Around Tourdebès

Around here

Staying a few days? Good call. Everything below is a real recommendation within about two hours of the house, closest first. Tap a card for the story, the practical bit, and the link.

Friday-evening tables to book are coming to this page soon.

Worth the drive

Places · 18

Villages, towns and views, closest first.

Villeneuve-d'Aveyron7 min awayOur village: arcades, a round church, and the Sunday market.

Villefranche-de-Rouergue17 min awayA royal bastide with one of the great market squares of the southwest.

Cajarc22 min awayA circle of lanes on the Lot, with a river beach and serious art.

Capdenac-le-Haut25 min awayRamparts on a clifftop loop of the Lot, with Caesar in the footnotes.Peyrusse-le-Roc30 min awayTwin ruined towers on a crag, and a ghost city in the woods below.Figeac30 min awayChampollion's town: a Rosetta Stone you can walk across.Belcastel40 min awayA castle rebuilt by hand, a Michelin star by the bridge.Najac40 min awayOne street on a ridge, ending in a royal fortress.Saint-Cirq-Lapopie45 min awayThe village on the cliff that Breton never wanted to leave.Sauveterre-de-Rouergue50 min awayThe largest arcaded square in the Rouergue, ringed by makers.Rodez & the Soulages55 min awayOutrenoir in a Pritzker-winning museum, lunch by the Bras family.Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val55 min awayMarket lanes under gorge cliffs, France's oldest civic building.Conques60 min awayA Romanesque masterpiece glowing through Soulages glass.Cordes-sur-Ciel65 min awayThe first bastide, floating above the clouds since 1222.Bozouls70 min awayA village on the rim of a hundred-metre hole.Cahors & its Malbec70 min awayThe black wine's hometown, guarded by a devil's bridge.Rocamadour75 min awayA village stacked up a cliff, a Black Madonna at the top.Albi85 min awayThe world's largest brick cathedral and a hall of Toulouse-Lautrec.

Do, not just see

Things to do · 9

Caves, rivers, markets and days out.

Market mornings6 min awayThree squares, eight centuries of habit, one basket.

Grotte de Foissac10 min awayA prehistoric Pompeii, ten minutes from the house.Saut de la Mounine14 min awayOur cliff-edge balcony over the Lot.Canoeing the Lot & the gorges20 min awayTwo rivers, one paddle, zero experience required.River beaches & swim spots20 min awayWhere the rivers slow down enough to float.Grotte du Pech Merle50 min awaySpotted horses painted 29,000 years ago, and they are real.Gouffre de Padirac75 min awayA boat ride on a river 103 metres underground.Aubrac & Laguiole100 min awayA high plateau of cows, knives and stretching cheese.Railbiking the Larzac125 min awayPedal an 1896 mountain railway, tunnels and viaducts included.