Packing List for Cahors, France: What Women Should Bring

Photograph: The Pont Valentre over the Lot at Cahors by Marmontel, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Cahors is a small town in the western part of southern France, the capital of the Lot department and the historical centre of the old province of Quercy. About 20,000 people live there, which makes it the smallest prefecture among the thirteen departments of the Occitanie region. It sits in a loop of the river Lot, ringed by steep, dry limestone hills, and most people who know the name know it from a wine label rather than a map.

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The photograph above shows the Pont Valentre on a bright summer day: the fortified bridge spanning the green river, two of its tall square towers and its arches reflected in the water, wooded hills behind and a few tiny figures on the far bank. It shows the town's symbol and very little of the town. The cathedral of Saint-Etienne, the narrow lanes of the old quarter, the Roman remains, the vineyards along the valley and the shape of the river loop itself, which you see properly only from the hills above, are all out of frame. Each is described below, so you know what you are walking to rather than inferring a whole town from one bridge.

What Is Here

The Pont Valentre is the reason the town is on postcards. It is a fourteenth century fortified stone bridge of six Gothic arches and three square towers, crossing the Lot just west of the centre. Building ran from 1308 to 1378, it opened for use in 1350, and it was put up because tension between France and England was rising in the region, decades before it broke into the Hundred Years' War. It is about 138 metres long and its towers rise around 40 metres. It was heavily restored between 1867 and 1879 by the architect Paul Gout, and it was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1998 as part of the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. It carries no traffic: the bridge can only be crossed on foot, which is what makes it pleasant to linger on.

Look up at the central tower and you will find the town's favourite story. In local folklore, the foreman, exasperated by the slow work, signed a pact with the Devil, then escaped it by ordering him to fetch water in a sieve. In revenge, the legend says, a demon loosens the last stone of the central Devil's Tower every night so the bridge is never finished. During his restoration Gout set a stone carved with a small imp into that tower. The story is a legend; the carved figure is real and worth finding.

The cathedral of Saint-Etienne does not look like a cathedral from the outside. It has the sturdy appearance of a fortified building, and its west front, reworked in the early fourteenth century, resembles a heavy castle wall more than a church facade. Inside it is a different building: two great domes in a Byzantine style, each around 32 metres high, cover the nave, and unusually there is no transept. One dome carries fourteenth century frescoes of the stoning of Saint Stephen, with eight prophets each riding an animal. The church was consecrated by Pope Calixtus II in 1119, and the Flamboyant Gothic cloister beside it was built in 1504. The cathedral also keeps a relic known as the Holy Cap, said to have been worn by Christ. None of this is in the photograph.

The Roman town is easy to miss because it is mostly underground or in fragments. The oldest name for the place was Divona, after a spring worshipped by the Cadurci, the Celtic people who lived here before Rome, and the name Cahors comes from theirs. The spring is now called the Fontaine des Chartreux. The Arc de Diane is a surviving relic of the Roman baths, and the remains of an oval amphitheatre were found when an underground car park was dug beneath the Place Gambetta; you can see its stone walls on the first level of the car park, below the statue of Leon Gambetta.

Medieval Cahors made money, and was famous for it. Its financiers, the Cahorsins, were Christians who charged interest on loans at a time when the church called usury a sin, and Dante put the town into the Inferno beside Sodom as a byword for wickedness. Pope John XXII was born here in 1244, the son of a shoemaker, and he granted the town a university charter in 1331; the university lasted until 1751, when it was absorbed into the University of Toulouse. The town also holds France's label of a Town of Art and History.

The Wine, the Valley and the Food

Cahors wine is red and dark, and it is mostly Malbec. The local name for the grape is Cot or Auxerrois, and the appellation requires at least 70 per cent of it, with Merlot or Tannat allowed for the rest. Only red wine may carry the Cahors name. Vines were planted in the area around 50 BC, and in the thirteenth century the wine was shipped to England through Bordeaux; the historic name for it was the black wine. Phylloxera ruined the vineyards in the 1880s, a frost in February 1956 wiped out almost all of them again, and the replanting that followed made Malbec more dominant than before. The wine gained its appellation in 1971.

The vineyards are mostly west of the town, on gravel terraces inside the loops of the river further down the valley, and on the limestone plateau above it that locals call the Causses. You need transport to reach them. The region is also known for truffles and foie gras.

If you plan to visit wineries by car, settle who is driving before the first tasting. The FCDO notes that France's legal alcohol limit for drivers is a third lower than the limit in England and Wales, and that police regularly run roadside checks.

For the view the photograph cannot give you, the shape of the town inside its river loop, climb one of the limestone hills around it. The town lies between about 105 and 332 metres above sea level, and the paths up are stony and exposed to the sun.

Recommended Tours and Experiences

The Weather: Hot Summers, Damp Winters

Summer in Cahors is hot. At a weather station near the town, the average high in July and August is about 29 degrees, and the highest reading on the record there reached 43 degrees in August. July is also the driest month, with rain on only a handful of days. Winter is a different season entirely: the average January high is around 9 degrees, nights fall close to freezing, and the record low at the same station is minus 20. Rain is spread across the year, at roughly 825 millimetres over a little more than a hundred wet days, and winter has the most of them.

When to Go

Late spring and early autumn are the easiest windows, warm enough for the hills and the river, without the summer heat. July and August are the hottest months. The Cahors Blues Festival has been held every July since 1982; check this year's dates locally if you want to catch it or avoid it. Winter is quiet, grey and damp, with the town to yourself and some sights on shorter hours.

