PalenQ

There is also a direct overnight train Toulouse-Paris - couchettes and regular 1st and 2nd class seating.

frenchaucoeur

Thanks, Cath, Figeac is pretty near the top of our list; we might have stayed there but it wasn't the most well located for some of the other places we want to see. (We're leaning toward staying around Lacave,in the north.) But we'll certainly dedicate a day to it. We've been to Rocamadour--no interest at all in repeating that experience!--but want to see all the lovely villages in the northern Lot and the southern Correze.

And we plan to make a long day trip to Villefranche de Rouergue, Belcastel, and possibly Najac if we can fit it in. Not sure if we'll get to Cahors, but we certainly plan to do the drive along the Lot around St Cirq Lapopie--maybe a ride in a gabarre?--and then the drive north along the Cele toward Figeac, although we'll probably visit the town itself on a different day to ensure that we have as much time as we want.

Planning is so much fun!

Cathinjoetown

I love planning too, mine or anyone else's. If Cahors is out of the way, while a nice town I wouldn't make a hige effort. From St Cirq east it's all gorgeous. Figeac--very special ime and imo!

StuDudley

Figeac is one of our "top 5" small cities in France. As Cathinjoetown stated, the Cele River from St Cirq to Figeac is beautiful - lots of interesting small villages and houses built on the side of rock cliffs. If you visit Figeac, get a walking map from the Tourist Office & follow it. You can visit Figeac during lunch when shops are closed because the shopping area isn't what "makes" Figeac - it's the interesting architectures & the "drying porches".

Stu Dudley

sundriedtopepo

CAthinjoetown, sorry to butt in here, but we were planning to drive from Cahors along the Lot to Figeac. I notice that some here drive from St Cirq la Popie along the Cele to Figeac instead. Would you venture an opinion on which is the more scenic route?

Cathinjoetown

It was about five years ago so memory isn't exact but we stayed on the north side of the Lot for maybe 1-2 hours after St. Cirq, then cut up to Figeac. The road literally hugs the river on a slight rise, cut outs and short tunnels through the rock. I have no photos but there should be many online.

Have not done the other route, the river at Figeac was sluggish when we were there in early autumn, it's not as wide as the Lot. But, we did not drive along it for any distance.

StuDudley

We've driven both routes several times. On one visit, we drove from Cahors to Figeac following the Cele, and returned to Cahors on the Lot. The Cele route was much more interesting. There are more villages to wander through on the Cele. Many of the views of the Lot are obscured by vegetation.

You must not have my Dordogne itinerary - where I describe these drives in more detail, and also express our opinion about the Cele vs Lot. If you would like a copy, e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach one to the reply e-mail. I've sent my various itineraries to over 6,000 people on Fodors (really!) I revised my Dordogne itinerary last year after our 3 week trip to the Lot & Dordogne.

Stu Dudley

StuDudley

Here is the section of my Dorodnge itinerary that describes the St Cirq Lapopie/Figeac area:

Visiting the sites east of the A20

My wife & I stayed in this region and rented a gite in Carennac for 2 weeks in early Sept 2016. As I mentioned earlier, if you are planning on visiting the Dordogne for 6 nights or more, spend some time in this area by either staying for 2-3 nights, or visiting it on the way from or to the Languedoc or Provence regions east of the Dordogne.

Someone recently asked me to name our favorite "cute little villages" in this "east of the A20" region. They are:
St Cirq Lapopie**
Carennac*+
Martel*
Collonges la Rouge**
Rocamadour does not fit my definition of a "cute little village"
As noted below, Figeac is one of our "top 5" small cities in France

To describe the sites to visit, I'll suggest two "day trips" from the Central/Sarlat Dordogne area, plus comments on "what's left?"

