{"id":5223,"date":"2024-06-28T08:16:07","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T08:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=5223"},"modified":"2025-12-24T22:26:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:26:46","slug":"9-cote-de-fumel-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=5223","title":{"rendered":"9. C\u00d4TE DE FUMEL. PART 2."},"content":{"rendered":"

One\u00a0day we went on tour.\u00a0 First, the little village of Anth\u00e9, just down the road – but, to be fair, there really isn’t much there.\u00a0 On to Tournon d’Argenais.\u00a0 Another town built on the top of a hill.\u00a0 This time we got most of the elevation sorted by car as the road spiralled upwards around the outside of the defensive walls of the old town.\u00a0 We’ve been here before, but it’s always nice to be reminded of places.\u00a0 We walked most of the town’s narrow streets and ended, after much deliberation, at Les Mirabelles for a cr\u00e8pe!\u00a0 I know, we are a long way from Brittany, but it has to be done occasionally to remind us how nice they taste, but how many you need to make a meal!<\/p>\n

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The Eglise Saint-Barth\u00e9lemy.\u00a0 Another freely accessible church:<\/p>\n

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Barth\u00e9lemy brings our French “saint count” (churches and towns etc.) to a very respectable 200.\u00a0 That only leaves another 1176 saints to meet before we catch the ferry!\u00a0 I discovered that there are three countries that recognise more goody-goody-two-shoes than France!<\/p>\n

(For the record, North Africa leads the canonisation league table with an astonishing 5,081.\u00a0 Spain comes a poor second with a miserly 2,407 and then Italy with just 1,897 – just ahead of France at 1,376.\u00a0 In total, over 10,000 saints are recognised world-wide.)<\/p>\n

Montaigu de Quercy is yet another town built on a hill, or more precisely, on the side of a hill.\u00a0 A long steep approach, up the main street …<\/p>\n

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… which appeared to be devoid of residents, brought us to an open square at the top of town.<\/p>\n

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The only people moving here, apart from us, were two gardeners, replacing winter planting with stuff suitable for a hot dry summer.\u00a0 And, of course, the compulsory church is located up here.\u00a0 But no sign of a caf\u00e9, a bar, a shop, or anything really!<\/p>\n

So, that’s Montaigu de Quercy ticked off!\u00a0 To be fair, outside the historic centre there was a small grocery store (closed), a garage (closed), a pharmacy (used to get cough medicine), a bank (somewhere not seen on this visit, but used later in the week), an estate agent (closed) and a very useful public toilet!<\/p>\n

Another day we made a plan to eat at the tiny restaurant, Au P’tit Moissac.\u00a0 Highly recommended.\u00a0 Miles out in the boondocks.\u00a0 But we have their telephone number and the name of the village, Touffailles.\u00a0 We got no reply when we rang.\u00a0 We took a bit of a gamble!\u00a0 We headed to Touffailles. Here we found no sign of the restaurant, indeed, not much sign of anything, really.\u00a0 We drove out of town on each of the possible roads, but still no signs.\u00a0 On returning to “down-town Touffailles”, an English lady careered out of her house (the only one of the six houses that looked as if it was lived in).\u00a0 “Can I help you.\u00a0 You look lost!”.\u00a0 “Ahh, Au p’tit Moissac.\u00a0 Very good!\u00a0 You need to go to up that narrow road to the top of the hill.\u00a0 Then zig zag down the other side.\u00a0 Past the lavender farm.\u00a0 Cross the stream.\u00a0 Keep going to Moissaguel about ten kilometres.\u00a0 Then from the centre of the village (five houses, I counted!) follow the signs”.\u00a0 Well, there are five roads and two tracks leave the “city” of Moissaguel.\u00a0 We follow each in turn for upwards of five kms.\u00a0 No signs.\u00a0 No cars.\u00a0 No nothing!\u00a0 But we did spot a couple of deer down one road.\u00a0 We felt we were on first name terms with Dasher and Prancer after we had passed them for the fourth time in 20 minutes.\u00a0 It transpired they were captive deer not wild ones.<\/p>\n

In the end, we decided to knock on one of two houses showing any sign of life.\u00a0 I got an absolute earful from the resident\u00a0 “I’ve told him he MUST put up a sign.”\u00a0 And after a long and tedious rant, very reluctantly, “It’s to the right at the crossroads.”\u00a0 “Merci monsieur!\u00a0 I’ll mention the lack.of signs.”\u00a0 Luckily, I don’t have a commanding knowledge of French swear words, but I’m pretty sure I heard quite a few!<\/p>\n

