Rather idiosyncatically as well as producing French wines (often for sale to Brits) they also decided to try to prioduce beer for the French! Clearly the British taste in beers is quite different to that of the French. Personally I love French beer. but it tends to be best in hot summer weather and the traditional “pression” tends to somewhat gassy and light in taste. It is a long way from a pint of English bitter.

Hence, although the Meakins were a bit of a mission to bring the French around to our point of view of beer, they have instead focussed on developing a style of beer which might also appeal to the French. So  what is it that the French like and dislike?

We took nearly 100 x 500cl bottles and sold out and probably could of sold half as much again!  This was the Bronze mainly with a few of the Dorée, it isn’t over hoppy and although you wouldn’t call it sweet it definitely lacks any bitter end/after taste and has a fair bit of gas for a real ale.  I would say its the bitterness that our French customers don’t like , hence we have tried to calm it down and it seems to have worked.

In addition to beer, the Domaine de Merchien produces a range of wines, including a VDQS Coteaux du Quercy – a red made from Gamay, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cot(Malbec) and Tannat.

For more info see www.merchien.com

This is welcome as a good meal out in France can be a real treat – and often very much better value than most UK eateries.

However, beware that VAT is not reduced on wine, which remains at 19.6% – higher than the UK (currently 15%) but without the UK’s punitive excise duty rates.

Of many favourite restaurants in France, there is one in the Lot département which remains a cherished memory for me – Le Gindreau at St Medard-Catus (46, Lot, Midi-Pyrenees) – a glorious meal of local specialities, good wine, excellent service and a table on the terrace with views over the quiet local countryside – and 3 hours for lunch!

Within easy travelling distance of Cahors and with an impressive list of Cahors and other wines.

There are events throughout the department, including in Cahors’s “June Gardens” which includes guided and unguided tours through a dozen or so private gardens in the city including a night tour  – just pick up a map from the Tourist Office. -see http://effeuillage.cahors.free.fr/

Similar events are taking place across France – see www.rendezvousauxjardins.culture.fr

Cahors AOC wines are made predominantly from the Malbec grape (locally known as Auxerrois) and although the wine has in the past tended to be a bit tough and tannic, modern techniques and approaches now produce much fruitier and more accessible styles. This would be a great opportunity to try some of these wines in a festive atmosphere – and white and rose wines (vins de pays) are also available from some producers.

One local producer known to us is Chateau Eugenie just east of the village where the Couture family produce a wide range of excellent Cahors wines, demonstrating the differences in the local terroir from the river valley to the top of the Causse (moorland)

See our archives about Cahors wines at www,frenchduck.co.uk

For more info see www.feteduvin-cahors.fr/

The Quercy Blanc – named for its white stone – is a wild and sparsely populated area of rural France, squeezed between the great wine trading port of Bordeaux and the fizzing city of the south, Toulouse. It’s home to the goose and the grape, sumptuous foiegras, the mysterious black truffle and world famous Agen prunes. There are miles of walnut groves and, most important of all, acres of vines. The author introduces us to some colourful local characters, freezes from the kneecaps down whilst braving the famous winter truffle market in Lalbenque, throws herself with Gallic gusto into numerous fetes and uncovers traces of the luminaries who once called this place home. From Champollion, who translated the Rosetta stone, to the illustrious Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose marriage to Henry Plantagenet brought the area to the English crown.

Ideal winter reading in the UK, conjuring up the warmth and richness of life in South West France.

For more info – White Stone, Black Wine: OR get an Amazon Gift Certificates.

The Truffle Market in Lalbenque (46 Lot, Midi-Pyrenees) takes place every Tuesday from the first Tuesday in December through to mid-March. For more info see www.lalbenque.net

For more on Quercy on FrenchDuck see http://frenchduck.com

Starting on the first Tuesday of December and on every Tuesday until mid-March the truffle market of Lalbenque takes place in the main street, called ” la rue du Marché aux Truffes “.The main street and neighbouring streets are fragrant with the perfume of truffles. Buyers and tourists crowd round the stalls where the producers sell their harvest.

For more info see www.lalbenque.net

Eating and drinking in the Lot is not so much gastronomy, it is more a way of life. Simple pleasures like early-morning mushrooming results in gastronomic treats at meal times.
The food used to revolve around the polyculture practised by the small propriétaires, less so today. But fruits are still bottled, geese are still stuffed, pigs are fattened, påtés are tinned, ducks are turned into hunks of confit, and yellow chickens, dotted with oil and butter and legs akimbo, are forced into ovens to emerge an hour or so later, tasting simply sensational. It is a day-in, day-out, year-long occupation. Tout es bou per sa sason ‘To everything there is a season’ takes on new meaning. ©Helen Martin

Helen Martin writes more about the Lot in her blog at http://lotbook.blogspot.com/

To read more about Food and Wine in the Lot see………
From Helen Martin’s Book Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France
CHAPTER SIX: Food and drink

