Day 20: Rest Day in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie

~Rest day (but still walked around navigating the very steep cobblestone streets around the village!)

Before we set out on this trip, I planned a rest day in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. It seemed like such a beautiful place that I wanted an extra day to explore and I’m so glad I did! our extra day was filled with art and food and connecting with folks who live in the village.

We could have spent days visiting all of the many shops and studios around the village; woodworking, pottery, glass art, painting, leatherwork, sculpture, and more. Each place was unique and often the artist worked directly from the shop where they sold their work.

While we didn’t get to see everything, we did have the good fortune of visiting the house (and now museum) of André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, which currently has an art exhibit exploring the artistic and philosophical intersections of surrealism and alchemy. For me the exhibit was magical. Sometimes art speaks directly to your heart and that’s what happened as we explored the works of past and current surrealist artists. The connection to alchemy and mysticism—the archetypical symbolism found in Tarot and Jung and many others—crossed the language barrier I have experienced for the past month. It felt familier and yet provocative. I could have spent days exploring the three galleries around town, but at least have some new art and ideas in which to immerse myself in the coming months.

It felt serendipitous that I was drawn to this place, an international center of surrealist art, despite not knowing that fact when making our plans. It seems that so often our subconscious pushes and pulls us in directions in which our conscious mind is completely unaware. I am grateful to have found this unexpected gem of art and history tucked away in rural France.

For dinner, we were excited for something simple and in our own space. While dinners in France are amazing, they are also a bit of a production that lasts at least two hours. We had a quiet meal of lentils, bread, cheese, ham, and salad. We drank local beer and Côtes du Lot rosé and watched the sun set over the village.