Getting There

Cahors is about 115 kilometres north of Toulouse on the A20 motorway, which continues north via Limoges to Paris, so a car or a hired car from Toulouse is the most direct way in and the most practical way to reach the vineyards. For rail, check current SNCF services for your route before you plan around them. Walkers arrive the slow way: the Pont Valentre is listed as part of the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, the Way of St James, and people walking a stage of it cross the river here.

Is Cahors Safe for Women Travelers

France carries no advised-against area, and Cahors is a small, quiet departmental town with an ordinary low urban risk picture.

US State Department travel advisory: the France advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.

UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.

The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in France, and its terrorism wording is the strongest it uses: terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in France, with shopping centres, entertainment venues, sporting events, transport hubs and crowded gatherings named as possible targets. The everyday risks are more specific than that sounds. Pickpocketing is organised on the Paris Metro and on trains, typically in pairs with one person distracting you, and the FCDO records SERIOUS ASSAULTS on RER lines B and D, which matters because line B is the train most visitors take from the airports. Drink spiking is named with the drugs rather than hinted at: be alert to the possible use of date rape drugs including GHB and liquid ecstasy. Strikes and demonstrations happen at short notice and can stop trains and close roads, usually peacefully. And wildfires affect the south in hot dry summers.

Two natural hazards in the FCDO's current France advice apply directly here. Wildfires can occur across France in summer, and the FCDO names areas of the south-west during hot, dry weather among the places of highest risk, with access to forests, countryside and tourist sites liable to be restricted at short notice. Causing a wildfire is illegal even by accident, with a fine or prison possible, so do not smoke or light anything on the dry limestone hills. And the FCDO advises that if your accommodation is near a river you should check the vigicrues flood watch, which matters in a town built inside a loop of the Lot.

Three further points from the same pages are worth carrying. You must be able to prove your identity when asked, or within four hours at a police station, so carry your passport or another accepted ID rather than leaving it in the hotel safe. Covering your face in public is illegal, with a fine of up to 150 euros. And the FCDO notes an increased likelihood of demonstrations across France, sometimes at short notice, with authorities able to impose localised curfews, so follow local news while you are there.

Drinks served in French bars are often stronger than those in the UK, according to the FCDO, and in a wine town the evening glass is part of the visit. Buy your own drinks and keep them in sight, as the advice above says. Keep to lit streets on the walk back at night.

The Cahors Packing List

Pack for heat on stone in summer, damp cold in winter, and a lot of walking on both.

A merino wool base layer is the foundation in every season. In summer a light one handles the climb onto the hills in the heat and the sudden cool of the cathedral; in winter it is the warm layer against damp air. Merino stays fresh across several days of wear.

For spring, autumn and winter add a fleece mid layer, and in every season but high summer a packable rain jacket, since winter brings the most wet days.

Waterproof hiking shoes with real grip and merino hiker socks cover the stony paths above the town, the riverbank and a day of vineyard visits. Smooth soles on worn limestone are how people slip.

From late spring to early autumn, a wide brim sun hat is the single most useful item, because there is little shade on the hills and the bridge. We do not link a sunscreen, because our affiliate register has none; bring a high factor one of your own and reapply. In winter swap the hat for merino glove liners, light enough to keep on while you take photographs from the bridge.

A small daypack and a water bottle are advised and are not linked. The one daypack in our register is still awaiting verification, and the only bottle in it is a large insulated flask that is more than a town walk needs, so any compact bag worn across the body and any refillable bottle will do. Tap water in France is drinkable.

Essential Resources for Women in Cahors

Emergency numbers: 112 for any emergency, 15 for a medical emergency, 17 for police and 18 for fire. 114 is the emergency number for deaf and hard of hearing callers, by text, chat, video or fax.

Medical care: ask your accommodation on arrival where the nearest hospital emergency department, the urgences, is. For anything minor a pharmacie, marked by a green cross, will help without an appointment and can direct you to the duty pharmacy out of hours.

Official health authority: Sante publique France, the national public health agency, covers the national guidance, which is the right level for a small departmental capital with nothing medically unusual about it beyond summer heat.

US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Paris.

Official tourism authority: Atout France, the national tourism body, covers the national picture. For opening hours at the cathedral and its cloister, winery visits and the dates of summer events, check local sources on arrival rather than anything printed here.

US State Department travel advisory: the France advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.

UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.

France is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident, which means you pay the same patient share a French resident pays rather than nothing. That is not the same as free and it does not cover repatriation, so travel insurance sits on top of it. French hospitals are excellent and a pharmacie, marked by a green cross, handles minor problems without an appointment and will tell you where the duty pharmacy is out of hours. Tap water is drinkable everywhere. Dial 15 for a medical emergency or 112 for anything.

Solo women safety assessment: Cahors is an easy, calm town to visit alone. France has no advised-against area, the old quarter is compact and walkable, and the town is small enough that you will quickly know your way around. Apply ordinary care with drinks in the evening, carry ID as French law requires, and watch local news for demonstrations. The real risks here are physical rather than personal: heat and sun on the exposed hills in summer, the wildfire rules on dry ground, the river in flood, and alcohol if you are driving between vineyards. Plan the wine days around who drives, and walk the hills early in the day.

Reading On

Rocamadour, the pilgrimage village to the north, serves the same walnuts and the same Cahors wine, and the two pair naturally. Toulouse, about 115 kilometres south, is the city most visitors drive in from. The Dordogne is the neighbouring river country to explore next, and Bordeaux is the port through which Cahors wine once reached England. The France travel guide for women is the hub, and the travel packing guide covers the system this list is built on.

If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.

For why hot days on stone and cold damp winters both argue for merino layers rather than one heavy coat, see our guide to the best merino wool base layers for women, and the full range is in the Roman Trail collection.