Thursday 25 September 2014

Day 12 - Rocamadour: a pilgrim's town perched on a cliff

We enjoyed another slowish start to the day over a continental breakfast, and then set out for Rocamadour. Dad insisted on taking us by a rather circuitous route, mainly to ensure we got a splendid 'big reveal' as we came over the adjacent hill to see Rocamadour full on.

Down to the river, and then back up the other side, we parked and then wandered slowly down this fairy tale town. Small buildings with steeply pitched tile roofs, either jammed up into the cliff face, or perched precariously on the cliff edge, lined the narrow one-way streets.

An important site of pilgramage in the 13th century (Louis IX, later Saint Louis, who built Sainte Chapelle was one of the more famous pilgrims to visit), the place fell into disrepair by the 1600s or so. It was rediscovered and restored from the late C19, and the sanctuary was recognised as a minor basilica in 1913.

We had lunch at a place about halfway up, Mum and I enjoying a salad each, variations on the themes that JD and I had the day before; Dad went for snails plus some confit of duck as a two course option under the Formule du Terroir (fixed menu of local specialties); Jos chose the plat du jour - a pork steak marinated in spices of some sort; and JD and Ky had a faux fillet, which is some cut of steak we haven't identified. JD and the boys chose the Formule Rapide, so their meals included desserts (creme caramel or panna cotta). And the only choices of tea they had were Earl Grey (bleuch), Green or Mint - I think I need to start carrying around a couple of my own teabags for such occasions.

Unfortunately, the day was a little hazy so our photos are not quite as splendid as they might have been, but you're still going to have to wait until I've got something better than intermittent dial-up speed internet before you see any of them.

JD and Ky particularly started fading by mid afternoon, so we put off visiting the cave at Padirac until tomorrow and headed home for a bit of reading and sitting around.

The folks were in charge of dinner, and we had gazpacho, arancini (made from the leftover risotto from last night), and very fancy cheese on toasts, plus some salad. We again finished with a selection of cheeses - a local blue, a vintage cheddar type, and the last of the three very ripe Rocamadour cheeses Mum had bought on Monday.

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