“Cahors was known for its linen and wine, and its merchants were so poorly reputed that they were featured in Dante’s vision of hell.”
Dave Whitson in his Guidebook Camino de Santiago Via Podiensis, published by Cicerone
With a population of 20,000, Cahors is the largest city on the French portion of our Camino. Fortunately for us, the merchants of Cahors were friendly and honest. Their reputation has improved since Dante’s day. We took a rest day here as we’ve been doing some long days. Unfortunately, we arrived on France’s Labor Day and many places we hoped to visit were closed both that day and the next. We nicknamed Cahors, ferme, or ”closed.” We did meet up with some pilgrims we’ve seen off and on in our weeks here and joined them for a quick lunch of local meat and wines.
We departed on the Pont Valentré, a six arched stone bridge built in the 1300s. It is one of the best preserved medieval bridges in France. A sculpture of a devil, barely visible in some of the photos, commemorates a legend that the builder made a deal with Satan to complete the bridge.
Our journey was overcast with a little rain, which made for a cool day of walking but not great photos.