In 2009 the Confrerie celebrates on Saturday 28 November with a parade of goats through the village and a banquet based on goat meat! The village  lies in a very rural part of France between Clermont Ferrand (50 miles)  and Limoges  (60 miles).

For more info see www.tourisme-creuse.com

…the established showcase of the Minervois, is preparing its annual fortnight-long festival of the senses –
art, culture and fabulous food – all designed to introduce you to the delights of the region.
An astonishing range of activities, from the creative arts, food and wine tastings, evenings of music ranging from jazz to the classics, strolls through the vineyards, cinema , theatre paying tribute to PierrePaul Riquet with Guy Vassal’s play “The Madman of the Canal”, a cabaret evening dining to the poetry of Charles Trenet….You can choose to follow an exciting and varied programme of events; alternatively you are welcome to organise your own tour around the region where a profusion of historic sites, workshops and exhibitions await you.

The programme includes a wide range of open-days at winemakers throughout the region including Minervois AOC, St Jean-de-Minervois and Minervois-la-Lavinière which include some great Languedoc reds, whites and dessert wines.

Where to stay?

Lille has many hotels at all levels of price and luxury.Hotel des Tours in the middle of the attractive Old Town or Le Brueghel very French and centrally situated in a quiet, pedestrian area near the station.

For a more intimate weekend options include interesting B&Bs such as Alix’s Garden and Canal Barge  Fantasia.

Get the best rates for other hotels in Lille

Where to eat – recommended Again there is no shortage of eateries in Lille offering cuisines both local and international.

Two favourites, one for meat, the other for fish are l’Assiette du Marché (market plate) in rue de la Monnaie in Vieux Lille  and   L’Écume des Mers (sea spume) in rue des Pas close to the Grand Place. Both offer high quality dishes with excellent service.

Where to eat – gourmet

Without doubt the finest dining experience in Lille must be l’Huitrière (oystery) on the edge of Vieux Lille  (3 rue des Chats Bossus) – superb art deco setting and top notch fish (oysters, lobsters,  turbot etc) – certainly not cheap but a gastronomic delight! 4 Michelin knives and forks. You can also window shop (and buy) fresh fish and other delicacies in the front of the building.

Where to eat – value for money

There are plenty of more modest restaurants in Lille to suit all pockets – a typical bustling brasserie is Aux Moules (mussels) in rue de Bethune – a pedestrianised street  in the city centre.  They offer a full menu including their specialty – and a good Moules Frites can be unbeatable.

Local wine/drink -

The proximity of Belgium ensures that Beer is a local favourite. Many bars offer a wide range of interesting beers from Northern France, Belgium and beyond – and there are numerous micro-breweries in the centre of Lille such as Les 3 Brasseurs (3 brewers) in place de la Gare opposite Lille Flandres railway station.

Local food:
Fish features strongly in this Flemish part of France – Moules Frites (Mussels and Chips) is probably the most familiar local specialty – others not so recognisable – Carbonnade flamande (small chunks of beef stewed in beer), waterzoï (poultry or fish in a creamy sauce, served with baby vegetables) and potjevleesch (literally “small potted meat”, a white meat terrine in aspic).
Local markets

The Wazemmes Market in place de la Nouvelle Aventure takes place on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday mornings with food, flowers, fabrics and exotic products. Ine of the largest markets in France, it can also be one of the liveliest (up to 50,000 visitors some Sundays). Colourful, with a “Soho” atmosphere, you’ll often hear an accordion being played.

Shopping

No shortage of shopping opportunies in the City Centre – with several malls – e.g. the Euralille mall near the stations and may interesting small shops in the old town. For fine food shopping  the Meert  Café and Patisserie on rue Esquermoise home of the Meert Waffle, and Philippe Olivier  in rue du Cure St Etienne) for an excellent selection of bread and pastries.

Must see:

Vieux Lille, the Grand Place. the Chambre de Commece, the Hotel de Ville and  the fine flemish buildings around the Place du Theatre.

A bit of culture: The Palais  des Beaux Arts in place de la Republique houses prestigious collections of European painting (Rubens, Van Dyck, Goya, Delacroix…) and offers some peace away from the bustle and rumble of the city centre.

For a walk: For all that it is big modern city, it is worth a stroll around  Vauban Citadelle, just a short walk beyond the city centre. This impressive star-shaped castle on rue Vauban was built by Napoleon’s military archictect in the 17th century. As it is still used as a military barracks, you need to check with the local tourist office for those dates when it is open to the public. But there is the Vauban garden which the public can access at all times for a stroll.

For the children:Bring the children for the annual Christmas market when the Grand Place is transformed into a snowy Cavern with twinking lights and a Carousel – plus a busy Christmas market in nearby Place Rihour -full of seasonal cheer. (18 November – 31 December 2009)

Getting there:

Easy – being so close to the English Channel. Travel time to Lille by road/ferry – just an hour from Calais, less from Dunkerque – see P&O to Calais and Norfolkline to Dunkerque.

Or take the Eurostar to Lille

Getting around:

Transpole offers a comprehensive public transport network with a modern Metro system and 2 tram lines which cross the city centre and serve both railway stations. However most of the main points of interest are within walking distance of the city centre.

Staying longer?:The city is close to many of the First World War battlegrounds – e.g. Ypres and Paschendaele just over the border. Brussels and Waterloo are a bit further – and a favourite of mine is the art deco swinning pool at Tourcoing (part of the Lille conurbation) La Piscine – converted into an impressive Museum of Art and Industry – and it is on the Metro line about 40 minutes from Lille City Centre.

When to go?

Lively throughout the year, but you might consider

La Grande Braderie de Lille – the biggest flea market in Europe which runs across a weekend in early September each year with100 km of stands, 10,000 vendors and 1 to 2 million visitors! – but beware that the City gets very busy and the traffic is impossible on the Braderie weekend.

Lille Wine Fair of the independent winegrowers (Vignerons Indepenents) which is held mid-November (20-23 November 2009) – with the opportunity to taste and buy from winemakers from all across France.

Lille Christmas Market - late November to New Year – Carousel, Christmas Village and a real feel of Christmas (18 November – 30 December 2009)

The Fourme de Montbrison has only a small number of mould veins throughout and has a reddish rind. Its flavour is very mild with light nut and mushroom flavours.

