March 10, 2024 • 49 mins
In this episode Annie and Elyse take listeners on an immersive journey through one of France's most picturesque and historically rich regions. The Lot, known for its breathtaking landscapes, ancient villages, and exquisite culinary heritage, offers a deep dive into the heart of French culture and history.
We start in Cahors, the Lot's largest city, famous for its fortified medieval bridge, the Pont Valentré, and its unique cathedral. Discover the ancient city's blend of history and modernity, where Roman ruins meet medieval architecture. The episode then transports you to the prehistoric Cave of Pech Merle, one of France's most spectacular prehistoric sites, still adorned with original drawings and carvings.
Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, voted France's most beautiful village, showcases medieval architecture, stunning views, and an artist's haven, revealing the Lot's ability to inspire creativity across centuries. Meanwhile, Rocamadour, a site of pilgrimage carved out of cliffs, offers a glimpse into medieval spirituality and architectural ingenuity.
The journey continues to the Gouffre de Padirac, where an underground river creates one of the country's most spectacular natural phenomena. The episode also highlights Martel, the village of seven towers, and Figeac, the home of the Champollion museum, enriching the narrative with tales of truffle markets, ancient languages, and the quest for knowledge.
Listeners will learn about the Lot's contribution to the culinary world, from black truffles and walnut cakes to the renowned Cahors wine. This episode not only explores the Lot's visual and historical treasures but also delves into the tastes and aromas that make the department a must-visit for anyone interested in the essence of France.
Exploring the Treasures of the Lot Department is a journey through time, nature, and culture, inviting listeners to discover the Lot's many wonders, from its dramatic cliffs and ancient caves to its medieval villages and gastronomic delights. Join us as we uncover the myriad reasons why the Lot is a jewel in France's crown.
More episodes about the Occitanie region
Table of Contents for this Episode
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Annie Sargent (00:16):
This is Join Us in France, Episode 484, quatre
cent quatre vingt quatre.
Bonjour, I'm Annie Sargent, and Join Usin France is the podcast where we take
a conversational journey through thebeauty, culture, and flavors of France.
Today, I bring you a conversationwith Elyse Rivin of Toulouse Guided
Walks about the Lot Department, whichstands out for its remarkable blend of
(00:41):
historical sites and natural beauty.
We'll guide you through the dramaticlandscapes of Rocamadour, the depth
of the Gouffre de Padirac, the lovelypainted cave of Pech-Merle, and more.
So much to enjoy in the Lot.
Which is in the Southwest ofFrance, by the way, it's just an
hour away from Toulouse, really.
(01:02):
This podcast is supported by donorsand listeners who buy my tours and
services, including my Itinerary ConsultService, my GPS self-guided tours of
Paris on the VoiceMap app, and I'mwriting a new one, a food tour of Paris.
You know, I love food, right?
I didn't get big by hating food.
(01:22):
Yeah.
Yeah.
But you could also take a day trip withme around the Southwest in my electric
car, and you can browse all of that onmy boutique joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
There will not be a magazine part of thepodcast today because I was in Paris all
week writing my new food tour, so I don'thave any new patrons to thank today.
(01:45):
But remember that to join the wonderfulcommunity of patrons and francophiles
who support this podcast and have keptit going for 10 years now, you can go
to patreon.com/joinus, and to supportElyse, go to patreon.com/ElysArt.
(02:07):
And please do not fall forthe join for free crap that
Patreon is doing these days.
It doesn't help you or me.
You're not going to get a thing extrafrom me, and I don't get any money
from you, which I do need the moneybecause this is an Indie podcast.
Okay?
Elyse Rivin (02:36):
Bonjour Elyse.
Bonjour Annie.
Annie Sargent (02:38):
What a great topic we have today, but I will let you make
that joke because I know you're itching.
Elyse Rivin (02:44):
I am itching.
I can't stand it.
I can't stand it.
We're going to talk aboutthe Department of the Lot.
And there is such a lotto say about the Lot.
Uh huh.
Uh huh.
Annie Sargent (02:58):
I love it a lot.
Elyse Rivin (02:59):
I love it a lot.
Annie Sargent (03:00):
I love it a lot in the Lot.
I love it a lot, in the Lot, onthe lot, everywhere in the Lot.
Beautiful place.
Okay.
Don't turn us off yet.
We're done with the corny jokes.
Now we have to have someactual interesting things
to tell you about the Lot.
And I will let Elyse take it away, I'llinterrupt as little as I can stand.
Elyse Rivin (03:19):
I would really like to begin by saying, I know that France
is a gorgeous country, and I haveseen maybe three quarters of it.
There's a part of it I haven'tseen yet, but I'm not sure if it's
the part I actually want to go to.
Annie Sargent (03:30):
Oh,
Elyse Rivin (03:31):
stop
Annie Sargent (03:31):
it.
Elyse Rivin (03:31):
Well the flatlands up north, you know, next to that
strange country called Belgium.
But anyway, but I have to saythat, sincerely, the Lot is one
of my most favorite places to go.
It is a department that is of coursein the southwest, that is north of
Toulouse, it's east of Bordeaux,a little further east of Bordeaux
(03:54):
than it is north of Toulouse.
I'm sure that many of you, if you'vetraveled in the southwest of France have
spent a little bit of time in part of it.
It's a famous department.
It is filled with amazingly,numerous things to see, historical
things, not nature things.
The cliffs, the rivers, it's avery special kind of climate.
(04:16):
It's part of what is called thecoasts and the coasts are what
are called limestone plateaus.
I won't go into the details becauseI can't even explain the erosion,
but I know it has to do witherosion from millions of years ago.
And so a good part of the department,which is actually a department that was
carved out of two ancient areas calledthe, one was called the Quercy, which
(04:37):
most people may not know the name, itactually comes from an old word, they
think it's from the Latin word foroak because it's filled with live oak
trees, like in parts of California.
And the other part that's in themore of the southwest, is actually
carved out of the old Dordogne area.
So it's a department that has threerivers going through it that are
very important for Lot, the Dordogne,and another river called the Célé.
Annie Sargent (05:12):
Okay.
So that's a minor river, right?
Elyse Rivin (05:14):
It's, a medium-sized river.
It's actually a tributary that goes intothe Lot, comes out of the Massif Central.
And it has, it's not a super smallriver, it's really what I think we
could say is a medium-sized river.
It has a bunch of villages andthings along the way, and it's
where on one end, the Figeac is.
Annie Sargent (05:34):
Oh, that's the river that goes through Figeac.
Elyse Rivin (05:36):
That's the river that goes to Figeac, right?
It's actually, it comes, itgoes north, and it kind of
goes east afterwards, you know.
Whereas the Dordogne, is the northernpart, and the Lot comes to basically
the southern part, but pretty much theyall run east west in the department.
But it's an area that, you know,everybody has their preferences
in terms of land, and geography.
It was one of the first places thatI discovered in my first travels in
(06:00):
France a long, long time ago, and I hadwhat the French call a coup de coeur.
Annie Sargent (06:06):
Yeah, definitely.
It's stunning.
Elyse Rivin (06:08):
It's stunning and...
Annie Sargent (06:09):
Well, okay, let's be real.
We're recording this in January.
It is dreary weather.
Of course, it's not as nice anddreary weather as it is the rest, you
know, in the spring and summer, butit is a beautiful, beautiful place.
Elyse Rivin (06:23):
It's a beautiful place.
It's very dramatic.
And a good part of it island that's relatively dry.
The coasts are, because of thefact that it's mostly limestone,
it's not a rich soil, so a lot ofthings don't grow in this area.
Annie Sargent (06:37):
Right, let me also interrupt to say that Causses
Elyse Rivin (06:43):
Say it again?
Is C-A-U-S-S-E.
I think it just translatesas plateau, but I'm not sure.
There are a whole bunch of them in theparts of the central part of France.
And so there's a part of theLot, which is a relatively
big department, that is green.
That's the part that's really wherethe Dordogne River is, and it's much
more bucolic and very beautiful.
(07:05):
Very, very beautiful.
But then there's the otherpart that's much more dramatic.
And for those of you have heard of, ifyou haven't already been to places like
St Cirq Lapopie, that is where you are onthe Lot River and it's extremely dramatic.
So altogether, it turns out that it'sone of the most visited departments in
France, which is not surprising, butit has very few people living in it.
(07:28):
It's really one of the most rural in thesense that it has very few inhabitants.
The biggest city is Cahors,which is the head city of the
department, and it has 22.000 people.
Annie Sargent (07:40):
Wow, I didn't realize it was that few people in Cahors.
22.000?
Elyse Rivin (07:44):
That not quite even.
I mean a little bit.
Oh wow.
Yeah, it's really...
And then the next biggest twolittle towns are 3.000 something.
Annie Sargent (07:53):
That's a village.
Elyse Rivin (07:54):
And then you have villages, you know, and then you
have hundreds, and hundreds, andhundreds of these little villages.
Annie Sargent (07:59):
And somehow we've managed to do three episodes already
about these towns in this department.
We did episode 62 was about Cahors.
So it's all about the history, blah, blah.
St Cirq Lapopie is gorgeous,but it's very, very small.
That's episode 43.
And we talked about Rocamadour, gorgeous,gorgeous, dramatic looking village.
(08:21):
That was episode 338.
So the point of this episode todayis kind of give you an overview of
all the things that you might wantto visit in the Lot Department.
We already did one aboutthe Aude Department.
And I think it's good to have an overviewof a department, even though really, in
reality, if you drive from, you know,the edge of one department and you go
(08:43):
into another, absolutely nothing changes.
This is just a, it's like drivingfrom one state to the other.
No bells go off.
No, nothing happens.
You just happen to be ina different department.
I mean, we have to, you know, we haveto group things in areas in a way that
makes some sense to French people anyway.
And that would be the departament.
Elyse Rivin (09:02):
And so it, of course, this is a way, if you look things up, and I looked
up many, many different sites in the lastcouple of days to sort of cross check some
of the information, I have been to theLot a lot, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that.
I've been to the Lot a lot.
And I really do love it, and I've been tomuch of it, I don't know if I've been to
every single village, but it's interestingto know that it is one of the departments
(09:25):
that has the most villages classifiedas most beautiful village in France.
Annie Sargent (09:30):
Oh, how many of that is that?
10.
Okay.
Well, that's right up there withthe Aveyron, which also has a lot.
Elyse Rivin (09:37):
And I think the next, I think the next after that is already
going up to Alsace or something like that.
Annie Sargent (09:42):
Oh, yeah, Alsace is chock full of them, as well.
Elyse Rivin (09:44):
Is chock full of them as well.
Right.
Yeah.
It has prehistoric caves.
Of course, the most important one thatis the most famous one is Pech Merle.
And Pech Merle is, I've just been backin the last few months to visit it.
It was my, this is like talking aboutyour childhood, my adolescent romances.
This is my first prehistoric cave.
(10:05):
Oh, I'm going to have a fit.
It was my first prehistoric cave.
It was a long, it's a long story,for those of you who want to know
about it, I'll tell you another time.
But anyway, I don't thinkI've ever gotten over it.
It is one of the few that is stillall the genuine actual drawings and
footprints and marks and engravings.
(10:25):
It is an enormous,enormous, enormous cave.
You drive along the Lot and then youkind of make this detour and you go
up into these hills where it's allthis very dry limestone and live oak.
