"Houses on the river, churches on the houses, rocks on the churches, castle on the rock."
Such is how the locals describe Rocamadour. No trip to the Dordogne region would be complete without a stop over in the great city in the cliff.
The town is built in three distinct levels, which you can see quite clearly at first approach.
At the top level is a modest castle and keep which was once home to the Knights and nobles of the town. Below that, in the middle tier is the church, where the clerics and priests served and resided. Near the bottom, closer to the valley, are the modest homes that once belonged to the working class citizens.
When you come into the city from the south everything comes into view through the trees an in that moment its hard not to be impressed by what you're looking at.
Luckily there are a few spots along the road that allow you to pull over to take in the view and to snap off a few quick photos.
You could also get out of your car at the bottom of the hill and walk the valley to see the city from a different perspective.
From that angle you may have to crane your neck to see the town that appears to be growing directly out of the landscape.
Back to the car and up the narrow winding road. After a few hair pin turns you'll find yourself on the other side of the mountain in a newer part of town were you'll find a large parking lot, some touristy type shops, and some restaurants and hotels.
One hotel in particular has an amazing view from its bedroom windows as well as from its outdoor restaurant terrace.
Unfortunately for us, we didn't get to experience the terrace because it rained both days while we were there and everything was soaking wet. I was really looking forward to eating breakfast overlooking the city, but such is life.
The Old Town
Rocamadour is layed out in a sort of strip that is split into two parts. The newer area which is technically its own village called L'Hospitalet is located on a hill to the east while the old town thats built into the cliff is just a short walk down the hill to the west. Most of the hotels and restaurants are located in L'Hospitalet.
You can get a sense of what I'm talking about from the photo above. In it you can see that the town is built in a sort of arcing curve with a single road connecting the two sections.
You enter the old town by walking through one of four historic gateways. The streets are lined on both sides with shops, bars and restaurants. It's quite touristy but that shouldn't come as a surprise given the area.
Online it says that the the main street is entirely car free but that isn't entirely true. In the morning hours there are vans that stop at each shop to make their deliveries. I know this because we were nearly hit by one of them.
We were walking down the street when we heard a man yelling behind us. He was calling out "Attention! Attention!"
Naturally we turned to see what the commotion was all about, just in time too. The man's van was silently rolling towards us and gaining speed. It was near feet away and my wife instinctively pushed at the vans nose in an attempt to move it away from her. That did nothing to change the direction of the van but luckily it was enough to move herself out of its path. The van smashed into the wall about two feet from where she was standing, crushing a wooden stand filled with cookies.
I assume that the man had forgotten to put on his parking break and that the van began to roll down the hill on its own. It was a near miss but we tried not to think about it and didn't let it ruin our day.
Instead we immediately settled our nerves with two scoops of ice cream! We probably would have done that anyway though.
The Dordogne region is known for foie gras and when I saw it as a flavor of ice cream I figured that I'd be adventurous and give it a go. I probably should have just stuck to the sample that the woman at the counter made me try before ordering it because it was pretty weird and definitely didn't go well with my second flavor of cherry.
Rocamordour is also known for producing a special type of goats cheese which has an AOC status (Controlled Designation of Origin). It comes in little disk with a paper label declaring that it's from Rocamadour.
Pilgrimage
Rocamadour has been an important Chatholic pilgrimage site for hundreds of years throughtout its history and continues to be a major draw for people even to this day.
It began in the year of 1166, when an undecayed body was found buried at the location where the towns sanctuary now resides. Rocamadour immediately became one of the most important pilgrimage sites within the country, alongside Lourdes, Sacre Cœur and Mont St. Michel, just to name a few others.
The rich and poor alike began to travel to the city to climb the steps (often on their knees) to pay homage to the sacred site.
The climb begins in the center of the old town at a wide stone staircase.
A total of 216 steps and 120 meters in elevation brings you to the inner sanctuary.
The sanctuary is constructed out of white sandstone and is made up of eight separate chapels that are built around a central courtyard.
The most famous chapel is the Notre Dame which houses the Vierge Noir (or Black Madonna). It's a 12th century statue of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. It's carved out of the wood of a walnut tree.
You're not supposed to take pictures but literally everyone does so of course I did as well.
I'm not a religious person so I doubt I'll be smited. Though the picture was taken after the van incident, sooooo.....
Maybe things would have went differently had it been before?
...nah. I'm not superstitious.
To the Castle Keep
After your visit to the sanctuary you can continue up the mountain to the castle keep. It's a bit of a hike but it's definitely worth it.
Rocamadour's castle was built in the middle ages to defend the village sanctuary.
Today only the ramparts are open to the public for the low cost of two euros per person. One things that's kind of annoying though is that the ramparts are accessed via an unmanned turnstile that only takes change.
So if you don't have a 2€ coin on you then you have no way of getting through. We don't carry change on us ever so we couldn't enter to see the view. I read that it's quite spectacular though.
The photos I have are not actually of the castle but of the towns bell tower. Its 9th century iron bell is said to ring on its own anytime that the Virgin Mary performs a miracle somewhere in the world.
It rang quite a few times, at odd intervals, the day we were there. I guess there were many miracles being performed that day. Maybe it rang for us?
Even if you don't access the ramparts the walk up the cliff is still totally worth while.
There are ledges and view points and plenty of statues and monuments to look at along the way.
There is even an outdoor chaple built into a small cave.
The path to the top follows a series of switchbacks that you can see in the photos above and takes around 30 minutes to complete. At the top is a large cross that commemorates your pilgrimage victory. It's a nice place to spot and look out over the valley.
If you happen to stay in town overnight be sure to look out your hotel window or make your way over to the viewing platform in L'Hospitalet. The town of Rocamadour lights up at night and glows in the moonlight. In the distance you may even hear the bell toll for another miracle.
