The photographs -- and they're not hard to find online -- don't really do this place justice. My only disappointment is that we hadn't planned ahead to stay the night.

St. Cirq La Popie, perched 100 metres above the Lot River in a region well known to the British but an unknown to most Canadians, lives up fully to its designation as one of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France. It is anything but soulless, dead or sinking into oblivion ...