And there you are.
And it is really ratherexquisite and rather impressive.
A word to those who are interested inanything prehistoric, Annie and I have
both been to Lascaux, three, four,five, six, God knows how many now...
(10:47):
No, it's really one, two, three,
four.
A lot.
A lot.
I've been to Niaux which is inthe Ariège, been to a bunch.
I've been to just about every prehistoriccave that is visitable in France.
This, of course, you have tohave a reservation, but this
one is really quite spectacular.
Yes.
Annie Sargent (11:02):
Yes, so, this is one that stands out as far
as accessibility, I think.
It's a little bit easier todo than Niaux, for example.
Because Niaux, you have towalk a kilometre and some
just to get to the paintings.
Whereas at Pech Merle, you godown about fifty steps, you walk a
(11:27):
little ways, but then there you are.
Elyse Rivin (11:30):
I don't think it's, I don't think it's 50 steps, but it's
definitely been set up so that thereare steps and railings everywhere.
Annie Sargent (11:37):
Yes, and there are railings.
Elyse Rivin (11:38):
And it's completely developed.
It's not, I wouldn't say it'swell lit, but you can see
where you're putting your feet.
Whereas in Niaux, you do this with atiny little flashlight and you know,
it's more difficult for people that haveaccess, you know, difficulties moving.
But Pech Merle is great, when youapproach, they have a parking lot,
(12:01):
but you must reserve in advance.
I would say this is one that youwould probably want to reserve
two or three months in advance.
It's not quite as difficult to gettickets as Font-de-Gaume because
it's not a national monument.
I don't think it's a nationalmonument at Pech Merle.
I think it's a private cave.
Annie Sargent (12:22):
Yeah, anyway.
But it's very nice, it's very well done.
There are tours in English.
They give you a little debriefwhen you arrive, before you enter
the cave, then you probably spend20 minutes inside of the cave?
50.
50?
Oh, I didn't realize it was that long.
It went went fast, I guess.
(12:43):
No, you spent almost 50 minutes insidethe cave, because you do go kind of
up and down and around, and now theyhave you stop at each of the places,
and she or he will show you the things.
Of course, these are all guided visits.
No, it's almost an hour.
We hope to take the peopleof the bootcamp in 2024.
I need to make the arrangements, but yes,we want to take bootcamp members there.
(13:04):
And I know we probably won't beable to do the whole group at once
because there are restrictions asto how many people can enter at the
same time, and they space things out.
So this is one that you need toreserve, but if you search for Pech
Merle Cave, you will find it easily,and there'll be a link in the show
notes as well, but it's really oneof the highlights of the department.
Elyse Rivin (13:30):
It has a little museum.
It has a little snack place.
I mean, it's in the middle of what isthis very lovely, kind of dry forest.
I would describe it that way.
Annie Sargent (13:39):
Yeah.
And you can totally have a snack,or a light meal or a picnic there.
Yeah.
There's stuff for all of that.
Elyse Rivin (13:45):
And it Is very close, as you go along the Lot River to the very
famous village of St Cirq Lapopie, andI'm just going to say very, something
very briefly about it, because I thinka lot of people have visited, and if
certainly have heard about it, it isreally one of the most spectacular and
beautiful villages in all of France.
And France, we know, has probably athousand gorgeous villages, really.
(14:08):
It was voted most beautiful villagein France a few years ago, and it is
absolutely unbelievable, and spectacular.
It's perched in several levelsgoing up to the top of this cliff.
And you can easily do St Cirq Lapopieand Pech Merle in the same day because
both of them are on the road that goesalong the Lot River, which you get to
(14:29):
really by going through Cahors, whichas I mentioned is the only real city
in the entire department, you know.
Annie Sargent (14:36):
Yeah, and a small city at that.
Elyse Rivin (14:38):
And a small city, although I have to say that it is quite charming.
It has the famous medieval bridgethat is the only still intact,
fortified bridge left from the MiddleAges in France, with this little
devil holding a finger on the stone.
And it has a very small, butvery interesting little medieval
Renaissance section that isslowly being rebuilt and restored.
(15:02):
So every time I go, I see there, whatbuildings that were once in ruin are now
all fixed up, and it's very charming.
It has a great market, has asuper great market on Saturdays.
It's one of those producersthat come from all over.
This is an area that has lotsof farms that produce goods,
and so this is, this is all thesouthern part of the department.
(15:22):
You can go on many, many of thesedepartmental roads, and in the show
notes, there's a list of some ofthe other villages that you can
visit that are absolutely gorgeous.
All of them have a spectacularpoint of view, they're either along
the river down below, or they'reperched up on high above on a cliff.
Some of them have chateaus that arevisitable, some of them it's just the
(15:43):
gorgeous architecture of the Lot, which isvery typical of this area, which is this
very kind of mellow pale yellow limestone.
It's not white-white, like Bordeaux white.
It's just very beautiful.
It gives a nice soft color to itwith this very beautiful brown tiles.
And these very steep roofs.
Why steep?
Because they do get a lot ofrain actually in the winter time.
Annie Sargent (16:05):
Mm hmm.
Elyse Rivin (16:06):
And if you go East, all the way to the other end of
the department, before you, and I'mgoing to let Annie talk about the
northern part, which is part thatshe actually knows better than I do.
But if you go all the way east andyou follow along the city, which
is actually a road that is lovely.
Again, these are meandering roads,you have to have plenty of time.
This is no big auto route.
There's no big auto routethat crisscrosses the Lot.
(16:29):
You have to really give yourself thetime to do this and make stops along
the way and take pictures or whatever.
But you get to the very charming,small town, let's, or small city
if you want to call it, of Figeac.
So I take it back, it is the only onethat has actually more than 3.000,
but it's about 9.000 people in Figeac.
Annie Sargent (16:47):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Figeac is a small town.
It has a fair bit of industry though,because quite a few Airbus subcontractors
are in Figeac, so they have a lot ofengineering jobs and kind of project
management for airplanes kind of jobs.
I know this because I, for ashort time, I did English over
(17:09):
the phone with these people.
And so I would get them totell me about their job.
Elyse Rivin (17:14):
But it's of course famous being the home of Champollion, the man
who translated, deciphered, more orless correct, I think the Rosetta Stone.
And so it has, besides having a verybeautiful old Renaissance city centre,
very well restored, it has the wonderfulMuseum of Written Languages, with a
huge reproduction of the Rosetta Stone.
(17:35):
It's a lovely spot to visit.
It's a little bit out of the waycompared to much of the other stuff
that you can visit and see in theLot, but it is really very lovely.
Annie Sargent (17:45):
Right.
And we did an episode aboutFigeac that was episode 143.
So it's an old one.
And it's a really great museum as well.
It's really interesting.
It's very modern.
It's been renovated not very long ago.
It's not the dusty museum that yousometimes find in small towns like this.
It's a very well worthmuseum to visit, I think.
Elyse Rivin (18:07):
I agree with you.
I think it's lovely.
If you're fascinated by writingsystems, languages, it's a
lovely, very modern museum.
It has audio guides inmany different languages.
It's really charming.
And Figeac is charming.
It is a bit on the extreme easternside of the Lot department.
But you can plan out your visit in a waythat if you're going to spend a few days
in the Lot, which is certainly somethingI would suggest, you can make a visit
(18:31):
to the Figeac and then kind of workyour way back towards the western part,
where there are lots of beautiful littlevillages, and then go up towards the
northern part, which is where the DordogneRiver actually goes through it, and
then you get to Rocamadour and Padirac.
Annie Sargent (18:46):
Right, right.
And I'll be talking about those.
But before I get to them, I wantto say that, when you are, and this
is exactly what we're going to dowith the bootcamp, so never say
that I don't spill any secrets.
What you do is you go to Pech Merle,the Painted Cave, and you spend, oh,
two, perhaps three hours there, and thenyou go to the village of Bouziès, which
(19:11):
is just down the hill by the river.
And there they have Les Croisières deSt Cirq Lapopie, is what it's called,
and you can by boat go between Bouzièsand St Cirq Lapopie, which is lovely.
Last time I was there, we couldn'tdo it because it was full and
we would have had to wait.
So I'll put a link in the show notesof where you can reserve this in
(19:36):
advance if you know you're going to go.
But you can also walk the path.
So they have a path called Le Chemin deHalage de Bouziès, this will all be in
the show notes, where you walk along,and so a chemin de halage was a place
where either beast or man pulled boats.
(20:00):
And I don't remember ifthat one was beast or man.
Elyse Rivin (20:03):
I remember that the, one time I did it, which was with a group, they
said that at first it was men, and thenafter a while they used mules or horses.
Annie Sargent (20:16):
Okay.
Yeah.
And this is before the boatshad power, you know, motors.
And it's just a beautiful, beautifulwalk, and many parts you have rock
above your head because they carvedout a piece to make this happen.
There's a piece of art, there'san art installation on the side.
(20:40):
I know I have photos of it, butI don't remember what it's called
right this moment, but there's thisbeautiful kind of metal art that's
installed along the way at some point.
And you can make your way all theway to St Cirq Lapopie that way.
I did not go all the way, did you?
I did, but I didn't go fromPech Merle, I went from Bouziès.
(21:00):
Bouziès is on the otherside side of the river.
I'm not sure if it's on theother side of the river.
But the river doesn't go allthe way up to Pech Merle.
The river goes to thebottom of Pech Merle.
Right, and Bouziès is thetown that's at the bottom.
And then from Bouziès, youcan walk to St Cirq Lapopie.
Elyse Rivin (21:19):
Then you look up and you go, Oh my God, I've got to walk up to the top.
Annie Sargent (21:24):
Did you do that?
I didn't.
Yes.
Yeah.
Well, this was only about10 years ago, but I was in a
really good shape to say here.
Good for you, I never did it.
So anyway, so it's areally, really fun day.
And lots of French people do this.
I don't think that I seea lot of foreign visitors.
Elyse Rivin (21:42):
Not doing the Chemin de Halage, I don't think so.
Annie Sargent (21:46):
They probably don't know about it.
Elyse Rivin (21:46):
Or they rent a boat and they just do a little boating on the
river, which is something of coursethat you can do in this part of the Lot.
Annie Sargent (21:52):
But kids love this.
I mean, you know, a little boat, youwalk in this beautiful path, they
get, you hear a lot of squealing.
Elyse Rivin (22:00):
Absolutely.
Absolutely, squealing, squealing.
I've just been around a squealing baby fora few days, I know about squealing, yes.
Annie Sargent (22:08):
Yes.
Okay.
So, we're not going to gointo details about Cahors, but
let's just say a few things.
It's a town.
You said, yeah, there'sa a beautiful market.
There's a gorgeous market.
There's very good wine in Cahors,although it's a very specific
type of wine that we've talkedabout on the podcast a few times.
It's great to go with kind ofhearty, meaty meals, right?
(22:33):
It's not the sort of wine that, Imean, it's very flavorful and pretty
heavy flavor, but also I thinkit's like 13, 14 degrees alcohol.
It's also pretty strong.
Elyse Rivin (22:43):
I'm not sure about the alcohol.
I did put a little bit in the show notes.
If people are interested in the historyof wines, the main grape in the Cahors
is Malbec, which was exported toArgentina, among other places, where
people think that the Malbec comes fromArgentina, but no, it comes from Cahors.
