So a change of location at the weekend as we packed up at Anglars-Juillac and made our way east along the Lot river to Cahors, about 25 miles away. We were very sorry to say goodbye to such a stunning campsite and knew our next stop would be very different.
The new campsite at Cahors Cabessut, on the banks of the Lot about half a mile away from the town centre is a change in a number of ways. Firstly we don’t have a river view at this site although there is easy access to the river if we want to look at it, secondly this is a larger site with more standard campsite pitches and, thirdly there is a majority of French campers, including many families, so there is more life (or noise). This site too seems to be well set up with Covid measures and all areas are managed well. It will be compulsory from tomorrow to wear face masks in all shops and indoor places, although we have been doing that anyway.
What we lose in not having an idyllic view (and hopefully there are more of those to come) we make up for in being so close to Cahors which we love as a town. The historic parts of Cahors are nestled in a loop of the river with bridges at various points of the town. The cathedral celebrated 900 years last year and many of the streets still reveal ancient half-timbered buildings.
After setting up we set off on our bicycles to reacquaint ourselves with the centre of the town and to refresh ourselves with a drink. One of the main attractions and, indeed the symbol of the town, is the beautiful 14th century six-span bridge – Pont Valentré. A photo of the bridge taken last year is the headline photo for our blog and Claire has many more of those and could look at it all day. We don’t have a photo of it by night yet but that’s on the to do list for this trip. There will be more stories about the bridge on this blog- and certainly more photos.
On Sunday we decided to repeat a walk we did last year (only in temperatures 10-15C less than this time) that goes up to Mont Saint-Cyr and provides great views over the town. The clue is in ‘mont’, so it was a shortish but steep, hot walk with tantalising views through the trees as we climbed higher, until we reached the viewing point at the top. From here you can see the loop in the river, the old town and the suburbs of Cahors. Well worth the effort and we enjoyed a picnic lunch whilst taking in the view. We rehydrated at a small bar at the end of the walk and explored some of the narrow streets in the old town that we hadn’t visited previously.
