Pech Merle Cave and Saint Cirq Lapopie Village Visit from Sarlat

Sightseeing  :  France  :  Aquitaine  :  Sarlat-la-Canéda  :  City Tours

Small group tour that will take you to the Quercy region. Here, you will discover the amazing cave of Pech Merle that still retains drawings and engravings that date back 22 000 years. After the visit, discover the quaint medieval hilltop village of Saint Cirq Lapopie. Finally, arrive in Cahors and discover one of the last fortified bridges of Europe. The Quercy region is on your program for today. We first head towards the fascinating cave of Perch Merle that still bears some authentic cave drawings, paintings and etchings. Extending for more than a mile from the entrance are caverns, the walls of which are painted with dramatic murals dating from the Gravettian culture (some 25,000 years B.C.) Some of the paintings and engravings, however, could date from the later Magdalenian era (16,000 years B.C.). The walls of seven of the chambers at Pech Merle have fresh, lifelike images of a woolly mammoth, spotted horses, single colour horses, bovine, reindeer, hand prints. Footprints of children, preserved in what was once clay, have been found more than half a mile underground.

After the visit of the cave, we depart for the wonderful village of St Cirq Lapopie, known to be the most beautiful of all the beautiful villages of France. Its position, originally selected for defence, perched on a steep cliff 100m above the river Lot has helped make the town one of the most well preserved in the area, almost as if it was an open air museum. After it was "discovered" by the Post-Impressionist Henri Martin, it became popular with other artists and the home of the writer André Breton.

Finally, stop in Cahors to admire the only remaining medieval fortified bridge of Europe, the Valentré bridge.