You arrange to meet at half-past five in the morning. Bleary-eyed, you rise and throw open the shutters to the day. The sky is white-blue and a thin summer mist, like half-whipped egg white, swirls over the valley beneath you, smothering the familiar landmarks. Only the pigeonniers can pierce it. It looks like a gigantic plate of îles flottantes.
As the mist lifts you see smoke rise from the cottage chimney. Across the fields you can hear the children shouting and then the slow rumble of the car. You pile in on top of the chatter and drive to the farm.
Everyone is up already, so we leave the children and plunge down the meadows behind the farm buildings towards the woods. Our feet are wet. The grass is soaked with dew. Through the woods we go, heads down. ‘Attention vipères!’ says Reine, but we do not see any snakes.
We are mushrooming and our eyes are skinned for the little yellow girolles with wavy up-turned caps and big bold ceps.
The floor of the wood is soft with the mould of centuries. It rained yesterday and our feet sink into a bed of moss and leaves.
For two hours we walk thus, abreast, eyes down, following the forest’s invisible paths, mushroom paths, etched across Reine’s mind in an almost subliminal way. Every year since childhood she has followed the same tracks.
We don’t find many- enough girolles for breakfast, and only one cep; it is too early in the year for ceps. We leave the woods and wade back through the grass, heading towards the children’s cries. The sun is up, the light is limpid. We enter the dark warmth of the cottage and sit at an old table in front of the fire.
Madame, Reine’s mother, examines our finds and sets tiny cups of thick black coffee in front of us. The talk is relaxed and convivial.
“Did you go to such and such a spot? What! There were none under the fallen chestnut? My God! Do you remember the ones we found here the year before last?’
It could be any day, any year, any century. We divide the spoils, sink a drop of eau de vie and I make my way home. It is only half-past ten. The day has begun well.

Eating and drinking in the Lot is not so much gastronomy, it is more a way of life. Simple pleasures like early-morning mushrooming results in gastronomic treats at meal times.
The food used to revolve around the polyculture practised by the small propriétaires, less so today. But fruits are still bottled, geese are still stuffed, pigs are fattened, påtés are tinned, ducks are turned into hunks of confit, and yellow chickens, dotted with oil and butter and legs akimbo, are forced into ovens to emerge an hour or so later, tasting simply sensational. It is a day-in, day-out, year-long occupation. Tout es bou per sa sason ‘To everything there is a season’ takes on new meaning.
If you want to know about eating and drinking in the Lot, you should read Pierre Benoit’s novel Le Déjeuner de Sousceyrac, a piece of writing in which is immortalised what was a rather dreary looking hotel in the slightly unprepossessing town of Sousceyrac, For a long time and in spite of its dreariness it had a Michelin star.* Today, it has to be said, the hotel has been renovated and the town cleaned up too.
In the days of the fictional book, Mme Prunet surprised her uninitiated guests with the offer of a simple chicken. It was just that she forgot to mention that it would be preceded by foie gras of duck and little freshwater crayfish straight from one of the many Ségala streams. Maybe she was being a touch mean, she wondered after the crayfish. Should she send the youngster to the épicerie for sardines? Then there was the trout and the dish of stuffed ceps, followed by jugged hare, then, at last the chicken, ending with a sumptuous omelette au rhum……

