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Montcuq and Quercy Blanc
Far from the verdant Lot valley, here the earth changes color and takes on the white hue of the chalky limestone characteristic of this terroir. Along the sandstone plantations, the landscapes light up with a thousand colours: Quercy melons, fields of lavender and sunflowers, AOC Coteaux du Quercy vines, truffle oaks or even wild orchids growing along the hiking trails.
Montcuq (we pronounce the Q)
We smile first, then we hum, we finally admire.
It's obvious Montcuq rose to fame with its mere name, but the village deserves your attention for many more reasons. After Nino Ferrer, emblematic singer of the 60s, who chose to live in Montcuq, we like to think that the village is inspiring, since many artists and craftsmen have settled there.
Montcuq also tells you its story with its Tower of the Counts of Toulouse, erected at the end of the 100th century and the castle town developed at its feet. Ruined by the Hundred Years War, the village was rebuilt in the XNUMXth century with half-timbered houses.
It is in the middle of this authentic setting that the market flourishes every Sunday morning, one of the most famous in the Lot.
The little protractor
In 1976, Jacques Martin's television program "The Little Protractor" highlights and humors the little village of Montcuq under the comical allusions of Pierre Bonte and Daniel Prévost who solemnly declares, with a smirk: "For the first time, I am happy to show you Montcuq on television", in front of the village sign. The fame of this small village of Quercy white was done!
All in humor and recognition, Montcuq, in 2007, renamed the beautiful medieval alley from the heart of the village "rue du Petit rapporteur" in the presence of Pierre Bonte.
A color palette
Like any work of art, Quercy is above all a blank canvas. the stone limestone marks the natural but also cultural landscapes: houses, churches, mills, dry stone walls, ... and it is against this backdrop that a palette of lively and luminous colors will delight your discovery.
The yellow of sunflower fields, like thousands of suns, will guide you through the winding roads. The shades of purple lavender plantations with an intoxicating fragrance that will give birth to essential oils and local floral waters. The green of oak forests which invite to walks, bike rides, horseback riding and make up a refreshing green setting in the middle of the causses.
A small heritage that speaks volumes
At the bend of the valleys, hides a rich and preserved heritage: wind mill proudly erected on the heights, Romanesque churches with discreet charm, the Montcuq Castrum and its count's tower or the medieval village of Castelnau-Montratier and its appearance of a bastide.
The bastides
The South of the Lot is full of Bastides, the “new towns” of the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries. Among them, Castelnau-Montratier will hold your attention. It responds to the standard plan: a central covered square and arcades, an outlying church and a parcel plan or checkerboard, composed of straight and parallel streets with houses and gardens. But it has an extra soul, that of its inhabitants and in particular of its artists who dress it with their decor every summer. Art and history blend together harmoniously.
Other bastides have been waiting for you for a long time:
- Labastide-Marnhac
- Beauregard
- castelfranc
- Labastide-du-vert
The windmills
The mills are the emblematic signature of white Quercy. In Quercy Blanc 3 windmills unite their power to seduce you: Castelnau-Montratier, the oldest of all, from the XNUMXth century; in Boisse, it is from the XNUMXth century, classified as a historical monument and above all in working order; in Ramps, it is worth the detour with its original “mile marker”, which marked out the Roman roads.
And to know everything about these wind elves, the Planet of the Mills museum - as its name suggests - takes you to another universe when you walk through the door. Moving models, reconstructions, mechanisms... it's fun and educational. The mills will have no more secrets for you.
small mill
In Quercy, wind and water have long allowed men to relieve their work. Whether windmills or watermills, discover the most beautiful mills in the Lot.
Boisse Mill
in the lavender fields
The cultivation of lavender is an activity inseparable from Quercy which, after a few decades of dormancy, is blooming again on the causses to (re)become an exceptional product.
Lavender cultivation in Quercy
Montcuq
Montcuq makes you smile, seduces you, animates you, tells stories. Montcuq will be etched in your memory with much more than just its name...
Visit Montcuq
a vineyard with character
Straddling two departments: Lot and Tarn-et-Garonne, the AOP Coteaux du Quercy flourishes on clay-limestone soils and in a climate with a dual influence (oceanic and Mediterranean). Let yourself be enchanted by its fruity and spicy aromas.
The wines of the Coteaux du Quercy AOP