The Valantré Bridge over the River Lot is the symbol of Cahors
Our 16th stop on this jaunt around France was Cahors, a city of 20,000 in southwest France just a couple hours north of Toulouse. Cahors is all but surrounded by the River Lot as it makes a big looping curve to encircle the city on three sides. It makes for a lovely, compact town with an historic center and fabulous medieval bridge.
Certainly the most interesting, even iconic site in Cahors is the Valentré Bridge, dating from the 14th century. These days it is still used as a footbridge to cross the Lot and is part of the Camino de Santiago, linking Le Puy-en-Velay, France, to Santiago, Spain. And indeed as we wandered around the old town we saw more than a couple hikers who sure looked as though they were heading to Spain.
Mark having dinner at Ô Clos Chai where we had lunch one day and dinner the next. It’s not that the food was that good – it was fine – but more because we loved the atmosphere and the service.
Two things about the town stood out to me besides the bridge. First, this is the center of the Cahors wine district, a strictly defined area of Malbec wines. And while we are by far more familiar with the Malbecs of Argentina (which, of course, came from France), the Cahors Malbecs were really good and some of the darkest wines – almost black – I’ve ever had.
The other thing I love about Cahors is a piece of history. In medieval times Cahors financiers actually charged interest on loans. Today that doesn’t seem so unusual but at the time usury, as it was known, was a terrible sin. They were so infamous that the word Cahorsins became synonymous with usury throughout much of Western Europe. In fact, in Dante’s Inferno he ranked Cahors right along Sodom as a city of sin. Cool!
Typical winding street in the old city
A big market in Cahors
Reading in the back yard of our hotel, right on the Lot
The city had some of the most interesting tiny gardens I’ve seen, including this Moorish park where I sat and read for an hour or two
Lunch at Bonnie, by far the best food we had in Cahors
On the bridge – in my sweater that Mark thought was the right color for the space
The bridge at night
More bridge at night
This was the view from a small balcony in our room. Not bad!
How exciting is this? In Toulouse Gena mentioned that she was having things mailed back to NY that she didn’t want to carry. Wait – you can do that? Mark carries books, actual books, and had finished a bunch of them. And my running shoes aren’t doing me any good since I’ve screwed up both a toe and a knee. So it was with great joy that we went to the post office, got this box, and shipped a bunch of stuff home. Our bags are so much lighter!