So what do you wash all this down with? What do Lenin, the Orthodox Church, the Tsars, Pope Jean XXII, Henri IV, Clément Marot, and the Romans all have in common? The answer is the wine of Cahors. The Orthodox Church adopted it as its communion wine; the Tsars used it at official functions; Pope Jean invited Quercy wine growers to cultivate his new vineyard at Chateauneuf (du Pape); Clément Marot called it ‘une liqueur de feu’; Caesar drank and exported it. It is thought that the slaves accompanying the Roman invaders brought wine-making skills to the area.
The English liked it enough to make the wine-growers of Bordeaux feel so threatened that they started to operate a protection racket of taxes and constraints against the Cahors growers during the Hundred Years War, François I planted Cahors vines at Fontainebleau.
A long history, therefore, but not always a proud one. Quality declined drastically in the fourteenth century, for example, and at subsequent times the wine was so poor it was only fit to be added to Bordeaux to give the latter depth. The region clawed its way back to prosperity in the nineteenth century (as much of the local architecture attests) only for phylloxera and war to drag it back down again. Cahors reached a milestone in 1971 when it was promoted to be an AOC wine and today the region produces 30 million bottles annually on about 4,000 hectares.
Traditionally a black wine full of tannin, Cahors is made from 70% Malbec, ( sometimes known Auxerrois or Cot grapes) combined with Merlot and/or Tannat, usually 15% of each, though the proportions are now being slightly modified to attract a wider market. Cahors is the only European stronghold of Malbec, a grape that has declined in popularity in Europe and which is very sensitive to frost. In recent years it has been grown very successfully in Argentina..
In spite of the tannin you can drink it young, when it is at its fruitiest, but also, sometimes, a bit harsh. Best to lay it down down – Malbec does need ageing to develop into a full-flavoured, robust, purple wine, with a long finish. It’s good with game and, as already mentioned, astonishingly good with the local cheese and duck.
But the tannin in the wine is a source of some discussion among the wine growers, some feeling that the essential nature of the wine is being altered to accommodate more modern palettes. Fingers are often pointed at incomers to the area, though there are some growers like Philippe Bernède of Clos La Coutale who are local and who successfully export less tannic, lighter wine, more adapted to contemporary taste.
The Jouffreau family take an opposite point of view. It is almost as if the wines are designed to be provocative and they pander to no one’s taste but their own. The wines they make, though, speak loudly of terroir and tannin as well as individuality and they are honest, earthy and often very, very good.
With your foie gras try a dessert wine by Jean Baldès who also makes the Clos Triguedina award winning wines- Triguedina meaning in Occitan “I am looking forward to dinner, me trigo de dina. One of his new offerings are the Vin de Lune ( white ‘moon’ wines) picked by hand in the dark, or very early in the morning when temperatures are cool. This is an apparent revival of a sixteenth century habit when the peasants used to creep into the manor and steal the grapes, which cool and fresh as they were, retained their fruitiness. Baldès also produces the 100% Malbec Prince Probus and recently started making the New Black Wine, based on a thirteenth century method of production when the black wine of Cahors was famous all over Europe.
The cradle of the Cahors wine is the area between Catus and Bagat, Soturac and Arcambal, but again disagreements arise on which is the best land, though tradition has it that wine produced higher up the coteaux of the river banks is best, albeit production on the steep slopes is also the most expensive. The wine grown along the river valley tends to be full-bodied and deeply fruity, that of the causse, lighter and elegant.
The growers’ aim is firmly set at quality now, the AOC appellation being hard-won and for this reason they try to stick together. But reclassification of the vineyards is now the big fault-line in the area, with some, like Alain-Dominique Perrin (see p 133) feeling that poorer land must be dumped in favour of zones de cru and others afraid that it is their land that will be dumped and that there will be little compensation.
Many of the château vineyards are visitable …and the Chateau de Haute Serre, high on the causse offers an interesting tour as well. Rows of vines are a heart-warming sight somehow and here in the Lot, as in some other places you will often see roses planted at the end of the rows, not to look pretty, although they do, but as an early warning system for mildew
At the end of the last century, the phylloxera parasite, all but wiped out the wines of the area. The propriétaires were advised to replant with American vines, which were resistant to the disease, but these were expensive and many of the small farmers could not afford such a venture. Moreover the wine produced was of poor quality. It was a devastating time. It is impossible to overstate the effect phylloxera had on the rural economy. Production fell dramatically, livelihoods were lost and it was in desperation that some turned to truffles.
The slow climb back, therefore has been all the more impressive, though there have been other blows along the way, such as the hard frosts of 1956 that killed the young vines, and things seem to be at another crossroads just now when harsh decisions will need to be made if the appellation is to go on improving. It boils down to quantity or quality.
The big cooperative, Côtes d’Olt (Olt is the old name for Lot) which incorporates about 250 growers, is at Parnac, where a modern plant is capable of bottling some 9,000 bottles per hour and produces 25% of the entire appellation.
You can buy direct from the cooperative at very reasonable prices, but it would be a pity not to buy direct from some of the vineyards. There is a list available of all AOC producers- livret du vin de Cahors
Names to look out for are Perrin’s Lagrezette; Bernède’s Clos La Coutale; Jean-Luc Baldès at Clos Triguedina; Georges Vigouroux at Haute Serre and Clos de Gamot, home of the late, great Jean Jouffreau. However there are many others.
And although Cahors is associated with red wine it now produces both white, rosé and even desert wines too. The white and rosé are sold as vin de pays however not Appellation Controlée.
The best years of recent times are said to be 1990, 1995 and 2000.
Lesser wine, if honest, is that produced by the Coteaux du Quercy and the Vins du Pays du Lot.
Not all that long ago it was a common sight to see portable stills, the Hell’s Cauldrons as they were known, being dragged round the communes by tractor, going from farm to farm as people distilled their year’s supply of eau de vie de prune, a strong colourless liquid smelling strongly of plums. Twenty litres was the maximum allowed, but at up to 50% alcohol.
In an effort to stamp out the practice and earn a bit of money, the government introduced a licensing system. Licenses were issued to the head of the household for life only. As the men die off, so the right to distil dies with them and soon the only eau de vie will be that available on supermarket shelves. Vieille Prune is available in pretty bottles all over the département, taking 10 kilograms of plums to make one bottle.
Another popular digestif is made from walnuts. Eaux de noix is a dark brown sticky drink, too sweet for me, although I quite enjoy its companion drink, vin de noix, an equally sweet aperitif. This is made from walnuts too though the fact that it is served on ice reduces the sweetness a bit. Noisette is a digestif made from hazel nuts and there is also now a new Valentré aperitif which combines Cahors wine, walnut and blackcurrant and is not as dire as it sounds. At Arcambal, Christophe Ratz is making Bière d’Olt, good for quaffing in the summer heat, but unlikely to make toomuch impact on the wine production of the area.
Of course wine in France is always associated with food and it is the simplest meals that are sometimes the most enjoyable. A glass of Cahors and a cabécou or Rocamadour and all seems right with the world
Oun y a pa et bi Lou rey pot Béni – Where there is bread and wine a king may come.

*Michelin star regained post-publication

©Copyright: Helen Martin
Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France

The Independent (2 Aug 08) has another of its “50 Best…” series, this time on Railway Journeys – and includes 2 French ones.