And it is, in fact, one of the mostancient red wines in France, and it has
(23:07):
a very long history, and it was basicallymade to disappear from the international
scene as a wine by the British.
One of these days, we're going to do thea hundred years war and we're going to
talk about things like that, you know,and the Black Prince and everything.
It has a fascinating history and yes, itis a very full bodied, very flavorful,
(23:27):
lots of good taste of almost cherry.
Strangely enough, I'm not a big fanof red wines, but I love this wine.
I absolutely love it.
Annie Sargent (23:34):
I like Malbec as well.
I think it's one of the best.
Elyse Rivin (23:37):
And it is really a wine that just comes from this area.
That is really what the Cahors areais known for, besides the other
foodstuffs that are known in this area.
But Cahors is basicallythe county seat of the lot.
So it has a very small but verycharming old historic center.
It has this very famous bridge, the PontValantré, which is really kind of fun
(23:58):
to go and visit, and take a picture.
Annie Sargent (24:00):
Sure.
Yes.
The cathedral isn't bad.
The inside, I remember the inside,the stained glass windows were
very modern, so I think they musthave gotten broken or something.
Elyse Rivin (24:10):
They are, but it's a very unusual church, like the churches in
the Perigord area that has a dome.
It has 2 domes, so it's anarchitecture that's very special
in relation to what you typicallysee in this area where we are here.
It's a very interesting,very old cathedral.
Annie Sargent (24:25):
It's not as striking as the one in Perigueux, but I can
see why it's a similar kind of style.
Elyse Rivin (24:31):
But basically Cahors is a place that is a good place to stop
very, I would say, briefly beforeyou go and explore further either
north or east or zigzagging to yourway into these wonderful surprise
little villages that are on thesedepartmental roads along the way.
Annie Sargent (24:48):
Yeah, yeah.
Only small roads in the Lot really.
And, you know, take your time.
You're going to have todrive 70 kilometers per hour.
And don't think that'slike the same as miles.
Elyse Rivin (25:00):
No, and 70 will be fast.
Believe me, you know.
Annie Sargent (25:03):
Yeah, most of the time it'll feel fast, so, and very
often there's not anywhere to pullover really, and it is not an easy
driving place, but if you like todrive hilly, you know, switchback
kind of places, you will love it.
Elyse Rivin (25:20):
And there are lots of gorgeous little villages.
Interestingly, it is a department thathas not a huge population, but it is a
department that has an enormous percentageof vacation homes and places to rent.
And people should know this because ifyou're interested in spending several
days, this is a place where you caneither get a gîte, or do an Airbnb.
(25:41):
Lots of people who have secondhomes rent out for part of the year.
You have lots of these beautifulold stone houses that have
been restored along the way.
Annie Sargent (25:49):
Yeah, if I was looking for a place to stay in the Lot, well,
other than Cahors and Figeac, where I'msure they have several hotels, not a ton
of them, but they might have 2-3 hotels.
I would look for either a B&Bor a Airbnb or a Gîte de France.
(26:10):
I'm sure they have a ton of them.
Yeah, and Gîte de France used to bemostly for long term rentals, but anymore
they will just rent to you for a week...
Elyse Rivin (26:21):
Oh, even long weekends.
You know, I mean, every owner candecide what they want to do, but
these are places, it's a departmentin an area that does get hot in the
summer, and so many of these places,because they are designed for bringing
tourists, and will have swimming pools.
And you can swim in the river, you canswim in the Lot, in certain parts, and
you can swim in the Dordogne, also.
This is one of the things that you shouldknow about if you're thinking of making
(26:44):
a stay in one of these areas, you know.
Annie Sargent (26:46):
Right, but if you're going in the middle of the summer, get a place
with air conditioning, you will die.
Elyse Rivin (26:51):
And swimming pool, a swimming pool.
And so if you go north, you go in northend of the department, it gets into the
more rugged part, believe it or not.
In the center of the department isan area that's called the Regional
Park of the Quercy, which is thename of one of these plateau areas.
Annie Sargent (27:09):
That's Q-U-E-R-C-Y
Elyse Rivin (27:12):
And it's filled with trails for biking and hiking, and it
has a lot of nature expositions, andthere are people who take you around.
And it, it also is an area, to mygreat surprise, that is considered to
be one of the best places in all ofFrance where you can do stargazing.
It's called the BlackTriangle of the Quercy Coast.
Annie Sargent (27:35):
Oh, wow.
Elyse Rivin (27:36):
Like the name of a new movie.
Oh, you know, and apparently there isso little light contamination, in spite
of the fact that you have these littlevillages dispersed all over the place.
They have places where they have setup telescopes and they have animators
and you can go and do a whole lot ofstargazing and stuff like that right in
(27:57):
the center of the Lot at the same time.
Annie Sargent (27:59):
So this is probably the sort of thing you can just search for.
I'll see if I can findlinks to events like this.
I mean, this is not everynight, it's once in a while.
Elyse Rivin (28:06):
No.
Right, and in fact, one ofthe sites I discovered, it's
closed in the wintertime anyway.
Annie Sargent (28:12):
Yeah, most of these places, you really don't want to go in January,
February, March perhaps, but you know,it's best to go April through October.
Yeah.
Elyse Rivin (28:24):
And then you have some of these villages.
I'm just going to mentionthe names of them.
If you love beautiful old villages withstone houses, churches, ruins of chateaus,
or chateaus that are actually in a statewhere you can visit them, perched on
top of a cliff or down below a river,you will have your fill in the Lot.
(28:46):
A couple of them are placesthat I discovered and found
absolutely magnificent.
One of them is really up in thenorthern end called Autoire.
It's very small, it's spectacularand surrounded by cliffs
where you can do these hikes.
You have Cajarc, which turns out tobe one I haven't visited, but where
a lot of famous people actually have,or had summer homes, including Georges
(29:09):
Pompidou, who was the president of France.
Like, thank you very much.
It's also the centre Cajarc of themarket for saffron, which is one of
the products, or one of the, I don't,product isn't really the right word.
One of the..
Annie Sargent (29:22):
Crops?
Crops,
Elyse Rivin (29:23):
thank you, of the Lot, which is of course very exotic at this
point because, it used to be very, veryimportant and now, of course, I think
it's just a sort of specialty crop.
But it turns out to that Cajarcis where you can do some shopping
for real genuine saffron.
Annie Sargent (29:38):
Nice.
Elyse Rivin (29:39):
There's a small town that's beautiful on the northern end
of the department called Martel, whichis known for its seven towers, and
it is the home of the truffle market.
Annie Sargent (29:49):
Aha.
Nice.
Elyse Rivin (29:51):
Do you like truffles, Annie?
In small quantities.
Mm.
Annie Sargent (29:54):
I like truffles, I like truffled oil.
If you make an omelette, when youromelette's all done and nice and dry, I
like my omelettes really dry, you justput a tiny bit of truffle oil over it.
Ooh, it tastes good.
I have to admit that I've onlytasted it once or twice, and I'm
not sure I know exactly what itreally tastes like a truffle.
(30:15):
Oh, I know what it tasteslike, but I can't describe it.
It can be very strong.
I don't like strong truffle, butif it's done with flair, it's good.
It will make any vegetable, like aplain old vegetable, like a zucchini,
or a heaven forbid, like spinach...
Yeah.
Broccoli, it doesn't go along, but ofcourse, I don't really like broccoli,
(30:38):
so nothing goes along with it.
Elyse Rivin (30:39):
Okay.
We'll stay with omelets and truffles.
I think that's the best.
Annie Sargent (30:43):
I think omelettes with a tiny bit of truffle oil over.
A little bit of cheese with truffle?
Perhaps.
Elyse Rivin (30:48):
That's a specialty around this area for Christmas.
Annie Sargent (30:50):
Yeah, and probably then.
Oh, no, I lie, I've had brie witha truffle mixture in between the
brie, oh, that's really good, huh?
Yes.
yes, yes, and I don't even, andI don't even like brie that much.
But you have to, you don'twant to let that brie run.
That brie needs to be eaten withinhalf an hour out of the fridge.
(31:11):
It's like one of these servingsecrets, some brie you want
them to run, some you do not.
Elyse Rivin (31:15):
Okay, I'll let it run away from me.
I'll let it go somewhere else.
Really.
Another village that I find gorgeous isa village called Carennac, which is also
going north, towards Rocamadour and hasa beautiful, beautiful Benedictine Abbey.
And a magnificent, magnificent château.
So, there are just a whole bunch of them.
(31:36):
There's a list you will be able tosee and you can take a look on the map
and you can sort of plot out where youwant to go and what you want to do.
As you get further north, youget to the very mysterious
and very dramatic Rocamadour.
Annie Sargent (31:51):
Yes, so this is where I take over, because...
This is where she takes over.
Elyse Rivin (31:54):
All that
Annie Sargent (31:55):
Rocamadour is my jam.
So, I have must have gone to Rocamadourand nearby, Gouffre de Padirac several
times as a kid, for sure, because itwas one of my mother's favorite outings.
We would go for the longweekend or something.
And by the way, if you are going to bein France during one of our many long
weekends coming up, beware, French peoplelike to go out on long weekends, and so
(32:20):
things are going to be very, very busy.
But so, Rocamadour, as you approach,you see this beautiful village in
the cliff, on the side of the cliff.
Now we did an, a whole episode aboutit, it was episode 338, where I even
have details in the show notes forthat episode about where you should
park, because it's not very easilyaccessible since it's so hilly.
(32:45):
So you can park at the bottom and walk up.
But, you know, the knees don't likethat too much anymore, so I tend to try
and park on the top, and take the...
You can take the elevatorfrom the bottom as well.
There's an elevator.
It costs a few euros, but it'swell worth it, the elevator.
And it is gorgeous, there is apilgrimage route if you want to do that.
(33:07):
It takes you to an old churchthat was very, very small.
Elyse Rivin (33:10):
Carved in the rock.
Annie Sargent (33:11):
Yes.
yes, yes.
It's very nice.
So I would say that if you go toRocamadour, it's a good place to
stay, and I would recommend thatyou stay away from Rocamadour where
you have the view of the village.
If you're in the village,you cannot see the village.
So, you know, stay away from Rocamadour.
(33:32):
Most of the hotels, so these hotels arenot very, very large because most of the
year, they don't have a need for a lot ofhotel rooms, but in the big busy months,
they get full very fast and you pay apremium when you go in the busy months.
So, work that out well in advance,especially if you're going in May
(33:54):
when we have the long weekends.
But anytime you go to a place likethis that's very touristy and doesn't
have a lot of accommodations, you canplan on, you know, difficulties finding
a room, and paying a premium for it.
I mean, that's just how it is.
Elyse Rivin (34:09):
Just to make sure, if you can listen to the episode
on Rocamadour, but when Annie saysthat it's hilly, St Cirq Lapopie
is steep, but this is beyond steep.
This is cut into four levels onthis huge 150 meter high cliff.
And it is absolutely amazing to see.
Annie Sargent (34:29):
And the other thing my mother liked to do when we went,
oh, there's another thing now,there's La Forêt des Singes, so
the forest of monkeys, where themonkeys are trained, really, I mean,
they're macaque monkeys, variety ofmacaque, I don't know which ones.
And they will come to you becausethey know you have peanuts.
When you enter, they give you a bag,a small bag of peanuts, and they tell
(34:50):
you not to give them anything else,because if you enter the property with
anything else, the monkeys can smell it.
