Archive for: November 2006

The western edges of the Massif Central and the northern slopes of the Pyrenees are noted for an excellent concentration of Palaeolithic caves.  Lascaux is set a little further away from the traditional sites, but is the most famous of these early Stone Age caves.  When you get there, you’ll hear the story of how four teenage boys stumbled upon Lascaux in 1940 on a day’s outing.  They knew that their discovery was important and decided to keep it a secret … for four days, and finally told their teacher.  This then evolved into perhaps the greatest archaelogical find in the 20th century.   

I hadn’t researched this town prior to our visit and was surprised to learn that Sarlat-la-Caneda has the highest concentration of medieval, Renaissance and 17th century facades of any town in France.  Our entry into this town was via the main street, the rue de la Republique, which itself was pretty nondescript.  However, once you get away from the main drag, you’ll be surprised at what lies beyond.

Rocamadour is a historic shrine perched on a clifftop. The town was one of the most famous centres of pilgrimage following the discovery in 1166 of an ancient grave and sepulchre which contained an …

We were told that Cahors is famous for truffles and that got our excitement up.  We were fortunate to arrive in this little town when the Saturday morning market was on.  French markets are great to walk through as you inevitably get to see and smell an amazing range of cheeses, sausages and other regional delicacies.  Although we don’t eat meat, our favourite stall was a sausage stand where the vendor had decorative miniature model pigs, goats etc amongst the sausages.  Cahors is also famous for its ‘black wine’ and this we did see a lot in the market, no truffles though.  It was a bit early for wine-tasting, but that didn’t stop some!

We arrived here in the late afternoon and didn’t have much time to explore Toulouse-Lautrec’s home town.  Still feeling under the weather, we dragged ourselves to the Cathedrale Ste-Cecile and were glad that we did as this building is awesome.  It’s …

Nimes’ Roman amphitheatre (Les Arenes) is one of the best preserved of its kind and its arches remind you of the Colosseum in Rome.  Construction of the Colosseum was completed in 80 AD under Titus and Les Arenes was built at the end of the 1st century AD, so maybe that’s where the inspiration came from.  Nimes had a turbulent history and suffered during the 16th century Wars of Religion.  Fortunately, the town prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries from textile manufacturing and, voila, anyone who’s worn denim jeans has this town to thank for as denim originated from Nimes, “de Nimes”.

This was the medieval town I was most looking forward to and it was impressive.  The perfectly restored medieval walled town lies on the right bank of the River Aude and is featured on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. …

This is the seaside resort in the Camargue where a large gathering of Gypsies takes place once a year, unfortunately not when we were there (it’s held in May). A pleasant little fishing village Stes. Maries-de-la-Mer is quite compact although not particularly picturesque. There’s a convenient white sand beach