Clermont Ferrand-Beziers

The less well-used of the two lines from Clermont Ferrand through the Massif Central (the other goes to Nimes), this switchback route traverses some of the wildest country in France. Near St Flour the line crosses Eiffel’s Garabit Viaduct and follows the Lot and Tarn rivers to reach Millau and Norman Foster’s viaduct, the world’s highest road bridge.

The journey takes 5 hours and costs about €50. It has to be said that the road journey is pretty spectacular too, whether you opt for the new autoroute A75 or quieter side roads as the route crosses the Auvergne and the Causses before descending to the Languedoc (see www.frenchduck.co.uk/travel)

Eurostar London – Paris

Okay, most of the scenery between London and Paris or Brussels isn’t going to inspire a modern-day Edward Thomas, but the pleasure of using the magnificently restored station at St Pancras and the blissful ease of Eurostar makes it a great experience. Treat yourself to first class and enjoy champagne and a pretty respectable meal at 186mph.

Personally I would also recommend the route from Brive-la-Gaillarde to Montauban via Gourdon and Cahors – it cuts through the dramatic limestone landscapes and valleys of South West France offering unmatchable views of the countryside, the Lot River and the town of Cahors. Time: about 2 hrs, cost about €25.
With RailEurope you can book your rail journey to any destination within France, including Eurostar services, TGV and local trains

See the FrenchDuck article on Tourist Trains in France

The selection of Malbec is down to Fabrice Durou, the winemaker from Chateau de Gaudou in Cahors, a well-respected domaine at Vire-sur-Lot. So here is a man who knows his grapes and has made a “micro-cuvee. It all shows a rather different approach to the marketing gimmick which Australian producer McGuigan put on in London recently when they created a temporary vineyard in the heart of the City of London – a fun idea, admittedly, but ephemeral! (see www.ukwinesonline.co.uk)

For more about the Cahors wines of Chateau de Gaudou see www.chateaudegaudou.com

The trouble with writing about “hidden” corners of France, is that you run the danger of sharing the secret with too many others. Places which I felt were “real France”, quiet, peaceful and unspoilt, have often changed in the last 20 years, becoming commercialised, crowded and bland. But, somehow the location and geography of the upper Lot Valley probably make this less likely.

Although I have made many visits to the lower Lot, especially around the town of Cahors and the Cahors AC vineyards, I had only ventured up-river once – and that was to the picturesque village of St Cirq-la-Popie – perched high on the limestone crags overlooking the valley about 20 miles distant. The valley even here is quite different to the lower Lot where the river, although still pleasingly curvaceous, tends to be wider.

Few vineyards are to be found upriver from Cahors, but the countryside of the Upper Lot and Célé valleys is spectacular – and quieter. The limestone crags and cliffs dominate the landscape offer breathtaking views – and although the roads are often narrow and distinctly bendy, this tends to have the effect of entering a land where time runs more slowly, where nature makes itself felt – and that is miles away from the tourist centres of the Dordogne. And the journey keeps unfolding as you head on up the valley – another 90 miles in our case.

Our objective was to get to meet with Americans Lance and Rain who have 3 cottages to rent near Entraygues-sur-Truyere ( 12 Aveyron, Midi-Pyrenees). Although we had been in contact by email, I was intrigued to discover how and why 2 Californians had settled in one of the lesser-known parts of France.

The journey up the valley provided at least part of the answer – this is a truly beautiful part of France – the valley becomes narrower, but still offers delightful villages, stunning views and plenty of opportunity to enjoy the river – whether just sitting on the bank in the shade or being more energetic with canoes or kayaks. Entraygues-sur-Truyere, which translates as “between the waters” – i.e. the river Lot and its tributary the Truyere – is everything you expect of a small rural French market town – with its bridges over the river and narrow streets – and the essentials – a bank, boulangerie, hotel, bar etc – and the quiet air of a place at peace with itself – especially on a hot summer afternoon.

The other reason for Lance and Rain choosing this spot also became clear when we found the “Sweet French Cottages” up a narrow track above the river a few kilometres out of town. We discovered a haven of tranquility – with delightful hosts and some wonderful holiday cottages – well, appointed, cleverly and carefully restored – but above all secluded and deep in the countryside – yet just a few miles from all the conveniences of the town – and in an area rich with local artisans producing wine, cheese, wine. pottery…… The local wines, Vins d’Entraygues et du Fel VDQS, had to be tasted of course (along with some wonderful goats cheese made by one of the neighbours)! The vineyards are often terraced high on the sides of the valley, and production is small – mostly drunk locally. The white we tasted from Domaine de Mejanassere was a blend of Chenin Blanc and Mauzac grapes – a light, refreshing dry wine with a pleasing floral nose and exotic fruit finish; the red (Gamay, Fer Servadou, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Savignon), whilst being a tad “rustic” was perfect with some local saucisson. Somehow these uncomplicated straightforward wines were a great match for the time and place!

Whilst many might aspire to the Californian lifestyle, these Californians have clearly found their home in the depths of France, and whilst they remain ambitious, they are relaxed and welcoming – a long way from the stereotypical loud American we’ve all met. Indeed, there is something about the place that seems to instill some sense of peace and contentment – the world of autoroutes, big business and conflict seems, and is, a long way away – whilst nature imposes its own sense of order to things – whether it be the landscape, the river or the weather.