On the weekend of 2-3-4 October 2009 the town of Montbrison celebrates its “Journées de la Fourme”

To accompany this mild cheese the local Cotes du Forez AOC wine which is made from Gamay would make a good choice – and this is also likely to be available to taste on the “Cheese Days”

For more info on Le Forez see www.foreztourisme.fr/

For more info on the cheese see www.fourme-montbrison.com

For more info on the Cotes dy Forez AOC wine see http://cotesduforez.fr

“L’Oignon Rose de Roscoff” is now protected as an Appellation Controllée (AOC from 2009) due to its specific character (delicate skin, long life, intense flavour and good size – and only grown in and around Roscoff). If you are deeply interested in the history of this vegetable and its connection to the UK , visit the La maison des Johnnies et de l’Oignon de Roscoff – the Onions Johnnies museum in Roscoff.  Festivities include an onion market, music , torchlit parade  and a  bicycle race!  Food based on the oignon feature of course – onion tarts, onion bread and onion soup – together with a dispay of impressive onion strings!!

Beyond Onions and Johnnies, I still consider Roscoff one of the pleasantest ports of arrival/departure in France – close to the town and retaining most of its medieval and maritime character it is a delightful place to spend an hour or so (or longer).

For more info on Roscoff and its Onion Festival see www.roscoff-tourisme.com

Brittany Ferries run services from Plymouth and Cork.
Find the best rates for Hotels in Roscoff

The three days includes processions, floats, music, dancing and a Miss Fleurs competition!!

Best known as a winter ski resort with its easy access from Toulouse, it remains nevertheless an attractive area to visit in Summer.

Located in the heart of the Pyrenees, at the foot of the highest summits of this spectacular range, LUCHON (630m) and SUPERBAGNERES (1860m) both benefit from a remarkable geographic location and an exceptional concentration of summits higher than 3000 metres.

Ever since the conquest of the Monts Maudits, all the great Pyrenean climbers have left their mark in the granite of the Luchon Mountains.

High altitude enthusiasts will find the quality of rock they’re looking for, from the endless treks on the ridges above 3000 metres, to the excitement of mountain climbs on the majestic rock faces of Pic Quaïrat or Les Spijeoles.

Numerous high altitude lakes invite you to stroll or fish, unless you’d prefer a botanical walk!

For more info see www.luchon.com

Find the best rates for Hotels in Luchon

This is welcome as a good meal out in France can be a real treat – and often very much better value than most UK eateries.

However, beware that VAT is not reduced on wine, which remains at 19.6% – higher than the UK (currently 15%) but without the UK’s punitive excise duty rates.

Of many favourite restaurants in France, there is one in the Lot département which remains a cherished memory for me – Le Gindreau at St Medard-Catus (46, Lot, Midi-Pyrenees) – a glorious meal of local specialities, good wine, excellent service and a table on the terrace with views over the quiet local countryside – and 3 hours for lunch!

Within easy travelling distance of Cahors and with an impressive list of Cahors and other wines.

Why Entraygues-sur-Truyere? Entraygues-sur-Truyere is a picturesque riverside village, where two rivers meet, the Lot River and the Truyere.  Entraygues was founded in the 10th century and its fortified castle was built between 1278-1290.  Entraygues is located in an area with 10 of the, “The Most Beautiful Villages in France,” more than any othe region! (and rightly so! (Ed))

Sweet French Cottages

Where to stay: Sweet French Cottages,enchanting stone cottages for rent in the Lot Valley Southwest France

Nearest Town: Entraygues-sur-Truyere, 12 Aveyron, Midi-Pyrenees

Where to eat (recommended by Raine Heron of Sweet French Cottages): Le Mejanessere, a beautiful rustic restaurant with stunning views. Also a vineyard and an organic farm.  Food is farm fresh and set menus often feature roasted pig, sausage in walnut oil, potatoes with wild mushrooms, green salad with edible flowers and herbs and dessert.  Delicious bread baked on premises.  Wonderful apéritif menu and local wines from vineyard.  Mostly open during high season (some mid season hours).

Where to eat (gourmet): Auberge du Fel.  Delicious, fresh, often regional food beautifully presented.  The Executive Chef, Mme Elisabeth Albespy, is the Mayor’s wife and the Sous Chef is their son, Mathieu.  The Mayor is often on hand to serve up their traditional as well as inventive dishes, including a vegetarian prix fixe menu.

Where to eat (value for money): La Casa.  Oven-fired thin crust pizza, pasta dishes and fresh salads.  Make your own pizza (our favourite is goat cheese, chestnuts and fresh tomatoes) or try the duck and Roquefort pizza, among many others on the menu.  Good table wine and tasty desserts.

Local food: Aubrac beef, duck, lamb, trout, foie gras, charcuterie, aligot (whipped potatoes with cheese), truffade, cabecou, fouace, honey, walnut oil, fresh chestnuts as well as chestnut vinegar, flour and chestnut butter, farcous, wild mushrooms

Local wine: Entraygues– Le Fel wine, which has recently had a come uppance when one of our Entraygues wines made it s way onto the menu at Michel Bras, a regional restaurant which ranks one of the top ten restaurants in the world.  There are also several local aperitifs including “Pelou,” consisting of chestnut liqueur and local white wine and “Rascalou,” consisting of walnut liqueur and local white wine.  Both are wonderful.

Local markets: Farmer’s Markets are held every Friday morning throughout the year.  In high season, there are two Farmer’s Markets, on both Tuesday and Friday mornings, and a local producer’s market (Marche des Producteurs de Pays) on Wednesday evenings with banquet style dining and live music.  All of the markets are held in the village square or along the river in Entraygues.

Must see: Poterie du Don, a museum-quality contemporary ceramic center in an architecturally-significant building.  Ceramics include traditional salt glaze tableware and ceramic creations by the gallery owner, Suzy Atkins, to ceramic sculpture and flatworks by many well-known European ceramic artists.

A bit of culture?: Since the  area is unspoiled and rather timeless, you definitely feel immersed in the French culture on a daily basis, particularly if you frequent the butcher, the baker, Farmer’s Market and mill around the villages.  With regard to museums, one that stands out is the Musee Fenaille in Rodez with the oldest and largest collection of statues-menhirs in France (think small, carved Stone Henge).

Shopping?: There are charming shops in Entraygues, as well as many lovely shops and cafes on pedestrian-only streets in the old town section of nearby Aurillac.

Somewhere for a walk? – There are 10 “Petites Randonrres” (small walking paths) in Entraygues totaling more than 100 km.  There are also longer walks, some taking 2-3 days, and more than 250 km of trails in the area.  There is also a 30-45 minute historic walk through the medieval streets of Entraygues, guided by sign posts.

Something for the kids? – There is kayaing, canoeing, river rafting and horseback riding in Entraygues, as well as several animal parks and farms open to the public in surrounding areas.  Also, the Micropolis (insect) museum and the Millau Viaduc (the highest bridge in the world) is not far from us.

Getting there?:– Driving across France is always a scenic pleasure.  By air, our nearest airport is Rodez-Marcillac Airport (only a short 1-hour flight from Paris) Ryanair fly from Stansted to Rodez.

