Just thought I’d mention that without knowing anything about it our trip to the area happened to be during Heritage Weekend which is every year the 3rd weekend in September.
Sarlat had the streets lit with 10,000 candles, spectacular.
Eyrignac Gardens had the Manor open and the owner was greeting people (happens once a year)
Many more special things throughout the region.
A great time to plan your trip.

Thanks for the notes and the beautiful pictures! We first visited Toulouse last Spring, and loved the city. We are planning to visit Figeac this Spring, for the first time, as well as return visits to Sarlat and Saint Emilion. I'm looking forward to more information from your trip!

I will always wander at random when looking for a meal. Sometimes some of the worst meals make the best travel anecdotes, not to mentin the fact that carefully reserved meals are sometimes a huge disappointment (and expensive). Of course I will admit that meals are not a priority when I am traveling. My best meals are prepared at home, often using inspiration from my travels.

Day 6: Peche Merle and Domaine de bel air

We started the day with an easy drive to *** Peche Merle, a cave with 29,000 year old paintings. It's one of the few caves you can still enter. There are no photos allowed inside; this is one I took off the web.


Spotted horses

One thing that doesn't come across in photos is that the paintings use the natural contours of the cave walls, and so are almost 3-D in real life. Peche Merle is one of the highlights of any trip to this region, and should not be missed. My plan was to have a quick lunch in nearby Cabrerets & then head to Rocamadour in the afternoon. Silly me, and my silly plans ... one does not have a "quick lunch" in the south of France.


French salads are mostly meat. Smoked duck, foie gras, gésiers, walnuts - all the Lot specialties in one plate


The town of Cabrerets, Célé Valley

My friends wanted to explore the town after lunch, and even though there wasn't much there they managed to spend a good hour or two just wandering around. I was happy to sit in a cafe and enjoy a spritz made with a local bitter. When I make travel plans I always differentiate between the "you better not miss this" places and activities and the "here is one idea" places.

Afterwards we set our GPSs for Rocamadour ... and ended up on different roads almost immediately. I'm not sure how we managed that. Part of the problem was that the roads were so narrow that you weren't able to turn around if you took a wrong turn, or missed a turn. I was more amused than stressed - instead of one major road this region has a couple dozen farm roads, and it doesn't really matter which ones you end up on.. The other car made it to Rocamadour first, and texted that it looked very very crowded. It was already late in the afternoon, so we decided to skip Rocamadour head straight to our chambres d'hôte for the night, *** Le domaine de bel air

Staying in rural farmhouses, and sharing home-cooked meals on the farm, was a highlight of the Chemin de Compostelle, and I was looking forward to sharing the experience with friends.


At the farm


If you visit the Lot you better like duck!


And enjoy cheese


Here's the gang. I love communal meals like this

Oh, no, I hope you didn’t completely miss Rocamadour!

Day 7: Exploring the Lot

The Lot Department is less touristic than it's more famous neighbor, the Dordogne, even though it has a wealth of iconic sites and plus belles villages. This morning we took a sort drive to the *** Gouffre de Padirac, a massive underground cave system. It was a fun adventure, and quite a workout if you opt for the stairs instead of the elevator. It was impressive.



I forget how many stories underground we were


Part of the adventure involves cruising along an underground river


You are surrounded by beautiful formations reflecting off the water

The big choice we had for the afternoon was: which of the most beautiful villages of France shall we have lunch in? We picked Autoire, and spent a mellow afternoon drinking, eating, and wandering the village.


Entering Autoire


At the auberge


Exploring the streets

There was a hike to a waterfall that I would have enjoyed, but this group of friends was happier just wandering through the village. We've travelled together before, and have a good sense of each other's pace. I've also learned that it's better to have only one thing on the agenda for any given day - you want some structure, but not too much, and there is no point in trying to see everything or to rush about all day dawn to dusk.

In the evening we had another gourmet meal at the gîte, and were all in bed surprisingly early.

Surprisingly, yeah. After Carcassonne we were all feeling a bit wary of crowds. One day I'll spend a day there, in the off season.

It's so great you get to travel with your friends and get along well! lol about the french "salad". the undergound and the cave (with cave painting) looks amazing.

Autoire totally a better choice than Rocamadour. Chance favoured you.

Lovely photos- you did well managing a group trip, that’s quite a feat.

Day 8 - Onwards, to Sarlat-la-Canéda

One of our gang really, really loves flea markets, and I promised to keep an eye out for any markets that might be happening. I had read an article about La grande brocante des 4 saisons (The Great Four-Season Market) that would take over the streets of the medieval town of Loubressac, but I couldn't find much information on-line at all. I figured it would be worth a stop; if the market wasn't much at least we could have lunch in another plus belle village.

It turns out the market is one of the largest of the year in the Lot Department - it's just not widely advertised or marketed. Somehow people just know that this is an end-of-the-summer event. There were thousands of attendees, and huge parking lots set up on the edge of town.


Looking over one of the many hundreds of tables set up


It seemed like every nook and cranny of the village was used as a display


Loubressac - I will aways get nostalgic when I see the red & white stripes that mark a grande randonnée


Looking out over the countryside from Loubressac

There were thousands of visitors in the village, and as far as I could tell almost all French. We decided to drive to another town for lunch, and chose Carennac. It turned out to be more challenging finding an open restaurant on a Sunday without a reservation, but finally one agreed to seat us. I had the distinct impression that people were sizing us up before seating us, as if they were judging whether we would be good guests or problem tourists. It was just a vibe I picked up. Luckily two of us speak decent French - though one with a Belgian accent, but that can't be helped - and all the guys were raised to be polite.


