See france-voyage.com.A bustling market town (great farmers’ markets on the first and third Fridays of the month), Souillac is a useful transport hub for the region. The tourist office has information about riding, canoe hire, pony trekking and walking. The main sight in town is the 13thC Eglise de Sainte-Marie, a Romanesque abbey church with echoes of Saint-Front in Périgueux in its Byzantine extravagance of domes and chapels. In the 18thC, the west door was turned inside out which has helped to preserve its remarkable carvings including a pillar of slathering dragons.

Kids may be amused by the mechanical toys in the Musée de l’Automate, place de l’Abbaye.