Other airports in the area include Toulouse International Airport, Montpellier Airport and Limoges Airport.  Trains arrive at either Aurillac or Rodez stations

Getting around:– Buses and taxis are availabie in town, and the area is frequented by cyclists (including the Tour de France!).  There are train stations in both Aurillac and Rodez – and tickets direct from the UK can be booked through Rail Europe

When to come?:– There are festivals every weekend in mid and high seasons in Entraygues or nearby villages.  The better known festivals, however, are “Les Mediaevales” (Medieval Days) on 12 and 13 Sepetember 2009 featuring jugglers, musicians, medieval costumes, banquet-style lunch, wine, beer and several artisan booths. “Fete des Champignons” (Mushroom Festival) is held the last weekend in September and features folkloric museum, dancing, costumes, lunch and everything mushroom.  “Foire de la Chataigne” (Chestnut Fair) will be held on 24 and 25 October 2009 and is large festival with music, food, wine and everything chestnut.

For a longer stay?:– Take a day trip (and perhaps, stay one night) in Cahors or Gaillac or Cordes sur Ciel, or just take cat naps, go for walks down to the river or next to the local vineyards, through the historic villages, or just sit on the terrace while reading a good book and sipping wine, taking in the fresh air, views and sound of the flowing river.

Recommendations kindly supplied by Rain Heron at Sweet French Cottages

For more info on the local area see the local tourist office website

Le Weekend in…Eauze

Where to stay? Domaine de Lauroux at Manciet. Domaine de Lauroux, situated 2km from the town of Manciet.where Karen and Richard Kitchener run a wine and Armagnac domaine in the Cotes de Gascogne. Manciet is close to the charming market town of Eauze. Lauroux is a 100 acre award-winning vineyard offering self catering and B&B accommodation together with evening meals

For more info see www.tourisme-gers.com For more info on the accommodation see http://frenchduck.com/latest/archives/2008/04/bb-or-gite-in-the-gers.html

cforms contact form by delicious:days

More recently of course there has been Dr Roger Corder’s The Wine Diet, which claims that certain red wines such as Madiran with its Tannat grape have a positive contribution to health and might explain the so-called “French Paradox” whereby the French, despite having a diet high in saturated fats nevertheless have a low incidence of coronary heart disease.

Health and diet guru Michel Montignac recommends cooking with goose fat rather than butter. It is probably significant that both the wine and food of South West France play such a key role in a healthy diet!

And now French wine and food specialists Devigne Wines and Confit Direct are praising the health benefits of the key staple foods of SW France.

In view of the latest scare story from the food police regarding Saturated Fats, did you know that whilst Beef, Mutton and Pork Fat are up to 50% Saturated Fat, Duck Fat is only 33% Saturated Fat and Goose even better at 28%?

In addition Duck and Goose fat contain an antimicrobial ingredient known as palmitoleic acid, a monounsaturated fatty acid. Palmitoleic acid fights microbes in your intestines.

Foie gras, duck confit and goose/duck fat are almost health foods!!
Or perhaps that’s going a bit far!

For more info see www.confitdirect.co.uk/

2005 Laurent Mousset Entraygues et du Fel’ (£9.10) Like the wines of Marcillac, the dominant variety here is Fer Servadou although Laurent Mousset chooses to add some Cabernet Franc for a bit of added weight and texture.  It is a wine typical of the reds from the southwest corner which we love so dearly.  The red fruit is bright and zippy and although there is some rustic grip (these are not slick, glossy wines), they are essentially light and fairly soft.  These are wines to refresh body and soul and indeed, they used to be drunk instead of water (which sounds like a recipe for a far more entertaining day than those we spend sipping piously on Evian).   Although there is fabulous earth and stone flavours underlying the red cherry and raspberry fruit, this is not a wine to be studied with reverence, rather knocked back with gusto.

2006 Domaine du Cros Marcillac ‘Lo Sang del Pais’ (£8.75) Marcillac is rarely seen outside its own little part of SW France between Rodez and the beginnings of the Auvergne. It’s not because the wines can’t be good, but there’s just so little to go round – only eight independent winemakers exist and the number can’t expand because all the best sites (particularly the incredibly steep south-facing slopes with their dramatic terracotta coloured soil) are already taken.  It’s the combination of soil and the mansois grape that gives Marcillac it’s particular taste, a sort of wild, vibrant, leafy, raspberry and bramble fruit that’s fresh and moreish.

Philippe Teulier makes two styles of wine, his basic, traditional style (which this is) and a oaked version from older vines.  While we love both, the purity of the gamey fruit in this swung it for us on this occasion

South London’s Green & Blue won Independent Wine Merchant of the Year in the Under 12 staff category. The judges praised the tiny two-shop chain run by former Conran sommelier Kate Thal, for its attention to detail, noting the fact that ’staff will even print out a tasting note’ if the wine is for a gift!

Green & Blue Lordship Lane, 38 Lordship Lane, East Dulwich London SE22 8HJ T: 0208 693 9250 F: 0208 693 9260

Green & Blue Clapham, 20 – 26 Bedford Road, Clapham. London SW4 7HJ   T: 0207 498 9648 F: 0207 498 9649

Website: http://www.greenandbluewines.com

If you are ever lucky enough to get to the Aveyron, we can recommend some excellent cottages to rent owned by a couple of Californians – see wwww.frenchduck.com

Now here’s an opportunity to spend several months in one of the most beautiful and unspoilt parts of France next summer – near Entraygues-sur-Truyère (12 Aveyron, Midi-Pyrenees) in the upper Lot Valley. The American owners of Sweet French Cottages are looking for some help in setting up and running their gites in return for board and lodging.

Lance and Rain would like to “hire” some young and able individuals – or possibly a couple — to come and live for free in France (room and board including most meals) for 3 months during the spring/summer 2009 in exchange for working with us.

We’re looking for individuals or a couple that can help us get our properties ready for high season 2009. From maintenance such as painting, staining, planting, gardening to cutting/stacking firewood and moving rocks to helping with dinners for our cottage guests, laundry, cleaning, etc.

We’re asking for 6 hours per day of work, 5 days per week. Some knowledge of French would be great, but is not entirely necessary.

I could be tempted myself, but may not qualify as “young and able”. Seriously though, you could pay good money to spend time in such a place – almost a “retreat” from the hustle and bustle of the modern world and a long way from the nearest MacDonalds. Wonderful landscapes, river valleys and natural splendour but with easy access to a charming little town with all the important facilities such as shops, cafés, banks etc good food and very drinkable local wines – and the owners are really “cool” in the nicest possible way – and in no way “typical Americans”.

For more info contact rain.heron@orange.fr

For more about these Sweet French Cottages see Sweet French Cottages

Several major extensions of the network include:-

Tours to Bordeaux via Poitiers and Angouleme, bringing Bordeaux within 2 hours of Paris. Utlimately the high speed line will extend south to Bayonne and into Spain!

