Fairytale France: Haut Quercy Party

Walking in the Quercy is all about following the old ways through valleys filled with ancient woodland, along the banks of the river Lot and over high limestone plateaux. Here it is possible that you might lose touch with the 21st century and slip into an older and slower time.

In this wooded land of plenty expect to encounter traditional French markets and dine on local game and wild mushrooms washed down with excellent full-bodied south-western reds.

The highlight of the trip, we think, is lunch in the courtyard of Chateau de Cénevières, a cliff-top Renaissance chateau towering over the River Lot. Lunch at the chateau is followed by a private guided tour by the castle’s dynamic 90-year old Marquis. Another high point is the perfectly preserved medieval village of Saint-Cirq Lapopie just a few miles up river.

St-Cirq Lapopie is regarded as being one of the prettiest villages in France perched high on the limestone cliffs overlooking the Lot valley. You stay four nights in the heart of the village listening (in Spring) to the nightingales at night and the quiet of the medieval streets at dawn and dusk. The leader of the Surrealist movement, André Breton, lived here in the early twentieth century so artists like Man Ray and Salvador Dali, Giorgio de Chirico would visit to discuss the future of and meaning of art.

Unlike the world-famous cave of Lascaux, the glorious Pech Merle cave you visit is the original cave that was discovered in 1922 and which is estimated to be about 25,000 years old. It has beautiful geological features as well as highly important polychrome paintings. This is a land of prehistory, a utopia for mankind a few hundred thousand years ago ... and little changed since! This is the cave where, in 1953, Andre Breton, wiped his finger on one of the drawings to verify that they had not been retouched. A fight and court case ensued!