This city of bishops lies in a loop of the Lot on a steep ring of dry limestone cliffs. Before you approach, see the lie of the land from the viewpoint of Mont Saint-Cyr, 264 metres above Cahors. The Celtic tribe of the Cadurci settled in Cahors the 8th-century BC. It was a good spot – at the junction of three roads: west to Bordeaux via Agen, south to Toulouse, and east to Rodez via Varaire. Later on, the Roman road from Lyon to Bordeaux crossed the Lot in Cahors. Wealth flooded in thanks to the son of a Cahors family, Jacques Duèze who became a powerful Pope of Avignon and founded the University of Cahors in 1332 and Cahors’ medieval usurers who traded in wine, wool and cloth, and operated as bankers.

In the city, see the 34-metre high tower of the Duèze Palace, near the Place Lafayette. Stroll the medieval streets interspersed with towers (Rue de la Daurade, Rue de la Chantrerie, Rue de Saint-Urcisse), terraced cafes and 19th-century public buildings with ironwork balconies (City Hall, Palais de Justice, Theatre) along the leafy Boulevard Gambetta, fortified bridge, Diana’s Arch (remains of Roman baths on the Avenue Freycinet) and blue, double-domed Saint-Etienne Cathedral, a masterpiece of Renaissance Flamboyant art.

Learn some of the secrets of Cahors wine at the Musée du Vin (Wine Museum), set in the 14th-century La Chantrerie (35 rue de la Chantrerie).