Le Mans to Rennes in Brittany – bringing Brest within 3 hours of Paris!

Bordeaux to Toulouse in South West France, reducing the travel time to 1 hour!

Marseille to Nice will complete the line to Provence and the Côte d’Azur

Montpellier to Perpignan and on to Barcelona in Spain!

It’s a great example of why domestic air travel in France becomes less and less viable with city centre to city centre times such as these in the offing – speedy and green!
You can book any train journey to and within France including Eurostar, TGV and local lines through RailEurope

Eating and drinking in the Lot is not so much gastronomy, it is more a way of life. Simple pleasures like early-morning mushrooming results in gastronomic treats at meal times.
The food used to revolve around the polyculture practised by the small propriétaires, less so today. But fruits are still bottled, geese are still stuffed, pigs are fattened, påtés are tinned, ducks are turned into hunks of confit, and yellow chickens, dotted with oil and butter and legs akimbo, are forced into ovens to emerge an hour or so later, tasting simply sensational. It is a day-in, day-out, year-long occupation. Tout es bou per sa sason ‘To everything there is a season’ takes on new meaning. ©Helen Martin

Helen Martin writes more about the Lot in her blog at http://lotbook.blogspot.com/

To read more about Food and Wine in the Lot see………
From Helen Martin’s Book Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France
CHAPTER SIX: Food and drink

You arrange to meet at half-past five in the morning. Bleary-eyed, you rise and throw open the shutters to the day. The sky is white-blue and a thin summer mist, like half-whipped egg white, swirls over the valley beneath you, smothering the familiar landmarks. Only the pigeonniers can pierce it. It looks like a gigantic plate of îles flottantes.
As the mist lifts you see smoke rise from the cottage chimney. Across the fields you can hear the children shouting and then the slow rumble of the car. You pile in on top of the chatter and drive to the farm.
Everyone is up already, so we leave the children and plunge down the meadows behind the farm buildings towards the woods. Our feet are wet. The grass is soaked with dew. Through the woods we go, heads down. ‘Attention vipères!’ says Reine, but we do not see any snakes.
We are mushrooming and our eyes are skinned for the little yellow girolles with wavy up-turned caps and big bold ceps.
The floor of the wood is soft with the mould of centuries. It rained yesterday and our feet sink into a bed of moss and leaves.
For two hours we walk thus, abreast, eyes down, following the forest’s invisible paths, mushroom paths, etched across Reine’s mind in an almost subliminal way. Every year since childhood she has followed the same tracks.
We don’t find many- enough girolles for breakfast, and only one cep; it is too early in the year for ceps. We leave the woods and wade back through the grass, heading towards the children’s cries. The sun is up, the light is limpid. We enter the dark warmth of the cottage and sit at an old table in front of the fire.
Madame, Reine’s mother, examines our finds and sets tiny cups of thick black coffee in front of us. The talk is relaxed and convivial.
“Did you go to such and such a spot? What! There were none under the fallen chestnut? My God! Do you remember the ones we found here the year before last?’
It could be any day, any year, any century. We divide the spoils, sink a drop of eau de vie and I make my way home. It is only half-past ten. The day has begun well.

Eating and drinking in the Lot is not so much gastronomy, it is more a way of life. Simple pleasures like early-morning mushrooming results in gastronomic treats at meal times.
The food used to revolve around the polyculture practised by the small propriétaires, less so today. But fruits are still bottled, geese are still stuffed, pigs are fattened, påtés are tinned, ducks are turned into hunks of confit, and yellow chickens, dotted with oil and butter and legs akimbo, are forced into ovens to emerge an hour or so later, tasting simply sensational. It is a day-in, day-out, year-long occupation. Tout es bou per sa sason ‘To everything there is a season’ takes on new meaning.
If you want to know about eating and drinking in the Lot, you should read Pierre Benoit’s novel Le Déjeuner de Sousceyrac, a piece of writing in which is immortalised what was a rather dreary looking hotel in the slightly unprepossessing town of Sousceyrac, For a long time and in spite of its dreariness it had a Michelin star.* Today, it has to be said, the hotel has been renovated and the town cleaned up too.
In the days of the fictional book, Mme Prunet surprised her uninitiated guests with the offer of a simple chicken. It was just that she forgot to mention that it would be preceded by foie gras of duck and little freshwater crayfish straight from one of the many Ségala streams. Maybe she was being a touch mean, she wondered after the crayfish. Should she send the youngster to the épicerie for sardines? Then there was the trout and the dish of stuffed ceps, followed by jugged hare, then, at last the chicken, ending with a sumptuous omelette au rhum……