It is certainly an area I intend to return to – there is so much to explore, especially guided by two people who know the area well, and are keen to share it with others. Their ambitions include developing artists retreats (with a studio planned) and themed stays based on the local food etc.

For more about Lance and Rain’s SWEET FRENCH COTTAGES – see www.frenchduck.com/latest OR to enquire about availability and rates etc, complete the form below:-

cforms contact form by delicious:days

You can try for yourself at the Fete du Vin de Cahors (Cahors Wine Festival) to be held at Puy l’Eveque (46 Lot, Midi-Pyrenees) on 9 August 2008 – about 20 miles west of Cahors town on the river Lot. This opens in the Salle des Fetes at 5pm (i.e. after the worst of the heat of the day) and offers visitors the chance to taste the wines of local independent winemakers, but a few bottles (or more) all accompanied by music and a banquet!

Meanwhile just 40 or so miles to the north, still in the Lot departement, but actually on the Dordogne river, the Souillac Jazz Festival runs 14–20 July 2008 – both with some events held in the surrounding villages.

For more info see www.cahorsbluesfestival.com or www.souillacenjazz.net or www.tourisme-gramat.com

Tags: music

But you could take it a stage further and enrol in a digital photography course in the village of Castelfranc, west of Cahors where the river Vert meets the Lot. In July the village celebrates its annual Fete (13 & 14 July 2008) when the village is in festive mood with theatre, music, dancing, a market of local produce etc. Every year there is also an exhibition of professional photographers (which continues throughout the summer).

To coincide with this a series of courses are being held in the village for anyone interested in digital photography under the title Itinerances Photographiques. Over the weekend there are 4 three-hour sessions for beginners – everything from using the camera through to using Photoshop to enhance your images and printing.

During the week (15–19 July 2008) there is a more in-depth course designed to help you perfect your skills, and visiting suitable locations for images and providing constructive critique on your photos of the region, whether it be moorland, vines, markets, local people, local and historical sites – with such a wealth of stunning subject matter within reach you could learn much and enjoy more! The 5–day course is offered on either a residential or non-residential basis.

For more info see www.itinerancesphoto.org or contact Maxime Bessieres

To learn more about the region I can recommend Helen Martin’s Book “Lot – Travels through a limestone landscape in SouthWest France” See also the local tourist office www.tourisme-prayssac.fr

Almost simultaneously the birth of 2 other spectacular bridges is being celebrated – the medieval Pont Valentre in Cahors (46 Lot, Midi-Pyrenees) celebrates 700 years, whilst the latest Pont Gustave Flaubert (see picture) is due be opened in time for the Rouen Armada (4–5 July 2008).

Rouen’s latest crossing of the River Seine is in the heart of the city and will take the A154 autoroute from the nothwest (Dieppe) through the city to connect with the A13 Autoroute from Normandie to Paris.

Because is is a city centre site, and the Seine carries ocean-going ships (and was a Transatlantic Cruise ship terminal) there is not enough space to build a traditional high span bridge, so this will be the largest vertical lift bridge in the world. When high masted ships need to pass, both dual carriageways will be lifted by cable to allow the ship underneath. For such a massive task the structure seems remarkably elegant – each roadway is 18m wide and 120m long and weighs 1300 tonnes.

When opened in the next few weeks (early July 2008) the notorious congestion in the city centre will be eased considerably.

Meanwhile in Cahors the South West, the fortified medieval Pont Valentre celebrates its 700th anniversary – and this was open to road traffic until only a few years ago, But now the city will pay homage to its most distinctive landmark On 4^th July 2008 there will be a banquet on the bridge itself prepared by some of the best chefs in the region – with music and dancing. From Wednesdays to Saturdays from 17 July 2008 to 9 Augusr 2008 the bridge will be lit up every night from 10.30pm for 2 hours with a sound and light show which promised to be spectacular.

There is a website about the bridge’s 700th anniversary which has been inviting photographers from around the world to show their images of the bridge in all its moods – www.lepontvalentrea700ans.com.

This is just a selection of the 58 events in one small département (46 Lot, Midi-Pyrenees) – too many to list here. Best advice is to check with the local tourist office- or browse the list of events (in French) at www.journeedupatrimoinedepays.com

Regular readers will be aware the the Lot Valley in the South West of France features frequently in these pages – in many ways the essence of “deepest France”, it is less crowded than the Dordogne to the north and yet offers a wide variety of landscapes, pretty villages, great cuisine – and is home to the often under-rated Malbec-based wines of Cahors. Hence an essential recent purchase has been the revised edition of Helen Martin’s Book Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France, which is packed with insights, history and information on the Lot département (46) as part of the River’s journey from the Massif Central to its meeting with the Garonne near Aiguillon (47 Lot-et-Garonne, Aquitaine).