If you only have time for one day-trip in this area
I would recommend heading out early and drive to the St Cirq Lapopie and the Pech Merle Cave area. Pech Merle is a 1 1/2 hr scenic drive from Sarlat via Gourdon. Reserve ahead for Pech Merle*** http://en.pechmerle.com/ and try to get an early morning tour. The cave opens at either 9:15 or 9:30 in the tourist season. There is also a museum associated with the cave. Pech Merle is the only cave you can visit that has both stalactites & mites and pre-historic cave paintings. It's our favorite in the region. After visiting Pech Merle (or before, if you reserved later in the morning) visit St Cirq Lapopie** - one of the best "Plus Beaux Villages" in France https://www.francetoday.com/travel/t...llages-france/ . St Cirq would be a good choice for lunch. After Pech Merle/St Cirq, drive along the beautiful Cele River* (D41) to one of our "top 5" small cities in France - Figeac**. While driving along the Cele River to Figeac, admire the medieval houses built into the sides of the stone cliffs. Espagnac Ste Eulalie is an good village for a walk-around and St Sulpice has some interesting troglodyte buildings. Marcilhac sur Cele is only OK - walk by the Cele river next to the Abbey.

They have done a very good job of making Figeac** a tourist friendly town. There’s a walking itinerary in the Michelin Green Guide, and you can also obtain an excellent walking itinerary (in English) at the tourist office. The Tourist Office itinerary is much better than the Michelin one. The various sites are marked with placards along the way. Note the top floor “porches” around town which were used for drying laundry, storing wood, growing plants, etc. in medieval times. This is a beautiful town – we spent 1 ½ hrs walking around, following the itinerary we obtained from the tourist office. Almost every store in town was closed for lunch (not that great of a shopping town anyway), and most stores were closed on Monday (Sunday also). By contrast, we spent less than 30 minutes touring Cahors.

In '05, we drove from Cahors to Figeac following the Cele River, and back to Cahors following the Lot River. We thought that the Cele River was the more scenic of the two, although both are quite picturesque.

After visiting Figeac, head back to the Sarlat area. It should take you 2 hrs via the D802, and 2 1/4 hrs via the D80 which passes close to Rocamadour*** (no time for a visit at this point) and through Martel* (visit if you have the time - see below).

Stu Dudley

sundriedtopepo

Thanks for the refresh Stu. I have your itinerary but it's been a while since I read it through.

PalenQ

About TGVs to Paris - many I think are Duplex trains - doubledeckers and when booking book a seat on the upper deck for far better views than from the sunken lower level.

StuDudley

>>book a seat on the upper deck for far better views than from the sunken lower level.<<

Better views perhaps - but you may have to haul your bags up narrow stairs. And then back down the stairs when it's time to get off the train - which isn't any fun, I guess, because we've always sat on the lower sunken level where I've never encountered any "sunken".

Stu Dudley

Cathinjoetown

Am fairly sure the double deckers on the Toulouse to Paris run are all on the slow train.

By far the best value for me is the faster TGV route via Bordeaux--no change just a short stop in Bordeaux. The idtgv first class tickets are usually very good value.

StCirq

I've never experienced any negative "sunken-ness" on a train in France, either, and we take French trains ALL the time.

Albi isn't falling into desuetude anymore than any French town and is always worth visiting. Our own nearest town, Le Bugue, has witnessed a complete killing off of all the small businesses at one end of town, which is now dead, but it hasn't killed the town, which has spread out over the bridge in another direction. If you've been around for a couple of decades and know the history of the town and have seen the passing of certain people and certain businesses it can be sad of course, but it's what happens in rural France, Le Business just moves on to other venues and continues. If it makes things less authentic for the tourists, at the end of the day most locals and mayors don't care.Why should they? At the core of most French town and villages, most local people are not first and foremost about making tourists' visits all hunky-dory.They are about,in our case, making sure that tir market, which has been going on every Tuesday since 1592, still goes on. You cannot replicate that in the US

frenchaucoeur

On our first trip to the Dordogne some years ago, we rented a house in Molieres, a tiny never-finished bastide near Cadouin and Le Bugue, and the markets in Le Bugue and St. Cyprien were my introduction to that wonderful experience. (I also had another first in Cadouin--garlic soup. It sounded, um, unusual--until I tried it at the restaurant across from the church and loved it.)

Both of these towns were somewhat removed from the tourist havens of Sarlat, LRG, Beynac and Domme. They weren't crowded, and the stores existed to serve local residents.