So what do you wash all this down with? What do Lenin, the Orthodox Church, the Tsars, Pope Jean XXII, Henri IV, Clément Marot, and the Romans all have in common? The answer is the wine of Cahors. The Orthodox Church adopted it as its communion wine; the Tsars used it at official functions; Pope Jean invited Quercy wine growers to cultivate his new vineyard at Chateauneuf (du Pape); Clément Marot called it ‘une liqueur de feu’; Caesar drank and exported it. It is thought that the slaves accompanying the Roman invaders brought wine-making skills to the area.
The English liked it enough to make the wine-growers of Bordeaux feel so threatened that they started to operate a protection racket of taxes and constraints against the Cahors growers during the Hundred Years War, François I planted Cahors vines at Fontainebleau.
A long history, therefore, but not always a proud one. Quality declined drastically in the fourteenth century, for example, and at subsequent times the wine was so poor it was only fit to be added to Bordeaux to give the latter depth. The region clawed its way back to prosperity in the nineteenth century (as much of the local architecture attests) only for phylloxera and war to drag it back down again. Cahors reached a milestone in 1971 when it was promoted to be an AOC wine and today the region produces 30 million bottles annually on about 4,000 hectares.
Traditionally a black wine full of tannin, Cahors is made from 70% Malbec, ( sometimes known Auxerrois or Cot grapes) combined with Merlot and/or Tannat, usually 15% of each, though the proportions are now being slightly modified to attract a wider market. Cahors is the only European stronghold of Malbec, a grape that has declined in popularity in Europe and which is very sensitive to frost. In recent years it has been grown very successfully in Argentina..
In spite of the tannin you can drink it young, when it is at its fruitiest, but also, sometimes, a bit harsh. Best to lay it down down – Malbec does need ageing to develop into a full-flavoured, robust, purple wine, with a long finish. It’s good with game and, as already mentioned, astonishingly good with the local cheese and duck.
But the tannin in the wine is a source of some discussion among the wine growers, some feeling that the essential nature of the wine is being altered to accommodate more modern palettes. Fingers are often pointed at incomers to the area, though there are some growers like Philippe Bernède of Clos La Coutale who are local and who successfully export less tannic, lighter wine, more adapted to contemporary taste.
The Jouffreau family take an opposite point of view. It is almost as if the wines are designed to be provocative and they pander to no one’s taste but their own. The wines they make, though, speak loudly of terroir and tannin as well as individuality and they are honest, earthy and often very, very good.
With your foie gras try a dessert wine by Jean Baldès who also makes the Clos Triguedina award winning wines- Triguedina meaning in Occitan “I am looking forward to dinner, me trigo de dina. One of his new offerings are the Vin de Lune ( white ‘moon’ wines) picked by hand in the dark, or very early in the morning when temperatures are cool. This is an apparent revival of a sixteenth century habit when the peasants used to creep into the manor and steal the grapes, which cool and fresh as they were, retained their fruitiness. Baldès also produces the 100% Malbec Prince Probus and recently started making the New Black Wine, based on a thirteenth century method of production when the black wine of Cahors was famous all over Europe.
The cradle of the Cahors wine is the area between Catus and Bagat, Soturac and Arcambal, but again disagreements arise on which is the best land, though tradition has it that wine produced higher up the coteaux of the river banks is best, albeit production on the steep slopes is also the most expensive. The wine grown along the river valley tends to be full-bodied and deeply fruity, that of the causse, lighter and elegant.
The growers’ aim is firmly set at quality now, the AOC appellation being hard-won and for this reason they try to stick together. But reclassification of the vineyards is now the big fault-line in the area, with some, like Alain-Dominique Perrin (see p 133) feeling that poorer land must be dumped in favour of zones de cru and others afraid that it is their land that will be dumped and that there will be little compensation.
Many of the château vineyards are visitable …and the Chateau de Haute Serre, high on the causse offers an interesting tour as well. Rows of vines are a heart-warming sight somehow and here in the Lot, as in some other places you will often see roses planted at the end of the rows, not to look pretty, although they do, but as an early warning system for mildew
At the end of the last century, the phylloxera parasite, all but wiped out the wines of the area. The propriétaires were advised to replant with American vines, which were resistant to the disease, but these were expensive and many of the small farmers could not afford such a venture. Moreover the wine produced was of poor quality. It was a devastating time. It is impossible to overstate the effect phylloxera had on the rural economy. Production fell dramatically, livelihoods were lost and it was in desperation that some turned to truffles.
The slow climb back, therefore has been all the more impressive, though there have been other blows along the way, such as the hard frosts of 1956 that killed the young vines, and things seem to be at another crossroads just now when harsh decisions will need to be made if the appellation is to go on improving. It boils down to quantity or quality.
The big cooperative, Côtes d’Olt (Olt is the old name for Lot) which incorporates about 250 growers, is at Parnac, where a modern plant is capable of bottling some 9,000 bottles per hour and produces 25% of the entire appellation.
You can buy direct from the cooperative at very reasonable prices, but it would be a pity not to buy direct from some of the vineyards. There is a list available of all AOC producers- livret du vin de Cahors
Names to look out for are Perrin’s Lagrezette; Bernède’s Clos La Coutale; Jean-Luc Baldès at Clos Triguedina; Georges Vigouroux at Haute Serre and Clos de Gamot, home of the late, great Jean Jouffreau. However there are many others.
And although Cahors is associated with red wine it now produces both white, rosé and even desert wines too. The white and rosé are sold as vin de pays however not Appellation Controlée.
The best years of recent times are said to be 1990, 1995 and 2000.
Lesser wine, if honest, is that produced by the Coteaux du Quercy and the Vins du Pays du Lot.
Not all that long ago it was a common sight to see portable stills, the Hell’s Cauldrons as they were known, being dragged round the communes by tractor, going from farm to farm as people distilled their year’s supply of eau de vie de prune, a strong colourless liquid smelling strongly of plums. Twenty litres was the maximum allowed, but at up to 50% alcohol.
In an effort to stamp out the practice and earn a bit of money, the government introduced a licensing system. Licenses were issued to the head of the household for life only. As the men die off, so the right to distil dies with them and soon the only eau de vie will be that available on supermarket shelves. Vieille Prune is available in pretty bottles all over the département, taking 10 kilograms of plums to make one bottle.
Another popular digestif is made from walnuts. Eaux de noix is a dark brown sticky drink, too sweet for me, although I quite enjoy its companion drink, vin de noix, an equally sweet aperitif. This is made from walnuts too though the fact that it is served on ice reduces the sweetness a bit. Noisette is a digestif made from hazel nuts and there is also now a new Valentré aperitif which combines Cahors wine, walnut and blackcurrant and is not as dire as it sounds. At Arcambal, Christophe Ratz is making Bière d’Olt, good for quaffing in the summer heat, but unlikely to make toomuch impact on the wine production of the area.
Of course wine in France is always associated with food and it is the simplest meals that are sometimes the most enjoyable. A glass of Cahors and a cabécou or Rocamadour and all seems right with the world
Oun y a pa et bi Lou rey pot Béni – Where there is bread and wine a king may come.

*Michelin star regained post-publication

©Copyright: Helen Martin
Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France

The selection of Malbec is down to Fabrice Durou, the winemaker from Chateau de Gaudou in Cahors, a well-respected domaine at Vire-sur-Lot. So here is a man who knows his grapes and has made a “micro-cuvee. It all shows a rather different approach to the marketing gimmick which Australian producer McGuigan put on in London recently when they created a temporary vineyard in the heart of the City of London – a fun idea, admittedly, but ephemeral! (see www.ukwinesonline.co.uk)

For more about the Cahors wines of Chateau de Gaudou see www.chateaudegaudou.com

A visit to Chateau Grinou (Monestier, 24 Dordogne, Aquitaine) south west of Bergerac, always takes longer than planned, and I always learn more than I expect.

On this ocassion it was to discover that Chateau Grinou is going organic! Now, whilst Guy Cuisset has a genuine concern for the well-being of the local environment and takes seriously his responsibilities as the current steward of the land and the flora and fauna of the domaine, he is no “tree-hugger”. His primary passion is to produce excellent wines. He does not compromise that objective, especially as there are so many other obstacles (weather, pest, disease) and constraints (bureaucratic, legal, financial) in the way. He is convinced that this approach, whilst being a good investment in the future health and viability of the vineyard, will produce better wines – wines which are more intense and show more of the real fruit character of the grape. The wines will evolve over the next few years as new techniques and fewer artificial interventions make subtle changes to the resulting wines.

The latest visit also included a walk through the vines, which demonstrate the complexity of the challenge. Every year is different, and every one of the 365 days of the year will be distinctively different from this year to last or next. This Spring was seriously wet with heavy downpours and sodden soil. This was followed by some very hot dry weather which dried the topsoil to an almost impenetrable concrete layer – making life very difficult when trying to get rid of the weeds between the vines – esepcially now that he can no longer apply selective weedkillers to deal with the problem.

