From Toulouse we headed back north, aiming to knock off a few more beautiful villages before a visit to our favorite cathedral, Bourges, and then a date with United Airlines at CDG on July 5th. The first of the villages, on a day of four, was Rocamadour. It was July 2nd.
Granted, Rocamadour is not just a pretty little village, though it is a member of les plus beaux villages association. It is a castle, then lower down, a monastery, chapels and such (the cite religieuse), and still lower, a village (sort of, maybe, once; now a "Medieval" strip shopping mall), all perched, dramatically, on the side of a cliff above the Alzou. If one is a French-type personne, it is a site one does not miss. The setting is indeed dramatic. The Christian religious site goes back well into the Middle Ages and is on the Camino, and Rocamadour's relics have attracted visitors no less than Henry II (Peter O'Toole) and Eleanor of Aquitaine (Kathryn Hepburn), Vita Sackville-West, and Jacques Cartier. Said relics include some molecules of the bones of St. Amadour, the Black Virgin statue, the sword of Roland, and the Maltese Falcon. Also the Holy Grail. Henry and Eleanor were most likely inspecting their south-of-France properties, reinforcing their claims, and popped in for a plenary dispensation or two. After the Middle Ages, Rocamadour was sacked and pillaged and burned numerous times, especially during the Wars of Religion and the Revolution, when the sans-culottes took special pleasure in digging up the saint's bones, burning them, and spreading the ashes to the winds (what his "dying wishes might well have been..."). We visited back in 1989, and were duly impressed, although, sadly, no pix survive from that occasion.
 |
Rocamadour: castle on top, religious city in the middle, village
at the bottom; almost like the three estates, one might think...
nobility, clergy, the rest |
 |
Vicki climbing the stairs from the valley (parking lot)
up to the Medieval village |
 |
| Top of the stairs...Medieval bubble waffles and bubble tea! |
 |
In the Medieval village, glancing apprehensively
to the realms above |
 |
| So high up |
 |
| So high even the tourist train doesn't go there |
 |
| Gothic gate |
 |
| Street scene |
 |
| Looking up to the monastery and castle... |
 |
| The stairs leading thereto (first switchback) |
 |
Research revealed there was an ascenseur up to the monastery
level, for a price; for the same price, we opted instead for a bottle
of cider and some crepes and salade; we have already earned
our plenary dispensations |
