June 08 – A town on a cliff: Rocamadour

We skipped breakfast this morning.  No boulangeries anywhere near our house.  We loaded up the car and were on the road by mid-morning. 

Some pretty scenes from the countryside that we drove through. 

In one area we saw many limestone cliffs. 

Our route into Rocamadour put us at the top of the plateau and at the chateau.  So, we decided to start from there.  The chateau is used by the church so cannot be toured, but visitors were allowed to climb the ramparts. 

The tower and gate.

The ramparts. 

The tower and it's door from the ramparts. 

The chateau from the middle walkway.

The private garden area. 

Great views of the valley from the chateau…

and down into the town.

From there we found the funicular down to the next level of town.  And we found a map of the town. 

There we had a view up to the chateau... 

and down to the town. 

The Sanctuary of Notre Dame de Rocamadour was also on this level.

The church in the sanctuary was Saint Sauveur Church. 

  

We also found a small side chapel that had sports jerseys.  No idea what it was about.

A nearby chapel had a Black Madonna.

There was also an upright log with lots of tack nailed into it.  The sign indicated that it was for restoration of the sanctuary.  Make a one euro donation and pound in a tack.  Paul made a donation.

From there we took the escalator down to the main street of the town.  It was definitely a tourist area.  The architecture was definitely Middle Ages but most of the buildings along the main street were either tourist goods or restaurants and ice cream shops. 

There were some views back up to the sanctuary and chateau. 

Perhaps this guy can entice you into the store.  

We found a restaurant with a terrace overlooking the valley and enjoyed lunch.  We took a walk along the street again and opted for ice cream for dessert.

Then we headed back up to the top to the car.  From there we decided to drive down to the bottom of the valley and take a scenic route to our next stop.  It gave us other views of Rocamadour.

By midafternoon we were Gramat where we will be for a couple of days.  And we had dinner at the hotel.  They had a nice menu that we both enjoyed.