Further on, he shows me his latest innovation – an organic water treatment plant – which collects all the waste water from the winery and treats it organically and aerobically before letting it flow into the local water course. It’s impressive with its bubbling air pumping through the water and the reed bed to filter the run-off. It may be a requirement of the EU, but few other vineyards are following his example.

It is easy to forget amongst all the hype, marketing and packaging that wine is an agricultural product, and that the winemaker is a farmer with his roots in the soil and environment of his domaine – he can see the benefits to local wildlife (some welcome, others not so), and recognises that his future and that of future generations is intimately invested in the “terroir” which makes his wines what they are.

Unfortunately the new Sauvingon Blanc (Bergerac Sec AC) is not yet available in the UK, so all the more reason to pay a visit to the domaine. English is spoken, but do not expect a fancy tasting room with award certificates, old barrels or ancient vineyard equipment – a plastic table in the middle of the stainless steel cuves is all you’ll get – plus a chance to taste some excellent wines and a small slice of Guy’s enthusiasm to take away!

For more info on Chateau Grinou and UK stockists – see www.frenchduck.co.uk/grinou.html

The trouble with writing about “hidden” corners of France, is that you run the danger of sharing the secret with too many others. Places which I felt were “real France”, quiet, peaceful and unspoilt, have often changed in the last 20 years, becoming commercialised, crowded and bland. But, somehow the location and geography of the upper Lot Valley probably make this less likely.

Although I have made many visits to the lower Lot, especially around the town of Cahors and the Cahors AC vineyards, I had only ventured up-river once – and that was to the picturesque village of St Cirq-la-Popie – perched high on the limestone crags overlooking the valley about 20 miles distant. The valley even here is quite different to the lower Lot where the river, although still pleasingly curvaceous, tends to be wider.

Few vineyards are to be found upriver from Cahors, but the countryside of the Upper Lot and Célé valleys is spectacular – and quieter. The limestone crags and cliffs dominate the landscape offer breathtaking views – and although the roads are often narrow and distinctly bendy, this tends to have the effect of entering a land where time runs more slowly, where nature makes itself felt – and that is miles away from the tourist centres of the Dordogne. And the journey keeps unfolding as you head on up the valley – another 90 miles in our case.

Our objective was to get to meet with Americans Lance and Rain who have 3 cottages to rent near Entraygues-sur-Truyere ( 12 Aveyron, Midi-Pyrenees). Although we had been in contact by email, I was intrigued to discover how and why 2 Californians had settled in one of the lesser-known parts of France.

The journey up the valley provided at least part of the answer – this is a truly beautiful part of France – the valley becomes narrower, but still offers delightful villages, stunning views and plenty of opportunity to enjoy the river – whether just sitting on the bank in the shade or being more energetic with canoes or kayaks. Entraygues-sur-Truyere, which translates as “between the waters” – i.e. the river Lot and its tributary the Truyere – is everything you expect of a small rural French market town – with its bridges over the river and narrow streets – and the essentials – a bank, boulangerie, hotel, bar etc – and the quiet air of a place at peace with itself – especially on a hot summer afternoon.

The other reason for Lance and Rain choosing this spot also became clear when we found the “Sweet French Cottages” up a narrow track above the river a few kilometres out of town. We discovered a haven of tranquility – with delightful hosts and some wonderful holiday cottages – well, appointed, cleverly and carefully restored – but above all secluded and deep in the countryside – yet just a few miles from all the conveniences of the town – and in an area rich with local artisans producing wine, cheese, wine. pottery…… The local wines, Vins d’Entraygues et du Fel VDQS, had to be tasted of course (along with some wonderful goats cheese made by one of the neighbours)! The vineyards are often terraced high on the sides of the valley, and production is small – mostly drunk locally. The white we tasted from Domaine de Mejanassere was a blend of Chenin Blanc and Mauzac grapes – a light, refreshing dry wine with a pleasing floral nose and exotic fruit finish; the red (Gamay, Fer Servadou, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Savignon), whilst being a tad “rustic” was perfect with some local saucisson. Somehow these uncomplicated straightforward wines were a great match for the time and place!

Whilst many might aspire to the Californian lifestyle, these Californians have clearly found their home in the depths of France, and whilst they remain ambitious, they are relaxed and welcoming – a long way from the stereotypical loud American we’ve all met. Indeed, there is something about the place that seems to instill some sense of peace and contentment – the world of autoroutes, big business and conflict seems, and is, a long way away – whilst nature imposes its own sense of order to things – whether it be the landscape, the river or the weather.

It is certainly an area I intend to return to – there is so much to explore, especially guided by two people who know the area well, and are keen to share it with others. Their ambitions include developing artists retreats (with a studio planned) and themed stays based on the local food etc.

For more about Lance and Rain’s SWEET FRENCH COTTAGES – see www.frenchduck.com/latest OR to enquire about availability and rates etc, complete the form below:-

cforms contact form by delicious:days

The wine fair takes place in the town of Saint-Sardos (82 Tarn-et-Garonne, Midi-Pyrenees) on Sunday 3 August 2008.

For more info see www.cave-saint-sardos.com (in French)

In the UK some of the wines of Saint Sardos are available from Devigne Wines in Edinburgh

The departement of Gers (32 Midi-Pyrenees) in the heart of Gascony has built a reputation for creating its musical summer festivals – principally the internationally renowned Jazz in Marciac (1–17 August 2008) and Tempo Latino (24–27 July 2008) in Vic Fezensac.

These otherwise quiet small towns vibrate with music, and the streets are filled with people – and the events are also sponsored by the Cotes de St Mont VDQS wine co-operative (Plaimont) just to ensure that the atmosphere is convivial.

AMongst tge artists appearing at Marciac are Diana Krall and Herbie Hancock, whilst Tempo Latino has a latin jazz theme.

Situated in the north of the Tarn departement, the Gaillac Appellation area covers 2.500 hectares spread over 73 communes, for an AOC production of over 165.000 hectolitres.
Today, the appellation gathers around one hundred independent producers and 3 cooperative cellars.
The 3 different terroirs and the age of the vineyard enable Gaillac to offer numerous traditional grape varieties. The diversity of the Gaillac vineyard means that it can produce a great variety of elaborate wines, a wide range of dry, sweet and “perlé” white wines, red and rose wines as well as sparkling wines.

Our recommended producer in the region is Domaine de Labarthe, where the Albert family make consistently good wines which retain traditional character – try their Cuvée Guillaume (oaked red) and their dessert white “Grains d’Or” (golden grapes).

For more info on the wines of Gaillac see www.vins-gaillac.com

Located between Montauban and Cahors (46 Lot, Midi-Pyrenees), these red and rose wines are unusually (for the south of France) based on Cabernet Franc (40–60% of the blend) with Malbec, Tannat, and Gamay being the other allowed varieties.

