Whichever way you tour these delights you always seem to arrive back in StCere and there are many reasons why you should make it your base. The town has such an authentic feel, its local market ( first and third Wednesday of each month ) boast everything from farm machinery to stuffed olives, from shiny steel cookware to smooth-iced patisserie. If you fancy a day off from walking, you can sit over coffee and watch out over its broad tree-lined square, lean over one of the bridges and gaze at the shoals of trout which twist and turn in the clear water of the Bave, or visit the free art exhibition held all summer long in the old quarter of the town.

 

But the best reason for making St Cere your base is the Hotel Victor Hugo.

The hotel offers nine comfortable bedrooms overlooking the river and park. All the rooms are deccorated in themes taken from the local artist, Jean Lurcat. Each has ensuite facilities, telephne and television.

TheVictor Hugo boasts a very fine restaurant. The culinary delights prepared by the wonderfully moustachioed Jean-Luc will have you pleading for more.
Whether it be the circle of foie gras with fig, served with a sweet Bergerac wine, or the Coquilles St-jacques ( scallop in white wine sauce ). For your main coursetry the fricasse of pigeon with cucumber and tomato or, my favourite and local speciality, fillet of duck washed down with a bottle of oak-aged Cahors. By the time you've got through the cheese course, youmight not have the staying power for dessert, but this is Jean-Luc's speciality. And the other half of the partnership, Tom Smyth ? Tom will take you patiently through the wine list, in English or in French, tell you exactly what to expect from the Pommes Paillasson, and serve you afterwards with the very best of local liqueurs.

The Lot lies right next door to the Dordogne, in fact some of the most beautiful parts of Dordogne river, form Bort-les-Orgues down to Beaulieu lie in the north of the Departement. Cutting a path south west, the river Lot itself plunges through a series of spectacular gorges between entraygues and Estaing before opening out into the broad meandering loops which carry it past the ancient and picturesque villages of Cajarc and St Cirq-Lapopie. In the south, beyond the administrative capital of Cahors, the river wanders through the vineyards which take the town's name. St Cere is a picturesque market town of about 5,ooo people, under whose pretty old bridges wends the river Bave. The streets are lined with elegant old houses and shops, the latter filled with strange shaped bread, mouth watering patisserie, the delights of nut liqueur and the local eau-de-vie, distilled from plums. watching over the town from a height of several hundred feet are the Towers of St Laurent. Here lived sculptor, painter, and tapestry maker Jean Lurcat and the towers now house a collection of his colourful work. When the towers are floodlit at night they appear to hang in mid-air above the town like some eerily hovering spacecraft.