Time your visit to this little town, straddling the Lot, with market day (Tuesday and Saturday mornings), when street vendors sell fresh produce from the region on the main square, Place Lafayette. The original Roman settlement Excisum (modern day Eysses) lies two kilometres from the present town centre, and the remains of the Roman Tour d’Eysses still stands. In the 13th-century, Alphonse de Poitiers, Count of Toulouse, founded the double bastide of Villeneuve in association with the Abbot of Eysses on the north bank (1253) and the Lord of Pujols on the south bank (1263). The Pont Vieux (1282-1289, reconstructed in 1642 after flooding) was built to control navigation on the Lot. The town was fortified in the 14th-century to become a stronghold of the King of France during the Hundred Years War – the Paris and Pujols towers are reminders of this war-torn time.

Place Lafayette on the north bastide is at the heart of the regular, grid pattern of streets. The street plan on the south bank is less straight-laced.

Pont Vieux (1282-1289) Major port in the lower valley in the 19th-century.