The name “Quercy” comes from the latin “quercus” for oak – and was the name given to a large area of South West France until the current departement system was introduced in 1790. The Coteaux du Quercy area was known as “Bas Quercy” and is dominated by the high “Causses” or moorland which still has a lot of “scrub oaks”.

You can try for yourself at the Fete du Vin de Cahors (Cahors Wine Festival) to be held at Puy l’Eveque (46 Lot, Midi-Pyrenees) on 9 August 2008 – about 20 miles west of Cahors town on the river Lot. This opens in the Salle des Fetes at 5pm (i.e. after the worst of the heat of the day) and offers visitors the chance to taste the wines of local independent winemakers, but a few bottles (or more) all accompanied by music and a banquet!

However, many winemakers will also produce Armagnac and Floc de Gascogne which are also based on Colombard and Ugni Blanc grapes. Floc de Gascogne is a blend of unfermented grape juice and Armagnac which served chilled is a refreshing aperitif, available in white and rose styles.

Meanwhile just 40 or so miles to the north, still in the Lot departement, but actually on the Dordogne river, the Souillac Jazz Festival runs 14–20 July 2008 – both with some events held in the surrounding villages.

For more info see www.cahorsbluesfestival.com or www.souillacenjazz.net or www.tourisme-gramat.com

Tags: music

But you could take it a stage further and enrol in a digital photography course in the village of Castelfranc, west of Cahors where the river Vert meets the Lot. In July the village celebrates its annual Fete (13 & 14 July 2008) when the village is in festive mood with theatre, music, dancing, a market of local produce etc. Every year there is also an exhibition of professional photographers (which continues throughout the summer).

To coincide with this a series of courses are being held in the village for anyone interested in digital photography under the title Itinerances Photographiques. Over the weekend there are 4 three-hour sessions for beginners – everything from using the camera through to using Photoshop to enhance your images and printing.

During the week (15–19 July 2008) there is a more in-depth course designed to help you perfect your skills, and visiting suitable locations for images and providing constructive critique on your photos of the region, whether it be moorland, vines, markets, local people, local and historical sites – with such a wealth of stunning subject matter within reach you could learn much and enjoy more! The 5–day course is offered on either a residential or non-residential basis.

For more info see www.itinerancesphoto.org or contact Maxime Bessieres

To learn more about the region I can recommend Helen Martin’s Book “Lot – Travels through a limestone landscape in SouthWest France” See also the local tourist office www.tourisme-prayssac.fr

Almost simultaneously the birth of 2 other spectacular bridges is being celebrated – the medieval Pont Valentre in Cahors (46 Lot, Midi-Pyrenees) celebrates 700 years, whilst the latest Pont Gustave Flaubert (see picture) is due be opened in time for the Rouen Armada (4–5 July 2008).

Rouen’s latest crossing of the River Seine is in the heart of the city and will take the A154 autoroute from the nothwest (Dieppe) through the city to connect with the A13 Autoroute from Normandie to Paris.

Because is is a city centre site, and the Seine carries ocean-going ships (and was a Transatlantic Cruise ship terminal) there is not enough space to build a traditional high span bridge, so this will be the largest vertical lift bridge in the world. When high masted ships need to pass, both dual carriageways will be lifted by cable to allow the ship underneath. For such a massive task the structure seems remarkably elegant – each roadway is 18m wide and 120m long and weighs 1300 tonnes.

When opened in the next few weeks (early July 2008) the notorious congestion in the city centre will be eased considerably.

Meanwhile in Cahors the South West, the fortified medieval Pont Valentre celebrates its 700th anniversary – and this was open to road traffic until only a few years ago, But now the city will pay homage to its most distinctive landmark On 4^th July 2008 there will be a banquet on the bridge itself prepared by some of the best chefs in the region – with music and dancing. From Wednesdays to Saturdays from 17 July 2008 to 9 Augusr 2008 the bridge will be lit up every night from 10.30pm for 2 hours with a sound and light show which promised to be spectacular.

There is a website about the bridge’s 700th anniversary which has been inviting photographers from around the world to show their images of the bridge in all its moods – www.lepontvalentrea700ans.com.

Regular readers will be aware the the Lot Valley in the South West of France features frequently in these pages – in many ways the essence of “deepest France”, it is less crowded than the Dordogne to the north and yet offers a wide variety of landscapes, pretty villages, great cuisine – and is home to the often under-rated Malbec-based wines of Cahors. Hence an essential recent purchase has been the revised edition of Helen Martin’s Book Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France, which is packed with insights, history and information on the Lot département (46) as part of the River’s journey from the Massif Central to its meeting with the Garonne near Aiguillon (47 Lot-et-Garonne, Aquitaine).

Helen has kindly allowed us to print an extract of the section on Cahors and its wines…….
Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France

Chapter 8 The Lot Valley: West of Cahors
Below Cahors, the valley of the Lot belongs to the vignerons and the vineyards of the black wine of Cahors, châteaux-country in fact, but in times gone by it also belonged to the bishops of Cahors, who worked and played but mostly – in that great Christian tradition – fought along its banks.
Downstream of Luzech, the really wild cliffs you see to the east of Cahors become a thing of the past, replaced by gentler, graceful slopes, albeit with a certain grandeur to them, that, even though they may end in cliffs, are less formidable and are called cévennes. The river idles its way through the countryside in deep loops, or cingles, and was used as a major artery for transporting goods from the thirteenth century.
Along its banks grow the vines, and it was mostly the wine from these vineyards which used to be sailed downstream to the Garonne and Bordeaux and from thence to the world. The wine of Cahors may have had its ups and down in more recent times, but the Romans were making wine here in the third century and it had something of a reputation even then, so this river trade is very ancient. Finally, though, and in spite of the efforts of competitive Bordeaux wine-makers, it was phylloxera which put paid to the wine, and thus the trade, in the 1880s. By the time it had revived again, there were better means of transport. But even when the river was at the height of its usefulness, transportation was not always guaranteed. You would be surprised to know how many times the Lot froze right over in winter; the end of the eighteenth century was a particularly critical time – in 1766 it was frozen solid for two and a half months.
In the early nineteenth century, on a river much improved with the passage of time by locks and aids to navigation, 300,000 tonnes of freight was carried down it each year, including an astonishing 90 million bottles of wine – three times the number produced today. However, just as it was phylloxera that killed the river’s wine trade, so it was the coming of the railway that killed the river as a serious form of transport. In more recent years, though, it is coming to life again as leisure craft ply their way up and down, no doubt bringing new problems of pollution.
The villages along this western stretch of the river, unsurprisingly enough, are notable for their wine-producers’ houses – usually big and square with bolets or pigeonniers and sometimes both. You will notice, also, the use of decorative brickwork, the bricks being produced along the valley.
Rather than hop back and forth from bank to bank, backtracking, we shall descend on the north bank and return on the south, although there are several river crossings, such as between Douelle and Cessac, for example. You are of course free to do it in any way you please, though the north bank is probably the more interesting one. There is also a ‘Vineyard Gardens’ circuit of AOC wine châteaux – details from any local tourist office.