Helen has kindly allowed us to print an extract of the section on Cahors and its wines…….
Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France

Chapter 8 The Lot Valley: West of Cahors
Below Cahors, the valley of the Lot belongs to the vignerons and the vineyards of the black wine of Cahors, châteaux-country in fact, but in times gone by it also belonged to the bishops of Cahors, who worked and played but mostly – in that great Christian tradition – fought along its banks.
Downstream of Luzech, the really wild cliffs you see to the east of Cahors become a thing of the past, replaced by gentler, graceful slopes, albeit with a certain grandeur to them, that, even though they may end in cliffs, are less formidable and are called cévennes. The river idles its way through the countryside in deep loops, or cingles, and was used as a major artery for transporting goods from the thirteenth century.
Along its banks grow the vines, and it was mostly the wine from these vineyards which used to be sailed downstream to the Garonne and Bordeaux and from thence to the world. The wine of Cahors may have had its ups and down in more recent times, but the Romans were making wine here in the third century and it had something of a reputation even then, so this river trade is very ancient. Finally, though, and in spite of the efforts of competitive Bordeaux wine-makers, it was phylloxera which put paid to the wine, and thus the trade, in the 1880s. By the time it had revived again, there were better means of transport. But even when the river was at the height of its usefulness, transportation was not always guaranteed. You would be surprised to know how many times the Lot froze right over in winter; the end of the eighteenth century was a particularly critical time – in 1766 it was frozen solid for two and a half months.
In the early nineteenth century, on a river much improved with the passage of time by locks and aids to navigation, 300,000 tonnes of freight was carried down it each year, including an astonishing 90 million bottles of wine – three times the number produced today. However, just as it was phylloxera that killed the river’s wine trade, so it was the coming of the railway that killed the river as a serious form of transport. In more recent years, though, it is coming to life again as leisure craft ply their way up and down, no doubt bringing new problems of pollution.
The villages along this western stretch of the river, unsurprisingly enough, are notable for their wine-producers’ houses – usually big and square with bolets or pigeonniers and sometimes both. You will notice, also, the use of decorative brickwork, the bricks being produced along the valley.
Rather than hop back and forth from bank to bank, backtracking, we shall descend on the north bank and return on the south, although there are several river crossings, such as between Douelle and Cessac, for example. You are of course free to do it in any way you please, though the north bank is probably the more interesting one. There is also a ‘Vineyard Gardens’ circuit of AOC wine châteaux – details from any local tourist office.

The château of Lagrézette may be unwittingly familiar to you. This is the magnificent home of the afore-mentioned Alain-Dominique Perrin, the French tobacco-industry millionaire and now-retired director of the luxury goods brand Richemont, which includes Cartier. Tony Blair visited the château in August 2002 for a meeting with Jean-Pierre Raffarin and it was splashed across the television news on the day. Allegedly, there have been private visits, too, and M. Perrin was an occasional guest at Downing Street.
Perrin (or ADP, as he’s known) has played a visible part in the revival of the Cahors appellation since Georges Vigouroux pioneered the idea, though many locals seem to deplore both Perrin’s methods and his person……
There is a local irritation among some Cahors vignerons that these ‘haut de gamme’ producers are playing around with Cahors, turning it into an easier wine, rather than concentrating on a ‘purer’ product – the black, heavily tannic wine in which its origins lie. But one also has to take into account an ingrained provincialism that one can come across in country areas. It is the children of these producers who go away to study oenology; their fathers often have their roots simply in the land, a land, however, that they know intimately and love…… Wine in the Lot (is) ceasing to be a local family affair; big business( has) arrived, though it (comes)with as much passion.
But you can find a few brave people who speak up for Perrin, saying that the appellation needed a bit of a kick up the backside; that poorer land should be dumped and that constantly aiming to improve the quality (and the price) of Cahors is the correct strategy; that Perrin had indeed done this, had raised the profile of Cahors and that overall the wine is better now. Many of these people believe that sooner or later the reclassification of the appellation – identifying the best land (zones de cru) and selling the wine produced on it at a premium, as well as uprooting the poorest altogether – is inevitable…..

Caïx is next and the home of yet another Lot grandee. The château stands above the village, commanding a view of the river of which it was once a fierce defender. In bygone days it was the residence of Lefranc de Pompignan, an eighteenth-century poet who showed an early interest in poetry and, although he was born in Montauban, an early interest in the Lot, too, writing a Latin dissertation on its antiquities.
De Pompignan was a firm exponent of the Luzech-for-Uxellodunum argument. ……
Nowadays, however, Caïx is the summer home of the Queen of Denmark. Queen Margrethe is married to a member of an old Lot family, the Monpezat, which had colonial links with Vietnam. Count André left the Far East and returned to Cahors in 1955 and it was his eldest son, Henri, who married the Queen and took the title Prince Henrik of Denmark. They bought the château in 1975 and straight away became involved in the old Monpezat family tradition of wine-growing. In 1993, with the château restored (and once again it is a fairy tale of a place), the prince and his wife replanted the vines around and built a new winery. The château is private, but you can have a dégustation of Prince Henrik’s wine and see round a small wine museum.
Caïx was also the home of the natural father of Olympe de Gouges, or Marie Gouze as she was born. Although Jean-Jacques Lefranc de Caïx never recognised his daughter, she went on to become a feminist playwright and journalist, who was a strong advocate of human rights and equal opportunity for women, writing her Declaration for the rights of women and the female citizen in 1791. She also supported divorce and sex outside marriage for women. Way before her time, she wrote an anti-slavery play, L’Esclavages des Nègres, in 1774, but struggled to get it performed. Her famous comment, “a woman has the right to mount the scaffold,” came back to haunt her in 1793 when she was guillotined for her revolutionary ideas. It was only in 2007 that Segolène Royal suggested de Gouges’ remains be removed to the Panthéon. In fact, like many corpses of the Reign of Terror, her remains are long lost.
The church in Caïx is twelfth-century and inside there is some remaining Romanesque decoration. There is also a strange cross by the door of a doll-like figure weighing what could be souls. Caïx is also one of the places along this stretch of the river where you can hire canoes, as you can at the next port of call, too……