I mean, they want the peanuts, but theyalso want whatever else you might have,
and they can get a little bit aggressive.
Elyse Rivin (35:02):
Yes, macaques can.
Annie Sargent (35:03):
Yes, so don't enter that with any food other
than the ones that they give you.
And I think they really should stopgiving because, you know, kids get kind
of pushed around by the monkeys if theparents are not careful, et cetera.
So that's something where Iwent several times as a kid.
And also you have The Gouffre dePadirac, which is a favorite of mine.
(35:25):
So this is...
a gouffre is a...
I think you say it's a chasm?
It's a chasm, right.
It's a chasm.
It's a vertical, it's like a well inthe sense, you know, it's a vertical
hole that goes down very deep.
It's a giant well.
Yes, but it's a natural well,and so to get in, you have to
(35:46):
take some steps to begin with.
And then there's differentlevels, you know, they make
you stop here and stop there.
And then you get into an elevatorthat takes you to the bottom.
And it's not a very long elevatorride, but there is an elevator.
And then, or perhaps you cando the whole thing by foot.
(36:06):
I don't recall if you can do the whole?
I remember getting in anelevator, so probably everybody
gets in on the elevator.
At any rate, you get to thebottom and it's 103 meters.
So that's probably, what?
Elyse Rivin (36:22):
350 feet?
Annie Sargent (36:23):
Yeah, so how many stories is that?
If it was a building.
It'd be a 10 story building or something?
Elyse Rivin (36:29):
It's pretty deep.
Annie Sargent (36:31):
It's into the ground and you get to the bottom and you walk
around the cave a little bit and yousee some beautiful cave formations just
like any other cave and then you getto some boats, some flat bottom boats.
And they have gondoliers, I guess,that will take you around, in the
underground river and it is so fun.
(36:53):
And as you're about to exit,they at some point they take...
they flash a...
It's like Disneyland.
They take your photo and then youcan buy the photo when you exit.
And so I have photos of me atthat spot a few times, you know.
I love it.
It's beautiful.
It's peaceful.
It is a place where a lot oftour guides will bring people.
(37:14):
And so it is full ofbus loads of tourists.
So this is something thatyou have to plan in advance.
Do not just pull up andhope you get a ticket.
You won't.
So, look online, buy your tickets atleast a couple of weeks in advance.
If it's high season and a long weekendor something, then, you know, book
(37:38):
as soon as the tickets are available.
They do close for the winter a littlebit, so it's possible, like, I looked
at Pech Merle just yesterday, so PechMerle is closed this time of year,
which is January, early January.
But their website doesn'twork either, which is weird.
So you can't even buy tickets.
You can't buy tickets now.
(37:59):
So they, when they come back towork, which I believe is March,
they will then reopen the sales.
But this is normal for, this is parfor the course in France, things
close in the winter months, andespecially rural France like that.
So Padirac is kind of like that as well,although I didn't go looking for tickets
yesterday, but I'm sure you, you needto do this a little bit ahead of time.
(38:22):
It happens that Padirac and Rocamadour,because they're so very close to each
other, they get masses and massesof tourists, which interestingly
enough, I mean, Pech Merle getstourists, but it's not like Rocamadour.
It turns out that after Mont SaintMichel, it is the second most
visited site outside of Paris.
Is that right?
That doesn't surprise me.
You know, we've said this a lot aboutCarcassonne, you know, don't go on a
(38:45):
long weekend or any weekend in the summerreally, because it's so full of people.
Rocamadour is that sort of place.
So it would be better, like if youhave your druthers, I would take people
there in April, perhaps in October.
May, except for thelong weekends, you know.
(39:06):
Yeah, May, the long weekends aregoing to be very busy, very busy.
And they have busloads, I mean, theseare places that have busloads of people
because it is still considered a sanctuaryand a lot of people go there and they
have two music festivals in the summer.
So it's a very big tourist attraction.
Yeah.
And well deserved because it is beautifuland it's extremely picture worthy, like
(39:29):
you can't take a bad picture in there.
It's lovely, lovely.
So yes, I do recommend yougo, but timing is important.
And this area, which is really getting,if you take a look at the map of how, of
course, the department of the Lot, whicheverything is kind of cut up, all of these
were created at the time of the Revolutionanyway, But we are getting to the northern
end of the department, and this is whereyou have the town of Martel, where you
(39:53):
have another town, which is right onthe edge, actually going into Dordogne,
which is called Gourdon which, it's notas exquisite because part of it is old
and very pretty, but it's more of a town.
It's industrial.
Gourdon is industrial.
Elyse Rivin (40:06):
It's got a very, I'm not sure how industrial it is, but
I know it's famous for its market.
Annie Sargent (40:10):
Okay.
Elyse Rivin (40:11):
It's a place that has a certain amount of
accommodations of the kind ofthings you would look for in a city.
Annie Sargent (40:16):
All right.
So it has restaurantsand hotels and things.
Elyse Rivin (40:19):
Pharmacies, you know, I think a clinic, you know, that kind of stuff.
This is at the northwesternedge of, of the department.
But from there you can kind of go inevery direction, you go west into the
Dordogne and just, you know, northinto the Corrèze and all of that.
And this area is very wild.
The part of the Lot that is the wildestin terms of it not being very domesticated
(40:42):
is this northern part of the department.
And it has some of these very strangelittle beautiful villages hidden away.
So it's kind of fun if you're interestedin exploring and not knowing exactly
where you're going to wind up, if youhave a place to stay and you just one
day want to go driving around, this isa kind of a fun thing to do, you know?
Annie Sargent (41:00):
Well, and of course, seeing that it's only a couple of hours away from
Toulouse, this is something I've startedto offer as a day trip, you know, kind
of a day thing we can do from Toulouse.
Go to Pech Merle in the morning, StCirq Lapopie in the afternoon, Cahors on
the way back, get some wine, come home.
This is a whole full day.
This is a very full day.
You have to, you know, be ready togo at eight in the morning, you're
(41:22):
not going to be back in your hoteluntil eight at night, but it's a
very full, beautiful day that I offeras a private guided visit as well.
If you'd like to do that andstuff like that, you can see
at joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
And I'm hardly the onlyone who offers this.
It is obviously somethingthat a lot of people do.
(41:43):
But the Lot is just beautiful.
It's just beautiful.
If you want to go biking, it's notsurprising to see people doing not
so long, like long distance biking,but you see people riding around
with panniers, you know, stoppinghere and there to camp overnight.
It is not an uncommon sight.
(42:05):
And so drivers expect that around thecorner, there might be some bikes.
And so you just, you driveslowly, you drive carefully.
You have to be zen driving the countryroads in the place like the Lot.
And you can go rafting as well, asyou noted, there's rafting there.
The food and drink.
We didn't, talk about that.
So let's get to the food and drink.
Yeah.
Elyse Rivin (42:25):
Very important.
Well, we'd mentioned the Cahorswines, of course, which...
We also mentioned the truffles.
And the truffles.
Is it produced locally?
Truffles are actually one ofthe specificities of the Causse,
is that strangely enough,it's covered with live oak.
Now, I lived in California, so I'm, I knowwhat it's like, land that has live oak.
It's apparently minerallypoor, it's not very...
(42:47):
but it's typical that trufflesgrow under the live oak.
You know, and of course now theyhave dogs trained so that the little
piggies don't eat them, you know.
They give the dog a nice bone and thenthey, you know, dig up the truffle,
although I just saw a report on televisionthe other day that said that this
year there's been too much rain, andso they're rotting underground, which
(43:08):
is a catastrophe for the people whomake their money by going truffling.
And going truffling is a very oldtradition in France and people have
places that they know where to go.
And even though it's a very complicatedthing, it goes back a long time
in the history of France, but thepeople take their truffles that
they found to this market, likeat Martel, where they sell them.
(43:30):
Very often can be up to a thousandeuros a kilo for truffles.
I mean, it's a lot.
So this year, apparently, there'sa big problem because they're all
kind of getting too wet inside.
But this is where the truffles grow inthis part that's relatively dry with
the live oak and everything like that.
And so yes, it is local.
And there's also the famousgoat cheese, the Rocamadour.
Annie Sargent (43:52):
Ah, of course!
Elyse Rivin (43:54):
Which I love.
Le Rocamadour c'est bonne!
So they look like hockey pucks.
Annie Sargent (43:59):
Yeah.
Elyse Rivin (44:00):
That's exactly what they look like, you know.
Annie Sargent (44:01):
Yeah, but when it gets in your mouth it's a lot
nicer hockey puck to the teeth.
It melts in your mouth better thana hockey puck does, you know, yes.
Elyse Rivin (44:09):
Definitely.
And walnuts.
That's the other thing that's strangeis that there's the famous, and I love
walnuts, there's a famous walnut ofQuercy, which is also something that
grows in this strange kind of climateand on these limestone plateaus.
And so you have walnuts and walnutoil, which is absolutely delicious.
I absolutely love it.
(44:30):
It's not cheap, but it'sjust absolutely delicious.
And every year I buy a kilo ortwo, a bag of the walnut of Quercy.
There are two regions of France thatgrow walnuts, one of them is near
the Alps, and this was the other one.
This is the area.
Dordogne also has walnuts, no?
Yeah.
Well, I think it's theQuercy kind of overlaps.
It's kind of like goesboth sides, you know?
Now they're, of course, they'regrown specifically, but they were
(44:52):
actually just a natural tree,I mean, that grew in the area.
Then they grafted them tomake them more, more edible.
So, there's the cheese,there's the truffles, there's
the saffron, there's walnuts.
And of course they have thiswonderful walnut cake that they make.
Hmm,
Annie Sargent (45:07):
And the Rocamadour cheese, what you do is you let it
get to room temperature and then youput a tiny bit of honey on top and
you sprinkle some chopped up walnuts.
Ooh, ooh, ooh, it's delicious.
I'm telling you, it's delicious.
And that with a glass of Cahors wine andyou're in good, you're happy as can be.
Elyse Rivin (45:29):
I'm just thinking one more.
Oh, yes, the melon ofQuercy, which I love.
Which one is it?
It's like a cantaloupe.
It's delicious.
I love it.
But it's pink inside.
It's orangey inside.
Yes.
And it's one of the, there arethree regions of France that
produce a melon that Americans wouldconsider to be like a cantaloupe.
Okay.
And this is considered to be the best.
(45:50):
It's the sweetest.
There are melons from Provence, right,the Cavaillon, but the melon of Quercy,
I'm not sure why, comes at the end,I think, of the season, but it is
considered to be absolutely delicious.
That's probably their problem, becauseby the end of the season, you've eaten so
many melons, you're not ready for more,especially if it's really expensive.
And they have lamb.
(46:11):
And, for those who are meat eaters,there is the lamb of Quercy,
which is a specialty of the area.
You can have a nice meal fromjust the things from this area.
Big surprise, you can havea nice meal in the Lot.
In the Lot, and not have anythingthat doesn't grow in the Lot.
Well, after a few days,you'd want something else.
(46:31):
Of course.
Yeah.
Get your little green saladin there somewhere, you know.
Oh, come on.
Take advantage of being in this areaand do yourselves a favor and go
explore because there are some villagesthat are just absolutely gorgeous.