The château of Lagrézette may be unwittingly familiar to you. This is the magnificent home of the afore-mentioned Alain-Dominique Perrin, the French tobacco-industry millionaire and now-retired director of the luxury goods brand Richemont, which includes Cartier. Tony Blair visited the château in August 2002 for a meeting with Jean-Pierre Raffarin and it was splashed across the television news on the day. Allegedly, there have been private visits, too, and M. Perrin was an occasional guest at Downing Street.
Perrin (or ADP, as he’s known) has played a visible part in the revival of the Cahors appellation since Georges Vigouroux pioneered the idea, though many locals seem to deplore both Perrin’s methods and his person……
There is a local irritation among some Cahors vignerons that these ‘haut de gamme’ producers are playing around with Cahors, turning it into an easier wine, rather than concentrating on a ‘purer’ product – the black, heavily tannic wine in which its origins lie. But one also has to take into account an ingrained provincialism that one can come across in country areas. It is the children of these producers who go away to study oenology; their fathers often have their roots simply in the land, a land, however, that they know intimately and love…… Wine in the Lot (is) ceasing to be a local family affair; big business( has) arrived, though it (comes)with as much passion.
But you can find a few brave people who speak up for Perrin, saying that the appellation needed a bit of a kick up the backside; that poorer land should be dumped and that constantly aiming to improve the quality (and the price) of Cahors is the correct strategy; that Perrin had indeed done this, had raised the profile of Cahors and that overall the wine is better now. Many of these people believe that sooner or later the reclassification of the appellation – identifying the best land (zones de cru) and selling the wine produced on it at a premium, as well as uprooting the poorest altogether – is inevitable…..

Caïx is next and the home of yet another Lot grandee. The château stands above the village, commanding a view of the river of which it was once a fierce defender. In bygone days it was the residence of Lefranc de Pompignan, an eighteenth-century poet who showed an early interest in poetry and, although he was born in Montauban, an early interest in the Lot, too, writing a Latin dissertation on its antiquities.
De Pompignan was a firm exponent of the Luzech-for-Uxellodunum argument. ……
Nowadays, however, Caïx is the summer home of the Queen of Denmark. Queen Margrethe is married to a member of an old Lot family, the Monpezat, which had colonial links with Vietnam. Count André left the Far East and returned to Cahors in 1955 and it was his eldest son, Henri, who married the Queen and took the title Prince Henrik of Denmark. They bought the château in 1975 and straight away became involved in the old Monpezat family tradition of wine-growing. In 1993, with the château restored (and once again it is a fairy tale of a place), the prince and his wife replanted the vines around and built a new winery. The château is private, but you can have a dégustation of Prince Henrik’s wine and see round a small wine museum.
Caïx was also the home of the natural father of Olympe de Gouges, or Marie Gouze as she was born. Although Jean-Jacques Lefranc de Caïx never recognised his daughter, she went on to become a feminist playwright and journalist, who was a strong advocate of human rights and equal opportunity for women, writing her Declaration for the rights of women and the female citizen in 1791. She also supported divorce and sex outside marriage for women. Way before her time, she wrote an anti-slavery play, L’Esclavages des Nègres, in 1774, but struggled to get it performed. Her famous comment, “a woman has the right to mount the scaffold,” came back to haunt her in 1793 when she was guillotined for her revolutionary ideas. It was only in 2007 that Segolène Royal suggested de Gouges’ remains be removed to the Panthéon. In fact, like many corpses of the Reign of Terror, her remains are long lost.
The church in Caïx is twelfth-century and inside there is some remaining Romanesque decoration. There is also a strange cross by the door of a doll-like figure weighing what could be souls. Caïx is also one of the places along this stretch of the river where you can hire canoes, as you can at the next port of call, too……

Continue on eastwards past the old brickworks of Castelfranc until you reach Albas, piled up above its weir in a stunning position and, along with St-Vincent and Luzech, one of the places that enjoyed a short interlude of prosperity in bygone days thanks to its vineyards. The streets of Albas are very steep and full of steps. Seen from the north side of the river it looks pretty, with the church and town sitting on a cliff above the Lot, but once there, there is that slightly down-at-heel air that many of the river-towns have.
But Albas is a lively town and most particularly in its famous May bacchanal, La Fête du Vin de Cahors, which starts with Mass and ends with onion soup, with a lot of wine and spectacles, lunches and dinners in between. Over-40s should go into training before participating…..

Helen Martin – Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France
See our maps of the Lot, Lot-et-Garonne and Aveyron départements.
If you are looking to explore the upper Lot Valley then you could stay at some Sweet French Cottages in the Aveyron (self-catering)

Allez Vins! used to import wines from this domaine when it was run by its previous owners, but now it is being run organically under the title “Wild Earth Vineyards” by the enthusiastic and innovative new owners, Sean and Caroline Feely.

The Grape Escape, our well-equipped 4-person gite (self-catering holiday house) is surrounded by organic vineyards and offers fabulous views across the Dordogne valley. It is semi-detached from the main farmhouse facing onto the courtyard on one side and onto the vines on the two sides built out over the vineyard.

As our guests, you are very welcome to spend time with us to learn about our wine and winemaking, taste our wines and perhaps even take part in vineyard or winery activity depending on the time of year and your energy!

No chance for me to taste their wine yet – they produce red, rosé and white Bergerac AC wines and semi-sweet and botytised dessert Saussignac AC wines. (If you want to try them they will be showing their wines at the Real Food Festival at Earls Court, London from 24-27 April 2008).

For more info on the gite, wines and other offerings contact Chateau Haut Garrigue

See map and more info on the area 

(see map)

Evolution will plan your itinerary for you or advise you on your existing route. If you’re a lover of fishing, walking, wine tasting etc.a personalised route planner to suit your needs can be arranged for the duration of your vacation. We will provide details of recommended camp sites.

You’ll never get lost…
We provide an on-board ready-to-use GPS navigation system. We’re on-call with a 24/7 helpline with English spoken… We can provide liaison with reputable local property agents for those seeking to purchase property in the area. Cycle and leisure equipment hire is also available. Evolution caters for all-year round rental, with winter skiing resorts only a leisurely 3 hour drive south, a little further will take you to the winter warmth of Spain.

So you can avoid the long road trip through France, fly into Bergerac or Bordeaux or take the train – they will meet you at the airport or station and you’re off free to explore this rich and varied area. And with French number plates you might even get a bit more respect on the road!

For more info see www.evolutionmotorhomes.com