Anyway, to keep a long story long, we turned right at the crossroads.\u00a0 We checked both houses we passed, very carefully.\u00a0 One looked deserted and about to fall down.\u00a0 The other looked to be occupied, but absolutely not a place at which I’d want to eat.\u00a0 So we went further and met up with Prancer and Dancer and several of their friends yet again before returning to the centre of Moissaguel.\u00a0 “Let’s try the house at which we wouldn’t eat.”<\/p>\n

A very pleasant elderly gentleman hobbled to his (open) front door snd told us to take the track immediately behind his house for a few hundred metres.\u00a0 Bingo, lots of cars jammed under trees.\u00a0 Too many, it transpired.\u00a0 The restaurant was full and Claude, the mad Belgian, was cooking and serving all his customers on his own.<\/p>\n

“Signs?\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 I’m full every day for the next three weeks!\u00a0 I don’t need signs, my customers all know how to get here – and anyway, I haven’t got time to put them up!”\u00a0 I think that’s what he said.\u00a0 That and “Desol\u00e9!”<\/p>\n

As we pulled out of his garden, the car’s tyre pressure warning light came on.\u00a0 Well, it was a very rough track.\u00a0 While I was checking pressures, parked in the access drive, a delivery van arrived.\u00a0 He just had to wait while I convinced myself we didn’t have a seriously flat tyre.<\/p>\n

We ended up in Bourg de Visa at La Brasserie des Corni\u00e8res.\u00a0 It was late.\u00a0 They had officially stopped serving 15 minutes before we arrived.\u00a0 The owner turned out to be a bit of a jester.\u00a0 Rather than show us a menu or describe the available offerings, he asked us what we would like to eat and then cleverly steered us towards the only thing available.\u00a0 A rather tasty spag bol!<\/p>\n

After that little episode, we debated going further South to Moissac town (as far as we knew, nothing to do with the hard-to-find P’tit Moissac restaurant.\u00a0 But I bet there’s a connection there somewhere!).\u00a0 I wanted to see the “famous” aqueduct carrying the Canal Lateral \u00e0 la Garonne (that we had met several times previously) over the River Tarn.\u00a0 The Pont Canal du Cacor.\u00a0 Glenda wanted to see the city.\u00a0 A clear compromise.\u00a0 City first.\u00a0 Bridge second.\u00a0 But it’s a goodish drive, we’ll be late home!<\/p>\n

The city turned out to be smaller than we expected.\u00a0 Dominated by a whacking great cathedral\/Abbey thing.<\/p>\n

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The Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Moissac.\u00a0 A combined Romanesque Abbey and working church.<\/p>\n

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A very busy, working church.\u00a0 We are beginning to realise that most churches were built off the same architectural plan.\u00a0 They really do have a lot in common.\u00a0 Massive pillars, disproportionately tall vaulted ceilings, tall stained glass windows and millions of chairs.\u00a0 They are also all lovely and cool!<\/p>\n

This one has an added feature.\u00a0 We thought it was the desk where we were going to have to pay for visiting.<\/p>\n

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But, no.\u00a0 Meet Edith, the keeper of the tampon.\u00a0 It is she who stamps your record card to prove you have completed this section of the dreaded Camino Trail.\u00a0 She stamps it with her tampon.\u00a0 Obviously!<\/p>\n

Moving swiftly on, we find the Pont Canal du Cacor a few kms out of town.<\/p>\n

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Built in 1844\/5 it is, at 356 m long, one of the longest such aqueducts in France.<\/p>\n

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There is also the famous Saint Jaques swing bridge on the canal in Moissac.\u00a0 But sadly, it wasn’t famous enough, because we didn’t know about it at the time.\u00a0 So we didn’t visit.<\/p>\n

The other spectacular feature of this canal is a “water slope”.\u00a0 Replacing a flight of five locks, this engineering masterpiece uses two powerful tractors to pull a large puddle of water (with a boat – up to 40 m in length – floating on it, obviously) up a slope.\u00a0 The waterproofing of the “puddle” must be impressive.\u00a0 Sadly, this feature is located in Montech another 30 minutes away from camp.\u00a0 Also, it hasn’t been working since 2009.\u00a0 Two reasons to skip a visit.<\/p>\n

We already had over 50 kms of country roads to get home.\u00a0 As predicted we were late back.\u00a0 Hetty was about to send out a search party.\u00a0 She had some stern words about old people not staying out late at night!<\/p>\n

I’ve searched hard, but I can find no reference to a Sainte Hetty!\u00a0 But France did have a Queen Henrietta!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One\u00a0day we went on tour.\u00a0 First, the little village of Anth\u00e9, just down the road – but, to be fair, there really isn’t much there.\u00a0 On to Tournon d’Argenais.\u00a0 Another town built on the top of a hill.\u00a0 This time… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain-and-france-2024"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5223"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5293,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5223\/revisions\/5293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}