St Cirq is right that these towns don't exist to fulfill tourists' fantasies. What I do wonder about is how people who live there really feel: do they shrug their shoulders and head for the hypermarche, or do they regret the changes?

It's not the same thing, I know, but in my corner of Manhattan, since the completion of the new Second Avenue subway, we're having an American version of the same phenomenon. A lot of the small, mom and pop shops are closing up and are being replaced by enormous drug chains like CVS--seems there's one on every corner; the little groceries with their ranks of fresh flowers outside are gone, but you can get your nails done at dozens of places in any two-block radius. And the smaller walkup apartment building are coming down and being replaced by glitzy forty-story condos, changing the neighborhood's profile in more ways than one. And I don't like it at all. This is a quiet neighborhood with people of all ages, and I fear that in five years it will be another Meatpacking district, with nothing but overpriced wine bars and designer boutiques.

At any rate, our itinerary now includes Albi and Toulouse--so thank you all.

StCirq

<<What I do wonder about is how people who live there really feel: do they shrug their shoulders and head for the hypermarche, or do they regret the changes?>>

Both, I think, and it depends on your age. Many older people won't set foot in the Intermarché because of the prices and the crowds. All the tourists shop there, and young people walk there for lunch from the lycée. There's a sense of regret for when the whole town was thriving, but there's also a genuine acceptance of the conveniences of modernization. There's also a very forceful undercurrent of artisanship among locals that never seems to die: painters, sculpters, musicians, singers, weavers, silversmiths...they crop up all over and sometimes buy up the old abandoned places and turn them into ateliers. So all is not lost, it's just different.

StuDudley

>>> Many older people won't set foot in the Intermarché because of the prices and the crowds. All the tourists shop there<<

We are frequent tourists who spends 2 months in France almost every year, and we purchase food to cook meals and also "other" supplies. Up until about 5 years ago, we frequented the big Intermarches. Lately, we drive past the big Intermarche & shop at the smaller Carrefour Contact (or similar). The Contact is a much better experience, and we've always been able to purchase the stuff we need - even fresh fish. What's missing is the tires for our car and the heaps of other stuff no tourist would ever need. But I believe the tourists love these huge stores - reminds them of Walmart (there are no Walmarts near us in San Francisco). Once when we stayed overnight near the Toulouse airport, we wandered into a huge Intermarche (or similar) with 97 checkout stands.

I read something within the past 3 years which stated that these smaller Contact groceries are growing in number because more & more "people" prefer them over the big box stores.

Stu Dudley

PalenQ

How are prices between hypermarches and C Contact?

StCirq

We'd probably be happy to shop at a Contact, but I've never seen one and we certainly don't have one anywhere near here that I know of.

There is a LeClerc that we go to once in a blue moon because it has a free change machine where you can get a store credit for the mountains of loose change one inevitably ends up with in France. It's so big the employees wear roller skates.

We do shop at Aldi and Lidl and sometimes LeaderPrice, which are much smaller than the Intermarché, but they are limited in what they offer, and sometimes it gets to be a chore going from store to store to fill in the shopping list items. We try to get almost all our staples from the outdoor markets on Tuesday and Saturday.

Cathinjoetown

We used to shop them all, the big local outdoor market, Intermarché (least favorite but cheapest gazole), Leclerc and a Carrfour Contact which was open Sunday until 1:00, great to drop in after meeting friends for coffee. It had a professional butcher who would cut meat to order, indifferent bread but no problem as two boulangeries were within 100 metres.

The prices at C.C. were slightly higher by a few cents, not outrageous.

The local businesses that were still thriving are the boulangeries/patisseries, the optician, the newsagent, realtors, insurance agents, banks, beauticians, take-out pizza, restaurants, the casino and a thermal spa. As St cirq said, all there to service the locals and the annual, very serious, pétanque tournament. Clothes boutiques and art galleries come and go quite quickly.

This is Salies du Salat, HG, a small town of just under 2,000. "Worth" a drive-through? Well, I wouldn't go out of my way, although the market square has a gorgeous stand of plane trees which form a canopy in summer. A bit further east 30-40 minutes, are St. Lizier and St Girons in the Ariège, excellent Saturday market in St. G., lots of crafts.