The best MTB trails around Lafitte-Sur-Lot

Caution: after Le Temple sur Lot, respect the prohibition and bypass the farm buildings by road, to find a path that leads you closer to Montpezat.

A literary monument – albeit one that seems rather bizarre in the context of the story – has been erected by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes to the windmills with which our ancestors harnessed the energy of the wind centuries ago to move the large and heavy millstones: In one episode, his tragic novel hero Don Quixote, the “knight of the sorrowful countenance”, wants to defeat them in a duel, believing that he is fighting against giants with four arms.

The history of Clairac is inseparable from that of its Benedictine abbey, which was internationally renowned in the Middle Ages. The abbey, as well as the town which was formed around its walls, reached their peak in the 12th and 13th centuries. There were then 120 monks who worked both in the fields and as copyists of manuscripts. The abbot of Clairac was also the lord of the village and commanded two bastides, five priories and around fifty parishes. The monks also owned two mills on the Lot. The income generated by the abbey was then considerable. But the most important heritage is unexpected: the plum tree of Damascus, brought back from the crusades, was in fact "enté", that is to say grafted, by them for the 1st time. They also discovered the sun-drying process, inventing the Ente plum and the Agen prune in one fell swoop!

The origin of the monastery is unknown. The priory church already existed in 1117, when the church and its belongings were given to the abbey of La Chaise-Dieu. The priory, which contained twelve monks, fell into complete decline in the 15th century following poor management. At the end of the 16th century, the monks of Saint-Maur reestablished monastic discipline there and restored the church and the convent, ruined by the Wars of Religion. Of the 12th century church, the main apse and the north apsidiole remain. It was completed in the 14th century by the construction of the nave. The church was originally to have three naves. Only one remains, rebuilt on the plan of the middle nave. By a particular layout, the main apse is extended by a narrower and non-concentric apse. A chapel to the south was to complete this set. The apse of the sanctuary, vaulted in the bottom of the oven, being very low, it was necessary, to unite it to the bay of the choir through the second hemicycle, to resort to a particular construction: the large hemicycle has no vault. perfect hemispherical; to reduce the descent, the vault was abutted on a few foundations established above the triumphal arch. The ornamentation consists of plants, protruding heads, real or hybrid animals, scenes of characters. The door opening on the western facade is in the style of the 14th century. A steeple was erected on a square base, behind the gable, and was absorbed into an octagon.

panel v86 Chasseneuil Villeneuve on lot ok

French Indochina reception center

quiet place for a stop

Like many small towns located along the Lot River, Clairac has its own beach. But it also boasts some of the region's most beautiful half-timbered houses, as well as the Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens church, known for its remarkable maître d'hôtel.