims had to climb 216 steps to get to the church where they would have received their blessings.  Apparently some would even climb the steps on their knees. 

Rue en Rocamadour

Far too soon we were on our way to our final stop in Sarlat-la-Canéda otherwise known as Sarlat.  We booked a hotel for the night which was comfortable and catered for our needs.  Driving from Rocamadour we were inundated with extremely heavy rain – a bit like spring showers.  It was still drizzling when we got to Sarlat and checked in.

The host, who spoke little English, gave us some recommendations for where to eat. When I enquired about walking there rather than driving, she did not recommend it given the current weather conditions.

Around the Basilica

We had a good meal in a restaurant called Le Tourny, with Bev having the Dordogne version of a cassoulet (made only with confit de canard).

All in all a rather interesting and enjoyable day!

Rocamadour encore

Rocamadour encore 2