Cahors and River Lot

Day 28. Cahors day trip to St-Cirq Lapopie, Grotte de Pech Merle, Villefranche de Rouergue and Najac. Mercredi 10th.

We had planned a good cycle today, but unfortunately it rained all night and seemed to be very set in for the day - heavy, soaking rain too. So we went out to the markets to stock up on tasty fresh food (and possibly bought a bit much, as usual when we visit markets!) and tried to decide what to do. We decided eventually to rent a car for the day, blow our budget a bit, but still get to appreciate the beautiful countryside, from the comfort of a tiny rental car. We headed off out of town, with a minor wrong turn to start us off (Jasper, bring back the navman!). But then once on the right road we were driving up the Lot river East of Cahors with stunning scenery - steep cliffs on one side, the beautiful tree-lined (fairly wide) river on the other. We drove through tiny towns and churches and castles built into the cliffs with dramatic views along the river and over the valley. Fantastic. All in pouring rain. I made Angus stop driving regularly to let me poke my lens out the window, getting quite wet in the process!! We continued along the lovely river valley until we saw the town of St-Cirq Lapopie perched on the cliffs on the other side of the river, just emerging through the mist. We drove a bit further, crossed the river and headed up to the town. It is magic. Fairytale stuff. We parked and wandered through the mostly deserted town (tourist season finished a few weeks ago). Lovely little cottages with tiled pointed roofs, narrow little steep streets. And next to the quite impressive church are the remains of a 13th century chateau at the summit of the town. We walked up to the top of it (apparently dangerous and steep!!) and the views were _simply_ _fantastic_ _amazing_ WOW. Really really beautiful. It even stopped raining for us, but there was still a bit of low hanging cloud and the sky was grey and the view goes on for ages - the town is on a curve in the river, and there are steep cliffs to the West and open fields and forests for the entire rest of the valley. An old mill can be seen on the river and behind we could see the entire town laid out before us, cute little houses and a tiny cemetary, then behind is green forest with tinges of autumn colours, and a chapel up on the hillside with a cross out the front. This truly is fairytale country. So Angus went back to the car to grab lunch (since the rain had eased) and I soaked up the view.

We tore ourselves away from the view and then drove back over the river to go to see the Grotte de Pech-Merle. This cave is 1.2km long, and is _stunning_. Stalactites, stalagmites, caverns, pearl structures, calcite flat discs, and translucent rocks. And then there are the paintings. Between 16,000 and 25,000 years old. Drawn by people who would have walked into the cave with candles, careful not to go in when the 3m cave bears were resting, and drew on ceilings with their fingers, with charcoal and with red ochre. And these guys could draw. Really really well. Their animal drawings - horses, bison, wolf, mammoth, bear, fish, are really good! They drew women too; curvy and _very_ obviously women. There are lots of drawings and symbols in the cave. Highlights for us were the horses - two with spots and a fish overdrawn, the bison. And the hands. they put their hands on the wall and then blew paint around them - an inverse painting. But their hands are exactly like ours. And the footprints - perfectly preserved human footprints in mud. 20,000 years ago. It blows us away! Here is a link to the website.

We left the caves and continued driving up along the beautiful river Lot. We continued through some spectacular countryside south of the valley, towards Villefranche-de-Rouergue, and South to Najac, one of the most beaufitul bastide towns in the region. It is stunning - a small town perched high above the river valley, with a massive Medieval castle, again straight out of a fairytale! Unfortunately we couldn't go in as it's not tourist season, but we had a wander around the little town and enjoyed the beautiful views across the valley and a rainbow came out as we were walking back - the sky was a dark blue-grey and the sun was coming out - that perfect after rain freshness everywhere! Great!

We then drove on through the countryside. We could have taken the main roads back to Cahors, but decided to stick to the little narrow roads that actually go through the small towns, as opposed to bypassing them, and to enjoy the countryside. We actually saw a bit of snow on the road as we were driving back, which was pretty surprising! And in a field there was a really long, old stone wall which looked like it was a couple of hundred years old at least! We really enjoyed driving through all the pretty little towns and seeing the local churches and castles! We made it back to Cahors at about 8 and decided to go out to dinner to a really great fusion Asian-French restaurant (thanks lonely planet!) where we both had pretty amazing meals and Selina had her first glass of Champagne in France! A fabulous day!

Day 29. Cahors. Jeudi 11th.

It was really foggy all morning today. We decided to have a quieter day and not do too much. We returned the car and did a trip to the markets to stock up for lunch stuff. We didn't actually do much all morning, except for a bit of wandering around town, and working out our plans for the next week or so. We had lunch looking at the beautiful bridge we mentioned the other day (used for defense of the town) and the sun and blue sky decided to make an appearance! We enjoyed sitting for a while and then in the afternoon moseyed around this very pretty little town and sat in a cafe for a while reading. Tonight we had a tasty salad accompanied by cheese and bread (yum) and are having a quiet evening before planning our cycle day tomorrow - our biggest yet, but we have less gear so should be fabulous!