And besides seeing the mainstays, the StCirq Lapopie and things like that, that
everybody goes to, and they are gorgeous,of course, but they're with zillions of
(46:55):
people most of the time, you would besurprised at how gorgeous some of these
other villages are with their chateaus.
Yeah, go see the other ones.
We have a short list here but you saidthere's 10 of them, I don't think you
put all 10 show but it's easy enough.
You know plus beau villages
Right.
Lot Department.
And even the ones that arelike small towns, big villages,
they're just beautiful as well.
(47:17):
You know, you just go around the cornerand you go, oh gosh look at that.
Annie Sargent (47:22):
Just go, people just go.
Merci beaucoup, Elyse.
Elyse Rivin (47:25):
You're welcome, Annie.
Au revoir.
Annie Sargent (47:35):
The Join Us in France travel podcast is written, hosted,
and produced by Annie Sargent andCopyright 2024 by AddictedToFrance.
It is released under a CreativeCommons, attribution, non-commercial,
no derivatives license.
This is Join Us in France, Episode 484, quatre
cent quatre vingt quatre.
Bonjour, I'm Annie Sargent, and Join Usin France is the podcast where we take
a conversational journey through thebeauty, culture, and flavors of France.
Today, I bring you a conversationwith Elyse Rivin of Toulouse Guided
Walks about the Lot Department, whichstands out for its remarkable blend of
(00:41):
historical sites and natural beauty.
We'll guide you through the dramaticlandscapes of Rocamadour, the depth
of the Gouffre de Padirac, the lovelypainted cave of Pech-Merle, and more.
So much to enjoy in the Lot.
Which is in the Southwest ofFrance, by the way, it's just an
hour away from Toulouse, really.
(01:02):
This podcast is supported by donorsand listeners who buy my tours and
services, including my Itinerary ConsultService, my GPS self-guided tours of
Paris on the VoiceMap app, and I'mwriting a new one, a food tour of Paris.
You know, I love food, right?
I didn't get big by hating food.
(01:22):
Yeah.
Yeah.
But you could also take a day trip withme around the Southwest in my electric
car, and you can browse all of that onmy boutique joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
There will not be a magazine part of thepodcast today because I was in Paris all
week writing my new food tour, so I don'thave any new patrons to thank today.
(01:45):
But remember that to join the wonderfulcommunity of patrons and francophiles
who support this podcast and have keptit going for 10 years now, you can go
to patreon.com/joinus, and to supportElyse, go to patreon.com/ElysArt.
(02:07):
And please do not fall forthe join for free crap that
Patreon is doing these days.
It doesn't help you or me.
You're not going to get a thing extrafrom me, and I don't get any money
from you, which I do need the moneybecause this is an Indie podcast.
Okay?
Elyse Rivin (02:36):
Bonjour Elyse.
Bonjour Annie.
Annie Sargent (02:38):
What a great topic we have today, but I will let you make
that joke because I know you're itching.
Elyse Rivin (02:44):
I am itching.
I can't stand it.
I can't stand it.
We're going to talk aboutthe Department of the Lot.
And there is such a lotto say about the Lot.
Uh huh.
Uh huh.
Annie Sargent (02:58):
I love it a lot.
Elyse Rivin (02:59):
I love it a lot.
Annie Sargent (03:00):
I love it a lot in the Lot.
I love it a lot, in the Lot, onthe lot, everywhere in the Lot.
Beautiful place.
Okay.
Don't turn us off yet.
We're done with the corny jokes.
Now we have to have someactual interesting things
to tell you about the Lot.
And I will let Elyse take it away, I'llinterrupt as little as I can stand.
Elyse Rivin (03:19):
I would really like to begin by saying, I know that France
is a gorgeous country, and I haveseen maybe three quarters of it.
There's a part of it I haven'tseen yet, but I'm not sure if it's
the part I actually want to go to.
Annie Sargent (03:30):
Oh,
Elyse Rivin (03:31):
stop
Annie Sargent (03:31):
it.
Elyse Rivin (03:31):
Well the flatlands up north, you know, next to that
strange country called Belgium.
But anyway, but I have to saythat, sincerely, the Lot is one
of my most favorite places to go.
It is a department that is of coursein the southwest, that is north of
Toulouse, it's east of Bordeaux,a little further east of Bordeaux
(03:54):
than it is north of Toulouse.
I'm sure that many of you, if you'vetraveled in the southwest of France have
spent a little bit of time in part of it.
It's a famous department.
It is filled with amazingly,numerous things to see, historical
things, not nature things.
The cliffs, the rivers, it's avery special kind of climate.
(04:16):
It's part of what is called thecoasts and the coasts are what
are called limestone plateaus.
I won't go into the details becauseI can't even explain the erosion,
but I know it has to do witherosion from millions of years ago.
And so a good part of the department,which is actually a department that was
carved out of two ancient areas calledthe, one was called the Quercy, which
(04:37):
most people may not know the name, itactually comes from an old word, they
think it's from the Latin word foroak because it's filled with live oak
trees, like in parts of California.
And the other part that's in themore of the southwest, is actually
carved out of the old Dordogne area.
So it's a department that has threerivers going through it that are
very important for Lot, the Dordogne,and another river called the Célé.
Annie Sargent (05:12):
Okay.
So that's a minor river, right?
Elyse Rivin (05:14):
It's, a medium-sized river.
It's actually a tributary that goes intothe Lot, comes out of the Massif Central.
And it has, it's not a super smallriver, it's really what I think we
could say is a medium-sized river.
It has a bunch of villages andthings along the way, and it's
where on one end, the Figeac is.
Annie Sargent (05:34):
Oh, that's the river that goes through Figeac.
Elyse Rivin (05:36):
That's the river that goes to Figeac, right?
It's actually, it comes, itgoes north, and it kind of
goes east afterwards, you know.
Whereas the Dordogne, is the northernpart, and the Lot comes to basically
the southern part, but pretty much theyall run east west in the department.
But it's an area that, you know,everybody has their preferences
in terms of land, and geography.
It was one of the first places thatI discovered in my first travels in
(06:00):
France a long, long time ago, and I hadwhat the French call a coup de coeur.
Annie Sargent (06:06):
Yeah, definitely.
It's stunning.
Elyse Rivin (06:08):
It's stunning and...
Annie Sargent (06:09):
Well, okay, let's be real.
We're recording this in January.
It is dreary weather.
Of course, it's not as nice anddreary weather as it is the rest, you
know, in the spring and summer, butit is a beautiful, beautiful place.
Elyse Rivin (06:23):
It's a beautiful place.
It's very dramatic.
And a good part of it island that's relatively dry.
The coasts are, because of thefact that it's mostly limestone,
it's not a rich soil, so a lot ofthings don't grow in this area.
Annie Sargent (06:37):
Right, let me also interrupt to say that Causses
Elyse Rivin (06:43):
Say it again?
Is C-A-U-S-S-E.
I think it just translatesas plateau, but I'm not sure.
There are a whole bunch of them in theparts of the central part of France.
And so there's a part of theLot, which is a relatively
big department, that is green.
That's the part that's really wherethe Dordogne River is, and it's much
more bucolic and very beautiful.
(07:05):
Very, very beautiful.
But then there's the otherpart that's much more dramatic.
And for those of you have heard of, ifyou haven't already been to places like
St Cirq Lapopie, that is where you are onthe Lot River and it's extremely dramatic.
So altogether, it turns out that it'sone of the most visited departments in
France, which is not surprising, butit has very few people living in it.
(07:28):
It's really one of the most rural in thesense that it has very few inhabitants.
The biggest city is Cahors,which is the head city of the
department, and it has 22.000 people.
Annie Sargent (07:40):
Wow, I didn't realize it was that few people in Cahors.
22.000?
Elyse Rivin (07:44):
That not quite even.
I mean a little bit.
Oh wow.
Yeah, it's really...
And then the next biggest twolittle towns are 3.000 something.
Annie Sargent (07:53):
That's a village.
Elyse Rivin (07:54):
And then you have villages, you know, and then you
have hundreds, and hundreds, andhundreds of these little villages.
Annie Sargent (07:59):
And somehow we've managed to do three episodes already
about these towns in this department.
We did episode 62 was about Cahors.
So it's all about the history, blah, blah.
St Cirq Lapopie is gorgeous,but it's very, very small.
That's episode 43.
And we talked about Rocamadour, gorgeous,gorgeous, dramatic looking village.
(08:21):
That was episode 338.
So the point of this episode todayis kind of give you an overview of
all the things that you might wantto visit in the Lot Department.
We already did one aboutthe Aude Department.
And I think it's good to have an overviewof a department, even though really, in
reality, if you drive from, you know,the edge of one department and you go
(08:43):
into another, absolutely nothing changes.
This is just a, it's like drivingfrom one state to the other.
No bells go off.
No, nothing happens.
You just happen to be ina different department.
I mean, we have to, you know, we haveto group things in areas in a way that
makes some sense to French people anyway.
And that would be the departament.
Elyse Rivin (09:02):
And so it, of course, this is a way, if you look things up, and I looked
up many, many different sites in the lastcouple of days to sort of cross check some
of the information, I have been to theLot a lot, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that.
I've been to the Lot a lot.
And I really do love it, and I've been tomuch of it, I don't know if I've been to
every single village, but it's interestingto know that it is one of the departments
(09:25):
that has the most villages classifiedas most beautiful village in France.
Annie Sargent (09:30):
Oh, how many of that is that?
10.
Okay.
Well, that's right up there withthe Aveyron, which also has a lot.
Elyse Rivin (09:37):
And I think the next, I think the next after that is already
going up to Alsace or something like that.
Annie Sargent (09:42):
Oh, yeah, Alsace is chock full of them, as well.
Elyse Rivin (09:44):
Is chock full of them as well.
Right.
Yeah.
It has prehistoric caves.
Of course, the most important one thatis the most famous one is Pech Merle.
And Pech Merle is, I've just been backin the last few months to visit it.
It was my, this is like talking aboutyour childhood, my adolescent romances.
This is my first prehistoric cave.
(10:05):
Oh, I'm going to have a fit.
It was my first prehistoric cave.
It was a long, it's a long story,for those of you who want to know
about it, I'll tell you another time.
But anyway, I don't thinkI've ever gotten over it.
It is one of the few that is stillall the genuine actual drawings and
footprints and marks and engravings.
(10:25):
It is an enormous,enormous, enormous cave.
You drive along the Lot and then youkind of make this detour and you go
up into these hills where it's allthis very dry limestone and live oak.
And there you are.
And it is really ratherexquisite and rather impressive.
A word to those who are interested inanything prehistoric, Annie and I have
both been to Lascaux, three, four,five, six, God knows how many now...
(10:47):
No, it's really one, two, three,
four.
A lot.
A lot.
I've been to Niaux which is inthe Ariège, been to a bunch.
I've been to just about every prehistoriccave that is visitable in France.
This, of course, you have tohave a reservation, but this
one is really quite spectacular.
Yes.
Annie Sargent (11:02):
Yes, so, this is one that stands out as far
as accessibility, I think.
It's a little bit easier todo than Niaux, for example.
Because Niaux, you have towalk a kilometre and some
just to get to the paintings.
Whereas at Pech Merle, you godown about fifty steps, you walk a
(11:27):
little ways, but then there you are.
Elyse Rivin (11:30):
I don't think it's, I don't think it's 50 steps, but it's
definitely been set up so that thereare steps and railings everywhere.