Continue on eastwards past the old brickworks of Castelfranc until you reach Albas, piled up above its weir in a stunning position and, along with St-Vincent and Luzech, one of the places that enjoyed a short interlude of prosperity in bygone days thanks to its vineyards. The streets of Albas are very steep and full of steps. Seen from the north side of the river it looks pretty, with the church and town sitting on a cliff above the Lot, but once there, there is that slightly down-at-heel air that many of the river-towns have.
But Albas is a lively town and most particularly in its famous May bacchanal, La Fête du Vin de Cahors, which starts with Mass and ends with onion soup, with a lot of wine and spectacles, lunches and dinners in between. Over-40s should go into training before participating…..

Helen Martin – Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France
See our maps of the Lot, Lot-et-Garonne and Aveyron départements.
If you are looking to explore the upper Lot Valley then you could stay at some Sweet French Cottages in the Aveyron (self-catering)

The day includes open tastings, music, a banquet and other attractions such as a barrel-maker (tonnelier) – and amongst the wines will be Impernal, Prieuré de Cénac, Château d’Anglars, Château Beauvillain-Monpezat, Château Carrigou, Château Eugénie, Château Leret-Monpezat, Clos Triguedina and Domaine la Borie.

If you can tear yourself away from the festivities in the town, it is worth taking a trip to the “Point-de-Vue” on the hill above the village for a spectacular view of the river Lot and its vineyards. Take the D37 south west from th village and follow the signs.

His vigorous approach to marketing and the production of high value wines has not always been popular with traditionalists in the area, who fear that whilst he may be promoting the name of Cahors, his wines tend to be too commercial and distant from the traditional character of the appellation. Certainly other winemakers are making extraordinarily good top quality wines, whilst still retaining distinctive Cahors character.There is also the inevitable local suspicion about a wealthy incomer in what has been one of the poorest départements in France.

Lunch in the farmhouse kitchen is nowhere near as terrifyingly chic as I’d feared. Instead, his son Clement, a 27-year-old musician, and his winery manager, Jean Courtois, sit with him at a long wooden table in front of an open fire and eat ratatouille made with vegetables from the kitchen garden, herbed chicken with braised endive, goats’ cheese from Rocamadour and an amazing tarte tatin, all prepared by housekeeper Nadia, while Perrin explains how he restored his vineyards.

Lagrézette’s vineyards are some of the oldest in France and there are references to them from the 1500s. But they were decimated in the last century by the vine disease phylloxera and then by flooding in the 1950s. At the request of the locals, who had seen and approved of Perrin’s work on the château, he set about bringing them back, ripping out the unimpressive hybrids that had replaced the original diseased Malbec plants, replacing them with new Malbecs on three-quarters of the estate and Merlot and Tannat grapes everywhere else. He brought in renowned wine expert Michel Rolland to help in 1989, but remained closely involved himself.

‘Monsieur Perrin,’ says Courtois, ‘is above all interested in… quality. Quality is the most important thing to him in all things.’

The château’s winery was built from scratch, although it incorporates some original pieces, like the enormous wooden door, which dates from before the French Revolution, and a large stone fountain picked up in Toulouse. Having decided it should be built underground, Perrin had the hillside dug out, built the cellars and the workrooms, and then replaced the soil on top, no small feat considering the winery is 55m long and 19m deep. Now all that is visible from outside is the winery’s beautiful fascia. The final touch was a 150m tunnel connecting the winery with the château.

At the end of the tunnel you find yourself in a tasting room, formerly one of the château’s cells. ‘This is where Monsieur Rolland comes to blind-taste each vintage,’ explains Courtois. ‘It is also haunted, like most of the castle.’ In the course of the restoration, Perrin made a macabre discovery: the ruins of an oubliette, a dungeon that opened only from the top, into which people were thrown, literally to be forgotten. It contained human and animal bones that Perrin had analysed. ‘The theory is that it was probably closed up in the 18th century, and erased from the records because it was a source of such shame.’ Perrin claims that the circular bedroom at the top of the south tower, where his friends Tina Turner, Elton John, Richard Gere, Cindy Crawford and Tony Blair stay when they drop in for a weekend, is also subject to visitations from former inhabitants.

The Chateau has a nicely designed and informative website and blog – see www.chateau-lagrezette.tm.fr

Whilst the wines of Lagrezette are undoubtedly of high quality, personally I would prefer the wines of Chateau du Cedre or Chateau Eugenie.

Chateau Lagrezette Cahors AC is available from www.bertrandandnicholaswines.co.uk amongst others.

