The Célé Valley: Marcilhac Abbey, the Priory of Espagnac and a Canoe between the Cliffs

Required Activities

• Paddle a stretch of the Célé below Marcilhac between the ochre and white limestone cliffs that close in on the village, and pick out the cave mouths in the rock face from the water

• On the south portal of Marcilhac abbey find the tympanum of about 1100: Christ in majesty between the sun and the moon, angels carrying the instruments of the Passion, and Peter and Paul beside him

• In the church of the former priory of Val-Paradis at Espagnac-Sainte-Eulalie, under its odd tall belfry, find the tomb of Aymeric Hébrard de Saint-Sulpice, bishop of Coimbra, put up before 1295, and the recumbent knight with a coat of arms on his shield — then step outside and see where the western half of the nave was left in ruins, the church cut back to the chevet and a bay and a half

• Walk up onto the causse above Marcilhac on the GR 651 and count the caselles — the commune has around 400 of these dry-stone shepherds' huts, some square, some round, a few with an upper floor or a chimney — along with the dry-stone walls and the cayrous, the heaps of cleared stone