Annie Sargent (11:37):
Yes, and there are railings.
Elyse Rivin (11:38):
And it's completely developed.
It's not, I wouldn't say it'swell lit, but you can see
where you're putting your feet.
Whereas in Niaux, you do this with atiny little flashlight and you know,
it's more difficult for people that haveaccess, you know, difficulties moving.
But Pech Merle is great, when youapproach, they have a parking lot,
(12:01):
but you must reserve in advance.
I would say this is one that youwould probably want to reserve
two or three months in advance.
It's not quite as difficult to gettickets as Font-de-Gaume because
it's not a national monument.
I don't think it's a nationalmonument at Pech Merle.
I think it's a private cave.
Annie Sargent (12:22):
Yeah, anyway.
But it's very nice, it's very well done.
There are tours in English.
They give you a little debriefwhen you arrive, before you enter
the cave, then you probably spend20 minutes inside of the cave?
50.
50?
Oh, I didn't realize it was that long.
It went went fast, I guess.
(12:43):
No, you spent almost 50 minutes insidethe cave, because you do go kind of
up and down and around, and now theyhave you stop at each of the places,
and she or he will show you the things.
Of course, these are all guided visits.
No, it's almost an hour.
We hope to take the peopleof the bootcamp in 2024.
I need to make the arrangements, but yes,we want to take bootcamp members there.
(13:04):
And I know we probably won't beable to do the whole group at once
because there are restrictions asto how many people can enter at the
same time, and they space things out.
So this is one that you need toreserve, but if you search for Pech
Merle Cave, you will find it easily,and there'll be a link in the show
notes as well, but it's really oneof the highlights of the department.
Elyse Rivin (13:30):
It has a little museum.
It has a little snack place.
I mean, it's in the middle of what isthis very lovely, kind of dry forest.
I would describe it that way.
Annie Sargent (13:39):
Yeah.
And you can totally have a snack,or a light meal or a picnic there.
Yeah.
There's stuff for all of that.
Elyse Rivin (13:45):
And it Is very close, as you go along the Lot River to the very
famous village of St Cirq Lapopie, andI'm just going to say very, something
very briefly about it, because I thinka lot of people have visited, and if
certainly have heard about it, it isreally one of the most spectacular and
beautiful villages in all of France.
And France, we know, has probably athousand gorgeous villages, really.
(14:08):
It was voted most beautiful villagein France a few years ago, and it is
absolutely unbelievable, and spectacular.
It's perched in several levelsgoing up to the top of this cliff.
And you can easily do St Cirq Lapopieand Pech Merle in the same day because
both of them are on the road that goesalong the Lot River, which you get to
(14:29):
really by going through Cahors, whichas I mentioned is the only real city
in the entire department, you know.
Annie Sargent (14:36):
Yeah, and a small city at that.
Elyse Rivin (14:38):
And a small city, although I have to say that it is quite charming.
It has the famous medieval bridgethat is the only still intact,
fortified bridge left from the MiddleAges in France, with this little
devil holding a finger on the stone.
And it has a very small, butvery interesting little medieval
Renaissance section that isslowly being rebuilt and restored.
(15:02):
So every time I go, I see there, whatbuildings that were once in ruin are now
all fixed up, and it's very charming.
It has a great market, has asuper great market on Saturdays.
It's one of those producersthat come from all over.
This is an area that has lotsof farms that produce goods,
and so this is, this is all thesouthern part of the department.
(15:22):
You can go on many, many of thesedepartmental roads, and in the show
notes, there's a list of some ofthe other villages that you can
visit that are absolutely gorgeous.
All of them have a spectacularpoint of view, they're either along
the river down below, or they'reperched up on high above on a cliff.
Some of them have chateaus that arevisitable, some of them it's just the
(15:43):
gorgeous architecture of the Lot, which isvery typical of this area, which is this
very kind of mellow pale yellow limestone.
It's not white-white, like Bordeaux white.
It's just very beautiful.
It gives a nice soft color to itwith this very beautiful brown tiles.
And these very steep roofs.
Why steep?
Because they do get a lot ofrain actually in the winter time.
Annie Sargent (16:05):
Mm hmm.
Elyse Rivin (16:06):
And if you go East, all the way to the other end of
the department, before you, and I'mgoing to let Annie talk about the
northern part, which is part thatshe actually knows better than I do.
But if you go all the way east andyou follow along the city, which
is actually a road that is lovely.
Again, these are meandering roads,you have to have plenty of time.
This is no big auto route.
There's no big auto routethat crisscrosses the Lot.
(16:29):
You have to really give yourself thetime to do this and make stops along
the way and take pictures or whatever.
But you get to the very charming,small town, let's, or small city
if you want to call it, of Figeac.
So I take it back, it is the only onethat has actually more than 3.000,
but it's about 9.000 people in Figeac.
Annie Sargent (16:47):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Figeac is a small town.
It has a fair bit of industry though,because quite a few Airbus subcontractors
are in Figeac, so they have a lot ofengineering jobs and kind of project
management for airplanes kind of jobs.
I know this because I, for ashort time, I did English over
(17:09):
the phone with these people.
And so I would get them totell me about their job.
Elyse Rivin (17:14):
But it's of course famous being the home of Champollion, the man
who translated, deciphered, more orless correct, I think the Rosetta Stone.
And so it has, besides having a verybeautiful old Renaissance city centre,
very well restored, it has the wonderfulMuseum of Written Languages, with a
huge reproduction of the Rosetta Stone.
(17:35):
It's a lovely spot to visit.
It's a little bit out of the waycompared to much of the other stuff
that you can visit and see in theLot, but it is really very lovely.
Annie Sargent (17:45):
Right.
And we did an episode aboutFigeac that was episode 143.
So it's an old one.
And it's a really great museum as well.
It's really interesting.
It's very modern.
It's been renovated not very long ago.
It's not the dusty museum that yousometimes find in small towns like this.
It's a very well worthmuseum to visit, I think.
Elyse Rivin (18:07):
I agree with you.
I think it's lovely.
If you're fascinated by writingsystems, languages, it's a
lovely, very modern museum.
It has audio guides inmany different languages.
It's really charming.
And Figeac is charming.
It is a bit on the extreme easternside of the Lot department.
But you can plan out your visit in a waythat if you're going to spend a few days
in the Lot, which is certainly somethingI would suggest, you can make a visit
(18:31):
to the Figeac and then kind of workyour way back towards the western part,
where there are lots of beautiful littlevillages, and then go up towards the
northern part, which is where the DordogneRiver actually goes through it, and
then you get to Rocamadour and Padirac.
Annie Sargent (18:46):
Right, right.
And I'll be talking about those.
But before I get to them, I wantto say that, when you are, and this
is exactly what we're going to dowith the bootcamp, so never say
that I don't spill any secrets.
What you do is you go to Pech Merle,the Painted Cave, and you spend, oh,
two, perhaps three hours there, and thenyou go to the village of Bouziès, which
(19:11):
is just down the hill by the river.
And there they have Les Croisières deSt Cirq Lapopie, is what it's called,
and you can by boat go between Bouzièsand St Cirq Lapopie, which is lovely.
Last time I was there, we couldn'tdo it because it was full and
we would have had to wait.
So I'll put a link in the show notesof where you can reserve this in
(19:36):
advance if you know you're going to go.
But you can also walk the path.
So they have a path called Le Chemin deHalage de Bouziès, this will all be in
the show notes, where you walk along,and so a chemin de halage was a place
where either beast or man pulled boats.
(20:00):
And I don't remember ifthat one was beast or man.
Elyse Rivin (20:03):
I remember that the, one time I did it, which was with a group, they
said that at first it was men, and thenafter a while they used mules or horses.
Annie Sargent (20:16):
Okay.
Yeah.
And this is before the boatshad power, you know, motors.
And it's just a beautiful, beautifulwalk, and many parts you have rock
above your head because they carvedout a piece to make this happen.
There's a piece of art, there'san art installation on the side.
(20:40):
I know I have photos of it, butI don't remember what it's called
right this moment, but there's thisbeautiful kind of metal art that's
installed along the way at some point.
And you can make your way all theway to St Cirq Lapopie that way.
I did not go all the way, did you?
I did, but I didn't go fromPech Merle, I went from Bouziès.
(21:00):
Bouziès is on the otherside side of the river.
I'm not sure if it's on theother side of the river.
But the river doesn't go allthe way up to Pech Merle.
The river goes to thebottom of Pech Merle.
Right, and Bouziès is thetown that's at the bottom.
And then from Bouziès, youcan walk to St Cirq Lapopie.
Elyse Rivin (21:19):
Then you look up and you go, Oh my God, I've got to walk up to the top.
Annie Sargent (21:24):
Did you do that?
I didn't.
Yes.
Yeah.
Well, this was only about10 years ago, but I was in a
really good shape to say here.
Good for you, I never did it.
So anyway, so it's areally, really fun day.
And lots of French people do this.
I don't think that I seea lot of foreign visitors.
Elyse Rivin (21:42):
Not doing the Chemin de Halage, I don't think so.
Annie Sargent (21:46):
They probably don't know about it.
Elyse Rivin (21:46):
Or they rent a boat and they just do a little boating on the
river, which is something of coursethat you can do in this part of the Lot.
Annie Sargent (21:52):
But kids love this.
I mean, you know, a little boat, youwalk in this beautiful path, they
get, you hear a lot of squealing.
Elyse Rivin (22:00):
Absolutely.
Absolutely, squealing, squealing.
I've just been around a squealing baby fora few days, I know about squealing, yes.
Annie Sargent (22:08):
Yes.
Okay.
So, we're not going to gointo details about Cahors, but
let's just say a few things.
It's a town.
You said, yeah, there'sa a beautiful market.
There's a gorgeous market.
There's very good wine in Cahors,although it's a very specific
type of wine that we've talkedabout on the podcast a few times.
It's great to go with kind ofhearty, meaty meals, right?
(22:33):
It's not the sort of wine that, Imean, it's very flavorful and pretty
heavy flavor, but also I thinkit's like 13, 14 degrees alcohol.
It's also pretty strong.
Elyse Rivin (22:43):
I'm not sure about the alcohol.
I did put a little bit in the show notes.
If people are interested in the historyof wines, the main grape in the Cahors
is Malbec, which was exported toArgentina, among other places, where
people think that the Malbec comes fromArgentina, but no, it comes from Cahors.
And it is, in fact, one of the mostancient red wines in France, and it has
(23:07):
a very long history, and it was basicallymade to disappear from the international
scene as a wine by the British.
One of these days, we're going to do thea hundred years war and we're going to
talk about things like that, you know,and the Black Prince and everything.
It has a fascinating history and yes, itis a very full bodied, very flavorful,
(23:27):
lots of good taste of almost cherry.
Strangely enough, I'm not a big fanof red wines, but I love this wine.
I absolutely love it.
Annie Sargent (23:34):
I like Malbec as well.
I think it's one of the best.
Elyse Rivin (23:37):
And it is really a wine that just comes from this area.
That is really what the Cahors areais known for, besides the other
foodstuffs that are known in this area.
But Cahors is basicallythe county seat of the lot.
So it has a very small but verycharming old historic center.
It has this very famous bridge, the PontValantré, which is really kind of fun
(23:58):
to go and visit, and take a picture.
Annie Sargent (24:00):
Sure.
