Pilgrims on the Way

Walking into the castle in Rudelle, you would be forgiven for wondering how you suddenly teleported into a Gothic church. The history of this building is complicated. Rudelle was once a fortified village – a bastide founded about 1250 – and this particular building was the hospital chapel, dating to the second half of the 13th century. It was not […]

After walking through farmland for about an hour, I arrived at the tiny village of Rudelle just before 9 AM. Despite its small size, this village has what looks like a castle keep. It was, once. Then in 1471, the local Cardaillac lord gave it to the inhabitants of the village, provided they kept it in repair at their own […]

The day started off rough. I accidentally left my clothes on the line outside last night, and it rained. Still, are you really a pilgrim if you haven’t walked with clothes clipped to the outside of your backpack as you walked? Breakfast was leisurely, and I only finally left the gîte at about 8 AM. It was cool enough that […]

This was my dinner view: the central portion of Lacapelle-Marival, complete with château. Despite the well-known French proclivity for wine, many of the regions I passed through had good, solid local beers. They tended to be a little on the light side, but quite tasty nonetheless. Date: 30 August 2023 Place: Lacapelle-Marival, Lot Département, Region of Occitanie, France Maps! The […]

As I mentioned yesterday, just as I was finishing Vespers in the grandeur of l’Église de l’Assomption-de-la-Sainte-Vierge de Lacapelle-Marival, a Mass broke out. Weirdly, it wasn’t in the main sanctuary of the church. It wasn’t even in one of the well-appointed side chapels. No, it was in a weird little room at the back, built of rods and curtains and […]

Next we stopped in the Church of the Assumption in Lacapelle-Marival. This little Gothic jewel only dates to 1575, when it was built on the site of an earlier Romanesque chapel, dating probably to the 12th century. The church was extensively remodelled in the 19th century. I think the stained glass dates from that time. Just as I was finishing […]

The château interior was a grand mixture of early modern art and architecture with an exhibition by contemporary local artists. Quite eclectic! Here’s a selection of my favourites. Date: 30 August 2023 Place: Lacapelle-Marival, Lot Département, Region of Occitanie, France Maps! The site I’ve been using for my daily maps, Gronze.com, while otherwise great, unfortunately doesn’t have maps for this […]

As we entered the château in Lacapelle-Marival to check out the art exhibition, we were greeted by this fellow. I absolutely couldn’t tell you if the armour is authentic, but it certainly made an impression! There was a plaque on the plinth, but it was blank. I remember thinking at the time that it was likely part of the art […]

We crossed the street into this plaza/carpark. Both our gîte and a local bar/restaurant faced onto the plaza, with a beautiful view of the château and church across the street. Somehow, I managed to get a photo of neither the gîte nor the bar, but they were in buildings very much like this, just out of frame to the right. […]

At about 3:40 PM, we walked into the village of Lacapelle-Marival, our stop for the night. It’s a fairly substantial village of almost 1,300 people that may owe its name to an 8th-century martyr known as Marie del Val. To the left, you can see the château, as well as the Église de l’Assomption-de-la-Sainte-Vierge, both of which date back to […]