Carennac. The Lot Department has 8 villages that are officially recognized as among the most beautiful in France

After a hearty lunch of duck hachis parmentier (the French version of a shepherd's pie) we enjoyed an easy drive to Sarlat-la-Canéda, our home for the next five nights.


First look, Sarlat

Day 9 - Sarlat

When I travel I try not to schedule more than one "thing to do" per day, and when I'm with friends I'll differentiate between the things that they will just really have to trust me on and not miss, and things that are optional. A benefit of having a small group is that it's ok if people want to take a day off, or go out on their own for a bit.

*** Lascaux IV was one of those this is not an option we are all going to Le Centre International de l’Art Pariétal so just be ready at 10 am. Lascaux IV is a detailed recreation of one of the most famous painted caves in the world, a network of grottos filled with 17,000 to 22,000 year old art from our Cro Magnon relatives. The building is stunning, the recreation is stunning, and the massive exhibit room - that has more recreations, in isolation, like at a museum, and where you can take pictures - is stunning.

Lascaux IV is reason enough to visit this part of France.


The museum entrance


Cro Magnon art


This cave was mostly aurochs, deer, and horses, with one single enigmatic bird-headed man.


A lot of the drawings appeared to be overlayed


But in the flickering light of a torch, different lines would be illuminated, giving the illusion that the drawings were moving. We saw this demonstrated in another cave we visited.

Day 9, continued

I know I just wrote that my rule was "only schedule one thing per day," but sometimes you have to break your own rules. It was still our first day in Sarlat, and we had a party to go to.

On Monday evenings during the summer the Garden of Eyrignac stays open late for *** Les pique-niques blancs d'Eyrignac - a White Party in the garden with food, dj's, dancing, and fireworks. We were there for the final dance of the season.


Sunset in the gardens


The boys cleaned up nicely


There was music


There was dancing - all ages


And I guess this means that summer is almost over

Two of our group headed home early, while four of us stayed on til the end. This is a benefit of having two cars; we all didn't have to stick together at every moment.

so much fun!!! I'm envious of your friendship

What a wonderful report. I have wanted to return to this part of France since I visited 15 years ago. Your photos make a revisit even more tempting. Forgot all about Carennac, and now recall we loved it.

Re: salads in the southwest. We called it the duck-duck-goose tour.

Looking forward to more.

We visited Carcassonne and Rocamadour many years ago. Carcassonne was best whe4n seen from afar. Inside was all crowds buying (?) plastic swords. Everything was a reconstruction, so why go? Rocamadour was an overnight stop after seeing Peche Merle, a fantastic cave. The overnight featured good food but little of touristic (as opposed to religious pilgramage) interest. The view over the valley with Venus as the evening star was impressive, however.

I was turned off by a waiter (at a restaurant in Rocamadour overlooking the cliff) offering to sell me the placemat from my lunch, which I was in the process of folding up to aid the busboy's cleanup.
He was probably turned off, in turn, by my chortling at the thought of paying for a placemat.

Thanks again for all the details and photos. Such fun re visiting the area with you.

Just thought I’d mention for future visitors:
The cave we visited was one of many highlights of our trip to the area.
Font-de-Gaume in Les Eyzies
Must reserve way ahead of time as they only take 100 people a day, 10 groups of 10 people for 1/2 hour.

Our favorite restaurant in Sarlat was Chez Le Gaulois. So good that we had dinner there twice during our stay.

Day 10, Sarlat

I don't like waking up early, I'm scared of heights, and it was do expensive - I travel a lot, but was never tempted to go hot air ballooning. Then, last year, on a trip to Cappadocia, I gave it a go.

And now I'm a convert. Now I think I will always say yes to a hot air balloon ride. I'm still scared of heights, and stay on the inside of the basket, but the experience is amazing enough that I deal with my fears. And so in the pre-dawn hours we drove to the town of Beynac et Cazenac to meet our guides with *** Montgolfière & Châteaux

Up up and away


Each balloon would try and skim the river with the basket


Looing out over the Dordogne


We even skimmed the roof of a few castles

Since we were already in the town, I suggested we walk up the hill to the ** Château de Beynac. This might be my favorite castle to date; it's restored enough but not too much, there are just enough exhibits to help you understand the history without being overwhelmed, and it was almost emptry.


It was a steep climb through the village


The views were beautiful


The castle


The room of Richard, Coeur de Lion

The climb exhausted half our group, and one by one they dropped out to find a bar to wait at. Only three of us made it to the top of the ramparts! We decided to not make anymore plans for the day, or for the next.

Day 11, Sarlat

There was rain on and off today, and occasional thunder. I had originally planned to get the group on a canoeing trip down the Dordogne, but given the weather, and given that we had just had five days worth of adventures, it seemed like a good idea to take another day off. One of the keys to travelling with a group is to make sure we all have plenty of down time. As one buddy says, "It's a vacation, not a death march."


Rain clouds from our lodging


It was the Wednesday market in Sarlat, and it was fine, but didn't have the same energy as other rural markets I've been to



I collected local spirits for our afternoon apéro:
Fénelon (apéritif). Red wine, walnut liqueur, crème de cassis.
Floc de Gascogne (apéritif). Vin de liqueur fortified with armagnac.
Périgourdine (apéritif). Walnut and prune liqueur
Armagnac (digestif). Brandy from Gascony.

Wow! Incredible. I’d never have signed up for a hot air balloon ride but that is amazing.. and what a stunning landscape to do it in.