Cliff top villages and caves

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Today we headed off in the other direction and into the region known as The Lot. We have driven the road from Les Espioles to Baynac everyday so far so we felt it was time for a change!

Our first destination was Rocamadour which is a town that is built into the cliffs. It looks like it is just stuck onto the side of the cliff. At the top there is a château, below that there is a series of chapels and below that there is the main old town.

Rocamadour is an important Catholic pilgrimage site, second only to Lourdes, in France. Compared to other places we have been that was not particularly apparent. Considering we are not Catholic we seem to be doing a good job of visiting important Catholic sites.

The layout of the town mean there are a lot of steps! We decided to park at the top and walk down (and then back up). Apparently the most devout Catholics climb all the steeps on their knees. It was hard enough just walking.

We had been warned that this place can be chaos in summer but luckily it was not that busy today. We are quickly learning that this area of France is not the place to come in August unless you want to share everything with thousands of people and pay far more for the privilege. Our cottage was a bargainous £250 for the week but costs £750 in the summer!

After taking the obligatory photos we headed to Gouffre de Padirac which is a series of underground caves. It is a long way down, 103m in fact. This involved yet more steps! (We have to admit that we were lazy and got the lift back up) Once at the bottom we boarded boats and we were taken along a river which winds through the caves. It was really cool. The water was really clear and the whole place has a magical quality. After about 10 minutes we got off the boat and went through a whole series of caves which had some amazing formations. The whole place looked like it should have been in a film.

After all that it was time to head back to our cottage to relax. Tim is currently cooking a beef in red wine casserole, I guess that should be boeuf bourguignon as we are France!

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Comments

[Jo]

bonnes vacances!
love Rocamadour. Did you try the chesse?

[LJ]

Yes, we did try the cheese but it was very smelly! It made the whole house smell.