Take A Stroll In...Cahors

Nestling within a meander of the River Lot, Cahors is a treasure trove of medieval architecture, gourmet treats and vinous discoveries, says Dominic Rippon

- Dominic Rippon

A mid the rolling hills of the Lot département, where goats graze in remote pastures and vines cling to the sun-baked limestone slopes, the town of Cahors, its capital, is embraced on three sides by the River Lot, over which its emblematic bridge, Pont Valentré, proudly sits. A warm breeze whipped across the glistening water on a clear spring morning, as I awaited my tour guide in the shadow of one of the bridge’s three imposing roofed towers.

As I admired the renovated majesty of Pont Valentré, Valérie Noyé, from Cahors tourist office, arrived to explain more. “This is the only complete medieval fortified bridge left in France,” she revealed. Built in the 14th century during the Hundred Years War, it is as remarkable for its meticulous construction (90 per cent of the stone is original) as for its apparent lack of use: the bridge led nowhere, not even to a minor road out of town. It was built largely for symbolic reasons – as a show of military strength and economic prosperity – and as a means of raising taxes on goods carried by boats sailing upstream. It was the last of three bridges to be built in Cahors in the Middle Ages – and the only one to survive demolition in the 19th century.