On the upper levels is a set of 12th-century monastic buildings known as the Cité Religieuse and protected as a World Heritage site. That doesn’t seem to have bothered the religious folk who built Rocamadour a thousand years ago, as the buildings simply continue up the sheer rock face in jagged limestone terraces.
This audaciously-constructed village is squeezed on to the left bank of the L’Alzou River, a tributary of the Dordgone, by a 150-metre-high vertical gorge. Source: Steve Allen / shutterstock Rocamadour The size of the phenomenon is rammed home by the crowds that descend on the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, where the grotto’s spring is meant to have miraculous properties. Whether you’re religious or not Lourdes is something to be seen, if only for a couple of hours, because of what it represents to so many people. This is due to the supposed apparition of the Virgin Mary to the local peasant, Bernadette Soubirous. In the 1800s Lourdes went from being an unassuming market town to one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Christendom, now attracting six million people a year and with the second most hotel rooms in the country after Paris. Source: Sergey Dzyuba / shutterstock Lourdes The paintings below the organ and on the vaulting make up the largest set of Italian renaissance paintings in France. Inside, the decoration is far more delicate and colourful, and is mostly from the renaissance. This is no accident as the cathedral was designed to represent the power of the catholic church following the suppression of the Cathar sect in southwest France. The stern external walls inspire fear in some for their high, cylindrical protrusions that could easily pass for ramparts. It’s a UNESCO-listed building and is incredible to behold both inside and out.
Source: Nata Shilo com / shutterstock Albi Cathedralįew buildings have the potential to move people like Albi’s majestic brick gothic cathedral. Lets explore the best things to do in Midi-Pyrénées: 1. Go underground to see enormous chasms and prehistoric cave paintings, or journey high into the Pyrenees for skiing or to stare in wonder at Cirque de Gavarnie and Pic du Midi. James courses through the region and has furnished it with pilgrimage sites cherished for more than a thousand years, while Lourdes also draws millions of people a year from around the world. In the north you’re in the craggy limestone foothills of the Massif Central, while to the south the Pyrenees and its foothills provide some of Western Europe’s most invigorating natural landscapes. Encompassing a big swathe of south-western France, the Midi-Pyrénées is as varied as it is large.
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