Valleys and Vineyards of Cahors

Quercy's history dates back to prehistoric times, with some of the most extraordinary cave art in Europe found here. The caves of Pech Merle, near Cabrerets, are decorated with paintings dating back almost 30,000 years, with illustrations of spotted horses, mammoths and human handprints demonstrating the presence of settled communities in the valleys long before written history.

The name Quercy is believed to derive from the Gaulish tribe of the Cadurci, who inhabited the area before the Roman conquest. Cahors, originally known as Divona Cadurcorum, became a thriving Roman town. Its thermal baths, amphitheatre and aqueducts are evidence of a wealthy provincial centre that benefitted from trade along the Lot River. Roman bridges and roads shaped the region’s early infrastructure, much of which influenced settlement patterns for centuries to come.

During the Middle Ages, Quercy became strategically important as a frontier territory between French and English forces during the Hundred Years’ War. Castles such as those at Najac and fortified villages like Saint-Cirq-Lapopie stand as reminders of these turbulent centuries. At the same time, bastide towns such as Villefranche-de-Rouergue were founded in the 13th and 14th centuries, their grid-like layouts and arcaded squares designed to encourage trade and secure political control.

The Renaissance and early modern period brought renewed prosperity, largely through agriculture and viticulture. Cahors wine, often called the “black wine” for its deep colour and strength, gained renown across Europe, finding favour with popes in Avignon and later with Russian tsars. The Lot River, navigated by flat-bottomed gabarres, was the main artery of this commerce, carrying timber, wine and walnuts downstream to Bordeaux.

Quercy, like much of rural France, was shaped by waves of change in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Revolution and later Napoleonic rule reorganised land ownership and administration, while the Industrial Revolution drew many rural inhabitants away from the valleys and plateaux towards the cities. Yet agriculture remained central, with truffles, walnuts and goose farming becoming hallmarks of Quercy’s identity alongside its vineyards.

In the 20th century, Quercy was not untouched by conflict. The region endured hardship during both World Wars, with resistance groups active in its forests and valleys during the German occupation of the Second World War. After 1945, like much of rural France, Quercy's younger generations moved to France's cities, but its traditional landscapes and villages endured.

Today, Quercy is a living record of France’s layered past, from prehistoric cave art to Renaissance markets.