Rocamadour and Cahors

lhprophet
Jul 25, 2024
2 min read

The first thing we did was to do Rocamadour from top to bottom .

We walked along the top of the cliff edge towards the Château that is on the very top of Rocamadour.

Of course, we got many good views along the way

At the Château, you are able to get onto the ramparts to get the best view over the valley. It was extremely busy.

After getting some great snaps, we went down the stations of the cross path that the pilgrims come up. They is also a grotto with tombs here.

We then got down to the basilica middle level with many chapels. We saw the main old chapel which has built into the rock from the 12th century.

We weren’t able to do the tour to see the black Madonna carved from walnut in the 12th century but this is what she looks like. When she arrived here miracles started to happen and the bell on the top is supposed to ring by itself when these happen.

We then went down the giants staircase where the pilgrims traditionally came up on their knees. It’s 216 steps.

This brought us to the level where all the shops are. Many are interesting, including the fromage shop where we bought the traditional Rocamadour goats cheese.

We then had to walk up the steep path back to the old hospital area, where Gus is parked. We got back there and had a quick lunch then got ready to leave.

It was back onto the windy roads through green and agricultural land.

Coming into Cahors, the grapevines started appearing. We found a good spot in the free camping car park in the south of the city right next to the river. The city of Cahors is on the opposite side of the river. We went for a walk to check out the area..

We first went through the very old quarter of the city towards the cathedral with narrow streets between lovely old houses. There were posters about people in the French resistance who had been killed by the Germans . Here is the Google Translate version.

We then went into the cathedral, which is older than 12 century as it has domes that are Roman style. It’s only a later addition that added the tower at the front.

The inside was pretty amazing with the painted dome. There were projections on the second dome.

We then went into the cloister, which were amazingly constructed.

A side chapel had some very old paintings.

We continued our hot walk across the middle of Cahors to the old 14th century bridge. It was very well preserved, and looked like something out of a medieval film.