Romanesque doorway

Saturday
Today we meandered our way through Limousin and the Dordogne as far as Cahors where we are spending the night, before continuing on to our final destination of Toulouse tomorrow. This morning we stopped to explore the attractive Limousin town of Uzerche, which stands on a promontory, encircled by a bend in the River Vezere. Unfortunately, it was a dreary grey day today, but it was still an interesting walk, past buildings with bell turrets, watch towers, carved doorways and several with little niches in the walls holding a little statue. We had a bite to eat there, before we left and continued into the Dordogne and the charming village of Carennac. On the way we crossed the river over an interesting one-lane suspension bridge, with an extremely narrow entrance, barely wider than the car. It was almost eerie walking around Carennac - it was almost like a ghost town - we hardly saw a soul as we walked around, except for a group of children playing. It must be very different in the summer when it is full of tourists. My blip is the beautiful 12th century carved doorway to the Church of St. Pierre in Carennac. Judging from its style, it is believed to belong to the same school as Beaulieu, Moissac, Collonges and Cahors. In the center, in a mandorla (almond-shaped glory), Christ is shown in majesty, his right hand raised in blessing. He is surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists. On either side are the Apostles on two panels. We arrived in Cahors at dusk, and after checking into our hotel, we went walking along the river to the famous Valentre bridge, a wonderful example of French medieval military architecture, which I hope to blip tomorrow. We then walked into the center of town to find somewhere to eat. Unfortunately the place I fancied was closed for the month of January, which we have discovered is quite common around here, especially in the smaller places - in fact some places are closed until March or even April!