Yes.
The cathedral isn't bad.
The inside, I remember the inside,the stained glass windows were
very modern, so I think they musthave gotten broken or something.
Elyse Rivin (24:10):
They are, but it's a very unusual church, like the churches in
the Perigord area that has a dome.
It has 2 domes, so it's anarchitecture that's very special
in relation to what you typicallysee in this area where we are here.
It's a very interesting,very old cathedral.
Annie Sargent (24:25):
It's not as striking as the one in Perigueux, but I can
see why it's a similar kind of style.
Elyse Rivin (24:31):
But basically Cahors is a place that is a good place to stop
very, I would say, briefly beforeyou go and explore further either
north or east or zigzagging to yourway into these wonderful surprise
little villages that are on thesedepartmental roads along the way.
Annie Sargent (24:48):
Yeah, yeah.
Only small roads in the Lot really.
And, you know, take your time.
You're going to have todrive 70 kilometers per hour.
And don't think that'slike the same as miles.
Elyse Rivin (25:00):
No, and 70 will be fast.
Believe me, you know.
Annie Sargent (25:03):
Yeah, most of the time it'll feel fast, so, and very
often there's not anywhere to pullover really, and it is not an easy
driving place, but if you like todrive hilly, you know, switchback
kind of places, you will love it.
Elyse Rivin (25:20):
And there are lots of gorgeous little villages.
Interestingly, it is a department thathas not a huge population, but it is a
department that has an enormous percentageof vacation homes and places to rent.
And people should know this because ifyou're interested in spending several
days, this is a place where you caneither get a gîte, or do an Airbnb.
(25:41):
Lots of people who have secondhomes rent out for part of the year.
You have lots of these beautifulold stone houses that have
been restored along the way.
Annie Sargent (25:49):
Yeah, if I was looking for a place to stay in the Lot, well,
other than Cahors and Figeac, where I'msure they have several hotels, not a ton
of them, but they might have 2-3 hotels.
I would look for either a B&Bor a Airbnb or a Gîte de France.
(26:10):
I'm sure they have a ton of them.
Yeah, and Gîte de France used to bemostly for long term rentals, but anymore
they will just rent to you for a week...
Elyse Rivin (26:21):
Oh, even long weekends.
You know, I mean, every owner candecide what they want to do, but
these are places, it's a departmentin an area that does get hot in the
summer, and so many of these places,because they are designed for bringing
tourists, and will have swimming pools.
And you can swim in the river, you canswim in the Lot, in certain parts, and
you can swim in the Dordogne, also.
This is one of the things that you shouldknow about if you're thinking of making
(26:44):
a stay in one of these areas, you know.
Annie Sargent (26:46):
Right, but if you're going in the middle of the summer, get a place
with air conditioning, you will die.
Elyse Rivin (26:51):
And swimming pool, a swimming pool.
And so if you go north, you go in northend of the department, it gets into the
more rugged part, believe it or not.
In the center of the department isan area that's called the Regional
Park of the Quercy, which is thename of one of these plateau areas.
Annie Sargent (27:09):
That's Q-U-E-R-C-Y
Elyse Rivin (27:12):
And it's filled with trails for biking and hiking, and it
has a lot of nature expositions, andthere are people who take you around.
And it, it also is an area, to mygreat surprise, that is considered to
be one of the best places in all ofFrance where you can do stargazing.
It's called the BlackTriangle of the Quercy Coast.
Annie Sargent (27:35):
Oh, wow.
Elyse Rivin (27:36):
Like the name of a new movie.
Oh, you know, and apparently there isso little light contamination, in spite
of the fact that you have these littlevillages dispersed all over the place.
They have places where they have setup telescopes and they have animators
and you can go and do a whole lot ofstargazing and stuff like that right in
(27:57):
the center of the Lot at the same time.
Annie Sargent (27:59):
So this is probably the sort of thing you can just search for.
I'll see if I can findlinks to events like this.
I mean, this is not everynight, it's once in a while.
Elyse Rivin (28:06):
No.
Right, and in fact, one ofthe sites I discovered, it's
closed in the wintertime anyway.
Annie Sargent (28:12):
Yeah, most of these places, you really don't want to go in January,
February, March perhaps, but you know,it's best to go April through October.
Yeah.
Elyse Rivin (28:24):
And then you have some of these villages.
I'm just going to mentionthe names of them.
If you love beautiful old villages withstone houses, churches, ruins of chateaus,
or chateaus that are actually in a statewhere you can visit them, perched on
top of a cliff or down below a river,you will have your fill in the Lot.
(28:46):
A couple of them are placesthat I discovered and found
absolutely magnificent.
One of them is really up in thenorthern end called Autoire.
It's very small, it's spectacularand surrounded by cliffs
where you can do these hikes.
You have Cajarc, which turns out tobe one I haven't visited, but where
a lot of famous people actually have,or had summer homes, including Georges
(29:09):
Pompidou, who was the president of France.
Like, thank you very much.
It's also the centre Cajarc of themarket for saffron, which is one of
the products, or one of the, I don't,product isn't really the right word.
One of the..
Annie Sargent (29:22):
Crops?
Crops,
Elyse Rivin (29:23):
thank you, of the Lot, which is of course very exotic at this
point because, it used to be very, veryimportant and now, of course, I think
it's just a sort of specialty crop.
But it turns out to that Cajarcis where you can do some shopping
for real genuine saffron.
Annie Sargent (29:38):
Nice.
Elyse Rivin (29:39):
There's a small town that's beautiful on the northern end
of the department called Martel, whichis known for its seven towers, and
it is the home of the truffle market.
Annie Sargent (29:49):
Aha.
Nice.
Elyse Rivin (29:51):
Do you like truffles, Annie?
In small quantities.
Mm.
Annie Sargent (29:54):
I like truffles, I like truffled oil.
If you make an omelette, when youromelette's all done and nice and dry, I
like my omelettes really dry, you justput a tiny bit of truffle oil over it.
Ooh, it tastes good.
I have to admit that I've onlytasted it once or twice, and I'm
not sure I know exactly what itreally tastes like a truffle.
(30:15):
Oh, I know what it tasteslike, but I can't describe it.
It can be very strong.
I don't like strong truffle, butif it's done with flair, it's good.
It will make any vegetable, like aplain old vegetable, like a zucchini,
or a heaven forbid, like spinach...
Yeah.
Broccoli, it doesn't go along, but ofcourse, I don't really like broccoli,
(30:38):
so nothing goes along with it.
Elyse Rivin (30:39):
Okay.
We'll stay with omelets and truffles.
I think that's the best.
Annie Sargent (30:43):
I think omelettes with a tiny bit of truffle oil over.
A little bit of cheese with truffle?
Perhaps.
Elyse Rivin (30:48):
That's a specialty around this area for Christmas.
Annie Sargent (30:50):
Yeah, and probably then.
Oh, no, I lie, I've had brie witha truffle mixture in between the
brie, oh, that's really good, huh?
Yes.
yes, yes, and I don't even, andI don't even like brie that much.
But you have to, you don'twant to let that brie run.
That brie needs to be eaten withinhalf an hour out of the fridge.
(31:11):
It's like one of these servingsecrets, some brie you want
them to run, some you do not.
Elyse Rivin (31:15):
Okay, I'll let it run away from me.
I'll let it go somewhere else.
Really.
Another village that I find gorgeous isa village called Carennac, which is also
going north, towards Rocamadour and hasa beautiful, beautiful Benedictine Abbey.
And a magnificent, magnificent château.
So, there are just a whole bunch of them.
(31:36):
There's a list you will be able tosee and you can take a look on the map
and you can sort of plot out where youwant to go and what you want to do.
As you get further north, youget to the very mysterious
and very dramatic Rocamadour.
Annie Sargent (31:51):
Yes, so this is where I take over, because...
This is where she takes over.
Elyse Rivin (31:54):
All that
Annie Sargent (31:55):
Rocamadour is my jam.
So, I have must have gone to Rocamadourand nearby, Gouffre de Padirac several
times as a kid, for sure, because itwas one of my mother's favorite outings.
We would go for the longweekend or something.
And by the way, if you are going to bein France during one of our many long
weekends coming up, beware, French peoplelike to go out on long weekends, and so
(32:20):
things are going to be very, very busy.
But so, Rocamadour, as you approach,you see this beautiful village in
the cliff, on the side of the cliff.
Now we did an, a whole episode aboutit, it was episode 338, where I even
have details in the show notes forthat episode about where you should
park, because it's not very easilyaccessible since it's so hilly.
(32:45):
So you can park at the bottom and walk up.
But, you know, the knees don't likethat too much anymore, so I tend to try
and park on the top, and take the...
You can take the elevatorfrom the bottom as well.
There's an elevator.
It costs a few euros, but it'swell worth it, the elevator.
And it is gorgeous, there is apilgrimage route if you want to do that.
(33:07):
It takes you to an old churchthat was very, very small.
Elyse Rivin (33:10):
Carved in the rock.
Annie Sargent (33:11):
Yes.
yes, yes.
It's very nice.
So I would say that if you go toRocamadour, it's a good place to
stay, and I would recommend thatyou stay away from Rocamadour where
you have the view of the village.
If you're in the village,you cannot see the village.
So, you know, stay away from Rocamadour.
(33:32):
Most of the hotels, so these hotels arenot very, very large because most of the
year, they don't have a need for a lot ofhotel rooms, but in the big busy months,
they get full very fast and you pay apremium when you go in the busy months.
So, work that out well in advance,especially if you're going in May
(33:54):
when we have the long weekends.
But anytime you go to a place likethis that's very touristy and doesn't
have a lot of accommodations, you canplan on, you know, difficulties finding
a room, and paying a premium for it.
I mean, that's just how it is.
Elyse Rivin (34:09):
Just to make sure, if you can listen to the episode
on Rocamadour, but when Annie saysthat it's hilly, St Cirq Lapopie
is steep, but this is beyond steep.
This is cut into four levels onthis huge 150 meter high cliff.
And it is absolutely amazing to see.
Annie Sargent (34:29):
And the other thing my mother liked to do when we went,
oh, there's another thing now,there's La Forêt des Singes, so
the forest of monkeys, where themonkeys are trained, really, I mean,
they're macaque monkeys, variety ofmacaque, I don't know which ones.
And they will come to you becausethey know you have peanuts.
When you enter, they give you a bag,a small bag of peanuts, and they tell
(34:50):
you not to give them anything else,because if you enter the property with
anything else, the monkeys can smell it.
I mean, they want the peanuts, but theyalso want whatever else you might have,
and they can get a little bit aggressive.
Elyse Rivin (35:02):
Yes, macaques can.
Annie Sargent (35:03):
Yes, so don't enter that with any food other
than the ones that they give you.
And I think they really should stopgiving because, you know, kids get kind
of pushed around by the monkeys if theparents are not careful, et cetera.
So that's something where Iwent several times as a kid.
And also you have The Gouffre dePadirac, which is a favorite of mine.
(35:25):
So this is...
a gouffre is a...
I think you say it's a chasm?
It's a chasm, right.
It's a chasm.
It's a vertical, it's like a well inthe sense, you know, it's a vertical
hole that goes down very deep.
It's a giant well.
Yes, but it's a natural well,and so to get in, you have to
(35:46):
take some steps to begin with.
