After leaving Carcasonne, we got up early that day (06:40, argh!) to drive towards Cahors and catch the local market.

Cahors

encore du vin, merci! :)

We then had to head out to get to the Grottes du Peches Merles for our tour at noon. Since they wanted us to be 30mn early and I optimized the driving (lots of curvy roads there), we got there at 11:30 and they had a special tour at that time that we were able to catch. This was despite Google maps which had been giving me horrible directions in rural france, and sent me on a dirt road that was more for horses and hikers. I ended up driving there rally style which was fun, but I really ended up on a walking path and made it to the Grotto parking lot on the wrong side of "don't cross this" metal pillars. That was a bit awkward. Still, I got there early somehow:

Catching an early tour at Peches Merles allowed us to visit the Grotto and museum and have time left over to see les Grottes de Cougnac which allows taking pictures in one of their grottos (the ones with formations, but no drawings):

After that, there we went to Rocamadour to visit the town and impressive cluster of churches by the rock.

lots of stores for tourists :)

nice wine names :)

If you think we had done two days' worth already, we didn't quite give up so quickly and while there, we also went to see a Foie Gras farm and how they feed the ducks for our enjoyment :)

foie gras has been made for 4500 years!

those ducks have a much happier life than the poor farmed chicken

they only get brought in cages for their feeding and are let go again after that

We then saw a movie on how they use all parts of the duck and prepare it:

there, I'm hungry again :)

This then left me with a drive to Eyzies-de-Tayac (1h20 away) to sleep just next to Grottes du Fond the Gaumes so that I could be there at the ticket booth to stand in line too early the next morning. Damn, that was a long day :)