Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and Pech Merle: The Cliff Village and the Spotted Horses
Occitanie, France
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275
XP
+100 France
= 375 total
2 days
Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and Pech Merle: The Cliff Village and the Spotted Horses
275 + 100 XP
Saint-Cirq-Lapopie hangs on a cliff about 80 m above the Lot, the village André Breton made his summer home and which 66,000 viewers voted their favourite in France on 26 June 2012. Below it a towpath cut into the rock leads to Bouziès, and in the Pech Merle cave, five kilometres north-west, the famous spotted horses were painted about 25,000 years ago — radiocarbon puts the right-hand horse at 24,640 years before the present.
Required Activities
1
of 3
Walk up through Saint-Cirq-Lapopie to the ruins of the three castles and the church of Saint-Cirq-et-Sainte-Juliette on the rock, find the old Auberge des Mariniers that André Breton bought in 1950 and called 'une rose impossible dans la nuit', then go out to the Bancourel belvedere below its 16th-century round dovecote for the view back at the Lapopie rock
2
of 3
Walk the Chemin de halage from the Plage-Halte nautique below Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, where the towpath is cut straight into the overhanging cliff, past the 14th-century mill and lock-keeper's house at Aulanac and the bas-relief carved into the rock face, about 10 km there and back to Bouziès
3
of 3
Go into the Grotte du Pech Merle at Cabrerets through the tunnel cut in 1923 and, on the spotted-horse panel, count the six black hand stencils and the seven red thumb prints among the 252 painted dots, then find the twelve footprints of a single adolescent fossilised in the floor of a dried-out rimstone pool
Walk up through Saint-Cirq-Lapopie to the ruins of the three castles and the church of Saint-Cirq-et-Sainte-Juliette on the rock, find the old Auberge des Mariniers that André Breton bought in 1950 and called 'une rose impossible dans la nuit', then go out to the Bancourel belvedere below its 16th-century round dovecote for the view back at the Lapopie rock
Walk the Chemin de halage from the Plage-Halte nautique below Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, where the towpath is cut straight into the overhanging cliff, past the 14th-century mill and lock-keeper's house at Aulanac and the bas-relief carved into the rock face, about 10 km there and back to Bouziès
Go into the Grotte du Pech Merle at Cabrerets through the tunnel cut in 1923 and, on the spotted-horse panel, count the six black hand stencils and the seven red thumb prints among the 252 painted dots, then find the twelve footprints of a single adolescent fossilised in the floor of a dried-out rimstone pool
Before you go
Pech Merle caps visitors every day — 700 a day and groups of 25 in July and August — so book several days ahead online. It opens in blocks, roughly a fortnight in late February, then April to early November, and is shut the rest of the year. The chemin de halage runs under a low overhang along the river with no barrier in places, and the village itself is steep cobbles.
Pech Merle opens in four blocks and is shut from 2 November to 21 February: a fortnight from 22 February, then 4 April to 1 November. Note the gap in March — the cave closes again on 7 March and does not reopen until 4 April — and the afternoons-only 13:30 to 17:00 timetable in the February block. Book several days ahead whatever the month.
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About Occitanie
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
275 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
375 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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