valleedulot.com - The lot Valley - Discover

No you’re not dreaming !

Once upon a time…
The castle that every child dreams about?  Bonaguil
One of the most beautiful prehistoric caves in France? Pech Merle
A jewel of Roman art ? Conques
An exceptional village, perched on its rock? Saint Cirq Lapopie.

All that really does exist, at various points along the Lot Valley, the Valley of marvels.

Romanesques châteaux, country houses, abbeys and churches, prehistoric sites, towns and villages full of character: the banks of the Lot valley are filled with some quite exceptional heritage. It is the fruit of a variety of lands and scenery ; the rich plains and slopes of the Garonne region, the barren and stark plateaux of the Quercy, the tortuous gorges of the Auvergne and the Gévaudan, the granite massif of the Margeride...And the Aubrac, of course, this vastness positioned on a plateau, forgotten by mankind, which displays its pastures and its burons (stone huts) with their corbelled slate roofs.

A heritage which evokes the arrival of the first human settlers, in locations which seemed to them idyllic; the Hundred Years war and the creation of the fortified towns , these new towns of the Middle Ages ; the faith of the pilgrims on their way to Saint-Jacques de Compostelle; the bravery of the boatmen who would risk their lives plying the river to transport wood, wines and cereals ; the tenacity of the miners of Decazeville, who relentlessly mined the coal from depths of the earth.

So what is the Lot Valley? Well it is a very beautiful book of History to leaf through on your way down the river