And then there's differentlevels, you know, they make
you stop here and stop there.
And then you get into an elevatorthat takes you to the bottom.
And it's not a very long elevatorride, but there is an elevator.
And then, or perhaps you cando the whole thing by foot.
(36:06):
I don't recall if you can do the whole?
I remember getting in anelevator, so probably everybody
gets in on the elevator.
At any rate, you get to thebottom and it's 103 meters.
So that's probably, what?
Elyse Rivin (36:22):
350 feet?
Annie Sargent (36:23):
Yeah, so how many stories is that?
If it was a building.
It'd be a 10 story building or something?
Elyse Rivin (36:29):
It's pretty deep.
Annie Sargent (36:31):
It's into the ground and you get to the bottom and you walk
around the cave a little bit and yousee some beautiful cave formations just
like any other cave and then you getto some boats, some flat bottom boats.
And they have gondoliers, I guess,that will take you around, in the
underground river and it is so fun.
(36:53):
And as you're about to exit,they at some point they take...
they flash a...
It's like Disneyland.
They take your photo and then youcan buy the photo when you exit.
And so I have photos of me atthat spot a few times, you know.
I love it.
It's beautiful.
It's peaceful.
It is a place where a lot oftour guides will bring people.
(37:14):
And so it is full ofbus loads of tourists.
So this is something thatyou have to plan in advance.
Do not just pull up andhope you get a ticket.
You won't.
So, look online, buy your tickets atleast a couple of weeks in advance.
If it's high season and a long weekendor something, then, you know, book
(37:38):
as soon as the tickets are available.
They do close for the winter a littlebit, so it's possible, like, I looked
at Pech Merle just yesterday, so PechMerle is closed this time of year,
which is January, early January.
But their website doesn'twork either, which is weird.
So you can't even buy tickets.
You can't buy tickets now.
(37:59):
So they, when they come back towork, which I believe is March,
they will then reopen the sales.
But this is normal for, this is parfor the course in France, things
close in the winter months, andespecially rural France like that.
So Padirac is kind of like that as well,although I didn't go looking for tickets
yesterday, but I'm sure you, you needto do this a little bit ahead of time.
(38:22):
It happens that Padirac and Rocamadour,because they're so very close to each
other, they get masses and massesof tourists, which interestingly
enough, I mean, Pech Merle getstourists, but it's not like Rocamadour.
It turns out that after Mont SaintMichel, it is the second most
visited site outside of Paris.
Is that right?
That doesn't surprise me.
You know, we've said this a lot aboutCarcassonne, you know, don't go on a
(38:45):
long weekend or any weekend in the summerreally, because it's so full of people.
Rocamadour is that sort of place.
So it would be better, like if youhave your druthers, I would take people
there in April, perhaps in October.
May, except for thelong weekends, you know.
(39:06):
Yeah, May, the long weekends aregoing to be very busy, very busy.
And they have busloads, I mean, theseare places that have busloads of people
because it is still considered a sanctuaryand a lot of people go there and they
have two music festivals in the summer.
So it's a very big tourist attraction.
Yeah.
And well deserved because it is beautifuland it's extremely picture worthy, like
(39:29):
you can't take a bad picture in there.
It's lovely, lovely.
So yes, I do recommend yougo, but timing is important.
And this area, which is really getting,if you take a look at the map of how, of
course, the department of the Lot, whicheverything is kind of cut up, all of these
were created at the time of the Revolutionanyway, But we are getting to the northern
end of the department, and this is whereyou have the town of Martel, where you
(39:53):
have another town, which is right onthe edge, actually going into Dordogne,
which is called Gourdon which, it's notas exquisite because part of it is old
and very pretty, but it's more of a town.
It's industrial.
Gourdon is industrial.
Elyse Rivin (40:06):
It's got a very, I'm not sure how industrial it is, but
I know it's famous for its market.
Annie Sargent (40:10):
Okay.
Elyse Rivin (40:11):
It's a place that has a certain amount of
accommodations of the kind ofthings you would look for in a city.
Annie Sargent (40:16):
All right.
So it has restaurantsand hotels and things.
Elyse Rivin (40:19):
Pharmacies, you know, I think a clinic, you know, that kind of stuff.
This is at the northwesternedge of, of the department.
But from there you can kind of go inevery direction, you go west into the
Dordogne and just, you know, northinto the Corrèze and all of that.
And this area is very wild.
The part of the Lot that is the wildestin terms of it not being very domesticated
(40:42):
is this northern part of the department.
And it has some of these very strangelittle beautiful villages hidden away.
So it's kind of fun if you're interestedin exploring and not knowing exactly
where you're going to wind up, if youhave a place to stay and you just one
day want to go driving around, this isa kind of a fun thing to do, you know?
Annie Sargent (41:00):
Well, and of course, seeing that it's only a couple of hours away from
Toulouse, this is something I've startedto offer as a day trip, you know, kind
of a day thing we can do from Toulouse.
Go to Pech Merle in the morning, StCirq Lapopie in the afternoon, Cahors on
the way back, get some wine, come home.
This is a whole full day.
This is a very full day.
You have to, you know, be ready togo at eight in the morning, you're
(41:22):
not going to be back in your hoteluntil eight at night, but it's a
very full, beautiful day that I offeras a private guided visit as well.
If you'd like to do that andstuff like that, you can see
at joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
And I'm hardly the onlyone who offers this.
It is obviously somethingthat a lot of people do.
(41:43):
But the Lot is just beautiful.
It's just beautiful.
If you want to go biking, it's notsurprising to see people doing not
so long, like long distance biking,but you see people riding around
with panniers, you know, stoppinghere and there to camp overnight.
It is not an uncommon sight.
(42:05):
And so drivers expect that around thecorner, there might be some bikes.
And so you just, you driveslowly, you drive carefully.
You have to be zen driving the countryroads in the place like the Lot.
And you can go rafting as well, asyou noted, there's rafting there.
The food and drink.
We didn't, talk about that.
So let's get to the food and drink.
Yeah.
Elyse Rivin (42:25):
Very important.
Well, we'd mentioned the Cahorswines, of course, which...
We also mentioned the truffles.
And the truffles.
Is it produced locally?
Truffles are actually one ofthe specificities of the Causse,
is that strangely enough,it's covered with live oak.
Now, I lived in California, so I'm, I knowwhat it's like, land that has live oak.
It's apparently minerallypoor, it's not very...
(42:47):
but it's typical that trufflesgrow under the live oak.
You know, and of course now theyhave dogs trained so that the little
piggies don't eat them, you know.
They give the dog a nice bone and thenthey, you know, dig up the truffle,
although I just saw a report on televisionthe other day that said that this
year there's been too much rain, andso they're rotting underground, which
(43:08):
is a catastrophe for the people whomake their money by going truffling.
And going truffling is a very oldtradition in France and people have
places that they know where to go.
And even though it's a very complicatedthing, it goes back a long time
in the history of France, but thepeople take their truffles that
they found to this market, likeat Martel, where they sell them.
(43:30):
Very often can be up to a thousandeuros a kilo for truffles.
I mean, it's a lot.
So this year, apparently, there'sa big problem because they're all
kind of getting too wet inside.
But this is where the truffles grow inthis part that's relatively dry with
the live oak and everything like that.
And so yes, it is local.
And there's also the famousgoat cheese, the Rocamadour.
Annie Sargent (43:52):
Ah, of course!
Elyse Rivin (43:54):
Which I love.
Le Rocamadour c'est bonne!
So they look like hockey pucks.
Annie Sargent (43:59):
Yeah.
Elyse Rivin (44:00):
That's exactly what they look like, you know.
Annie Sargent (44:01):
Yeah, but when it gets in your mouth it's a lot
nicer hockey puck to the teeth.
It melts in your mouth better thana hockey puck does, you know, yes.
Elyse Rivin (44:09):
Definitely.
And walnuts.
That's the other thing that's strangeis that there's the famous, and I love
walnuts, there's a famous walnut ofQuercy, which is also something that
grows in this strange kind of climateand on these limestone plateaus.
And so you have walnuts and walnutoil, which is absolutely delicious.
I absolutely love it.
(44:30):
It's not cheap, but it'sjust absolutely delicious.
And every year I buy a kilo ortwo, a bag of the walnut of Quercy.
There are two regions of France thatgrow walnuts, one of them is near
the Alps, and this was the other one.
This is the area.
Dordogne also has walnuts, no?
Yeah.
Well, I think it's theQuercy kind of overlaps.
It's kind of like goesboth sides, you know?
Now they're, of course, they'regrown specifically, but they were
(44:52):
actually just a natural tree,I mean, that grew in the area.
Then they grafted them tomake them more, more edible.
So, there's the cheese,there's the truffles, there's
the saffron, there's walnuts.
And of course they have thiswonderful walnut cake that they make.
Hmm,
Annie Sargent (45:07):
And the Rocamadour cheese, what you do is you let it
get to room temperature and then youput a tiny bit of honey on top and
you sprinkle some chopped up walnuts.
Ooh, ooh, ooh, it's delicious.
I'm telling you, it's delicious.
And that with a glass of Cahors wine andyou're in good, you're happy as can be.
Elyse Rivin (45:29):
I'm just thinking one more.
Oh, yes, the melon ofQuercy, which I love.
Which one is it?
It's like a cantaloupe.
It's delicious.
I love it.
But it's pink inside.
It's orangey inside.
Yes.
And it's one of the, there arethree regions of France that
produce a melon that Americans wouldconsider to be like a cantaloupe.
Okay.
And this is considered to be the best.
(45:50):
It's the sweetest.
There are melons from Provence, right,the Cavaillon, but the melon of Quercy,
I'm not sure why, comes at the end,I think, of the season, but it is
considered to be absolutely delicious.
That's probably their problem, becauseby the end of the season, you've eaten so
many melons, you're not ready for more,especially if it's really expensive.
And they have lamb.
(46:11):
And, for those who are meat eaters,there is the lamb of Quercy,
which is a specialty of the area.
You can have a nice meal fromjust the things from this area.
Big surprise, you can havea nice meal in the Lot.
In the Lot, and not have anythingthat doesn't grow in the Lot.
Well, after a few days,you'd want something else.
(46:31):
Of course.
Yeah.
Get your little green saladin there somewhere, you know.
Oh, come on.
Take advantage of being in this areaand do yourselves a favor and go
explore because there are some villagesthat are just absolutely gorgeous.
And besides seeing the mainstays, the StCirq Lapopie and things like that, that
everybody goes to, and they are gorgeous,of course, but they're with zillions of
(46:55):
people most of the time, you would besurprised at how gorgeous some of these
other villages are with their chateaus.
Yeah, go see the other ones.
We have a short list here but you saidthere's 10 of them, I don't think you
put all 10 show but it's easy enough.
You know plus beau villages
Right.
Lot Department.
And even the ones that arelike small towns, big villages,
they're just beautiful as well.
(47:17):
You know, you just go around the cornerand you go, oh gosh look at that.
Annie Sargent (47:22):
Just go, people just go.
Merci beaucoup, Elyse.
Elyse Rivin (47:25):
You're welcome, Annie.
Au revoir.
Annie Sargent (47:35):
The Join Us in France travel podcast is written, hosted,
and produced by Annie Sargent andCopyright 2024 by AddictedToFrance.
It is released under a CreativeCommons, attribution, non-commercial,
no derivatives license.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.