In this section: Rocamadour | Bordeux | Cahors

The Chateau de Rodie, our location in the Lot, is within driving distance of each of these major centres.  Rocamadour is the Lot’s most popular tourist destination, an extraordinary site perched on the side of a steep cliff.

Bordeaux is the centre of France’s most famous wine producing area while Cahors is notable for its “black” wine and for the Valentre Bridge, an impregnable fortress bridge on the River Lot.

 

One of France’s most unusual places of pilgrimage, Rocamadour was formerly a Celtic shrine, its Christian use dating from the 11th Century.  It contains the celebrated sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary – the Black Madonna – and attracts around 1.5m visitors a year (not all are pilgrims), though it has a local population of less than 1,000.

Rocomadour is one of the most extraordinarily sited places in France, its buildings rising in stages up the side of a limestone cliff on the bank of the River Alzou.  It is probably best to start at the bottom, where you will also see the most well-known views of the village, and work your way up, though you can do the trip the other way round.  The car parks at the bottom give access to a number of tourist shops and then the bottom of 216 weathered steps – the Grand Escalier - up to the churches, which are mainly located about half way up the cliff.  Pilgrims used to climb these steps on their knees.  Alternatively, there is an elevator from the lower town.

Everything of religious importance is arranged around the Parvis des Eglises, a small enclosed square.  There are seven sanctuaries in all.  The largest is the Basilique St Sauveur which contains the Chapelle Notre Dame where the small walnut statue of the Black Madonna is displayed.  Above the statue is a 9th Century bell which is rung to announce the occurrence of miracles.

Elsewhere there is the subterranean church of St Amadour – the hermit who the village is named after.  Since the 15th Century he has been fancifully identified with the historical figure of Zaccheus, husband of Veronica, who wiped the blood and sweat from the face of Christ as he walked to Calvary.

Rocamadour is also famous for its cheese, a very young goats’ cheese

 

The third largest port in France, Bordeaux owes its wealth almost entirely to the wine industry.  Despite the rise of new wine producing nations, the area around Bordeaux remains the largest and most important quality wine-producing region in the world.  Most of the tourists are here to visit the wine chateaux of which there are, literally hundreds.

There are four main wine producing sub-regions in the area – Medoc; Graves and Sauternes; St-Emilion and Pomerol; and Entre-Deux-Mers.   Individual vineyards include the famous Chateaux of Lafite, Latour, d’Yquem, Mouton-Rothschild, Margaux, etc (though these represent a tiny percentage of the total wine production in the regions). 

Around 90% of the wines produced are red, based on the main grape varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet franc and Merlot.  These are then blended together, a pattern copied throughout the world.  There are also some famous white wines such as Sauvignon Blanc.

Bordeaux itself is not the most spectacular city, but does have a number of historical sights, for the most part situation in the Quartier St-Pierre to the east of the city centre.  The Esplanades des Quinconces is said to be the largest square in Europe and is home to the Maison du Vin, a great starting point for all information relating to the wine industry and for those who want to visit the vineyards, many of which can only be visited by appointment at set times.

Also worth a visit in this area is St-Emilion – one of the most picturesque towns in the area.  This town is a maze of old-fashioned steep little streets and squares whose walls are clustered in vines.  One other highlight is the subterranean Eglise Monolithe hewn out of solid rock by Benedictine monks and the supposed tomb of the hermit Emilion after whom the town is named.

 

 

Built on the inside of a tight loop of the river Lot, Cahors was a prosperous university and commercial city in the Middle Ages.  It was once the leading banking centre in Europe lending money to popes and kings.  It was the scene of a major siege by the English during the Hundred Years War.

The image always associated with Cahors is that of the Pont Valentre, a fortress-bridge dating from the 14th Century and one of the finest examples of defensive architecture in France. 

Cahors is only about 25 km from the Chateau where our well-being break is being held.