France's favourite village — a 13th-century cliff settlement above a meander of the Lot river
Saint-Cirq-Lapopie is consistently voted France's favourite village (most recently in a 2012 TV viewers' poll) — a medieval village of 13th–16th century half-timbered and stone houses perched on a 100-metre white limestone cliff above a sweeping meander of the Lot river in Quercy. The village is so extraordinarily photogenic that André Breton (the founder of Surrealism) moved here permanently in 1950 and declared he had found 'the only place I could live.' The Lot Valley below is carved from the same white limestone and the river makes a dramatic bend directly beneath the village cliff.
Saint-Cirq-Lapopie takes its unusual double name from Saint Cyr (a 3rd-century child martyr from Iconium, whose relics were brought here) and Lapopie (the local feudal family who held the village in the 12th century). The medieval village was the combined seat of four feudal lords simultaneously, explaining the number of competing towers and manor houses along its single main street. André Breton's residence here from 1950 until his death in 1966 gave Saint-Cirq-Lapopie its literary reputation; he left the village to found the review 'La Brèche d'Action Surréaliste' and returned frequently, d…