We left about 10 and drove to Cardaillac, a small, quaint village not far from Figeac. Unfortunately, both of the towers were under construction so we just walked around and looked at things.
One of the two remaining towers in Cardaillac
The other tower in Cardaillac
Cute village of Cardaillac
So scenic - love this -in Cardaillac
Then we drove to Figeac. We parked the car and went to the Tourist Info Centre and bought a walking tour map for 30 cents. We immediately went to the the Musee Champollion since it would close at 12:30. M. Champollion was a researcher and helped interpret the Rosetta Stone and has lots of items on display in this museum from Eqypt. There were lots of exhibits on language that were very interesting.
We did the walking tour of the city that had a lot of focus on architecture. There were 3 interesting churches as well on our walk.
Square near the Musee Champollion
View of rooftops and the hills from one of the churches
Interesting architectural features throughout the City of Figeac
Crooked front - brick with wood slats - many of these had been covered in stucco
The large cathedral in Figeac
Inside the Figeac Cathedral
A beautiful chapel with carved wall hangings
The chapel altar
We stopped at a small café and got a table on the sidewalk under an awning. We ordered lunch. It was quite busy as it is French Mothers' Day - Bonne Fetes des Meres. Tim and I did a toast to Joan and Betsy!
It was about 2:30 when we left Figeac, so we headed to Pech Merle Caves to make sure we could get in as they close at 5 pm today. The tour was in French but they had an English description. It was beautiful and the tour was fun and interesting. Many of the cave drawings on the cave walls are from 24,600 years ago - drawings of animals and one of a woman. There is a footprint in the cave floor that has been fossilized - it is 10,000 years old as determined by Carbon testing. Amazing. No pictures were allowed inside the cave. We saw more bear claw marks on the cave walls just like at Font du Gaume - the bears hibernated inside these caves and scratched the cave walls in many places.
Then we drove over to St Cirq Lapopie - another WOW moment - beautiful city. We parked at the top as Emilie had recommended and walked all around. We made it to the top of the ruins for the panoramic view and took pictures. We had a coffee and then headed back to Gramat. James, our GPS, took us on VERY small roads - we think one of our settings is off for the GPS to lead us to such small back roads.
View of St Cirq Lapopie as we approached - beautiful
Beautiful houses with flowers throughout the city
View of the valley from the top of St Cirq Lapopie at the ruins of the old tower
View of the St Cirq Church from the top of the ruins
The town of St Cirq Lapopie as seen from above
Beautiful rocks and the river
Beautiful vistas as seen from on top of St Cirq Lapopie
The St Cirq Lapopie church
View of St Cirq Lapopie as we left town
Tim is loving driving fast on these small roads and it is scaring me to death. Oh well - such is married life! But the small, one lane bridges freak him out!!!!
This was a small one lane bridge over the river - very narrow - near St Cirq Lapopie
Many tunnels in this area - lots of rocks, and some RIGHT BY the edge of the road - not much margin for error!
It took about 55 minutes to get back to Domaine du Cloucau. We changed and went to dinner in Gramat at Restaurant Lion d'Or. Loved the woman serving us - she had such great facial expressions and didn't have to say a word sometimes - she just looked in funny ways - Cracked me up. Fun and a good dinner.
We headed back to the B&B about 10 and updated email - then to bed. Both of us are tired. Tomorrow is not as busy of a day - but it's supposed to rain all day. We think we might want a relaxing day.
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