See our customised Google Map of the Lot and Cahors

For more on the Tour de France 2008 see www.letour.fr/
For details of coverage on ITV see www.itv.com

• where the autoroute acts as a city by-pass allieviating traffic in the already congested city centre – so the A16 from Boulogne to the French Border would be a good example

or

• where the autoroute has effectively replaced the main N road leaving no realistic alternative – eg. large stretches of the A75 Meridienne south from Clermont-Ferrand

or

• where there is an economic reason where it is hoped that the autoroute will generate the local economy in an underdeveloped region – e.g the A77 (Autoroute de l’Arbre (trees)) from Pouilly to Nevers

However, word has it that the other significant factor has been the family connections of the President – both Chirac’s grandparents come from the Correze in the Limousin, which may explain why the A20 autoroute (L’Occitane) is toll free from Vierzon to Brive-la-Gaillarde. Given that the Lot département (46) in the Midi-Pyrenees is one of the poorest economic regions in France, it does seem strange that the toll section only starts south of Brive-la-Gaillarde (down to Montauban and Toulouse).

However, who are we to complain when in recent years the A28, A20 and A75 autoroutes have given us much better, safer and faster access to the south and southwest.

The toll-free element can make some difference to your budget – e.g. Calais-Montpellier using the A71 and A75 from Paris costs €58.50 in tolls, compared to the journey from Calais- Cavaillon (Provence), which is exactly the same distance where the toll charge is €71.00.

Current Fuel prices in France
The other thing you need to factor in to your calculations for a trip to France by car is the cost of fuel and the exchange rate.

Effective fuel prices have risen by about 6p a litre since the Spring caused in part by an increase in French fuel prices and a less favourable exchange rate (tourist rates currently about €1.36=£1 at Sept 07).

Unleaded (sans plomb 95) € 1.3190 = £0.97 per litre
Super unleaded (sans plomb 98 € 1.2690 = £0.93 per litre
Diesel (gazole) € 1.0490 = £0.77 per litre

These are best prices at a Hypermarket – you will pay significantly more at autoroute service areas and many branded petrol stations – the difference can be up to €0.10 per litre or more – or 7p a litre – so it is worth shopping around if you are filling the tank. Many local supermarkets (Intermarche, Champion etc) can often offer good prices – but not always!!

The annual Cahors Blues Festival takes place 17–21 July 2007 in and around the town of Cahors (46 Lot, Midi-Pyrenees).

Whilst the streets of the town will echo to the music of the Blues, linked concerts are also held in surrounding towns such as Castelnau-Montratier, St Cirq la Popie etc

.

Cahors is also hosting the start of a stage of the Tour de France on 29 July 2007 (Cahors to Angouleme)

Of course, the cause of Cahors and other Southwest France wines has also been promoted by Roger Corder’s recent research and book The Wine Diet where, at Queen Mary’s School of Medicine in London, he demonstrated that South West red wines are particularly effective in protecting you from cardiovascular diseases (in moderation of course!). He also notes that people in South West live longer than elsewhere in France!! Hence the so-called “French Paradox” may be more specifically a French South West Paradox – i.e. the incidence of coronary heart disease is relatively low despite a diet which is relatively high in saturated fats.
Others factors may be the predominance of duck and goose fat in the diet – as these fats are the healthiest of animal fats because they have less saturated fat than say, butter or bacon fat and far more of the health-promoting mono- and polyunsaturated fats. You can buy a range of goose and duck products from the

Although parts of the region are quite poor economically, the combination of great wines, rich food, a benign climate and a relaxed lifestyle all sound pretty healthy to me!
Cahors T-shirt available from www.jumboTs.co.uk

It can be difficult to decide what to do on holiday especially when there’s more than 2 of you – different interests can cause a touch of friction. But in Cahors (46 Lot, Midi-Pyrenees) there is a multiple-interest tour which will help you discover the best of the town and the surrounding area.

In town there is a series of “Secret” Gardens, 29 in total, waymarked throughout the town, including an arab garden, a lavender garden, an apple tree garden, a garden of spices, a monastery garden etc. Furthermore, through these gardens you will also discover the history and architecture of this fine medieval town, set in the loop of the Lot river, with its iconic Pont Valentre (fortified bridge).
For more info on the Jardins Secret trail see www.mairie-cahors.fr
The first (or last) of the gardens on the “Secret Garden” trail is the Jardin de l’Ivresse – the Garden of Intoxication beside the Pont Valentre. The Lot River’s sinuous path (mainly downstream from the town) is a prime reason for the quality of the local Cahors wines. With many fine chateaux (mainly south of the river) the area is a delight to travel through – even more so if you want to combine wine, castles and gardens. Although the distances involved are not walkable (unless you are really keen, the route “Vignoble Jardin Cahors” (Vineyard Gardens of Cahors) is a great way to see the wine region. As the publicity rightly states: “behind every great vineyard is a garden” – certainly borne out by many of the vineyards I have visited.
There is a leaflet (available from the tourist office in Cahors and at participating vineyards) which will show you the route. With this you can discover some great gardens, splendid vistas, pretty villages, vineyards and chateaux – and taste and learn something of the history and character of the landscape and its wines. (see http://effeuillage.cahors.free.fr)
Amongst the vineyards featured are Chateau Eugenie (try their Reserve de l’Aieul); Chateau de Chambert (an impressive position); Chateau Latuc and Chateau de Mercues – for more info on Cahors wines and these chateaux see www.frenchduck.co.uk