Rocamadour




It was Friday Market Day in the Place Saint-Martin outside my hotel so I lingered there for a while before heading south-east to Rocamadour, an important destination for pilgrims and has been so for over 1,000 years. It was built on the site of a shrine to the Black Madonna and naturally is a stop on the pilgrimage path to Santiago de Compostella. Rocamadour has a beautiful and dramatic setting as it literally climbs up a cliff face perched above the deep canyon of the River Alzou, while at the very peak stands the Château de Rocamadour and I was able to take a stroll around its ramparts for a panoramic view of the valley below. I took the funicular down to the village with its medieval houses and numerous chapels with their turrets and spires before ascending rather laboriously the worn and pitted 216 steps of the Grand Escalier, once climbed by pilgrims on their knees. I think a short poem about Rocamadour best describes it.
Les maisons sur le ruisseau,
Les églises sur les maisons,
Les rochers sur les églises,
Le château sur les rochers.
My next stop is Cahors, a little further south.

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