France
Rocamadour
A pilgrimage village stacked vertically into a canyon wall like a prayer climbing rock.
The village stacks vertically into the wall of the Alzou canyon — houses, then chapels, then the château — each level joined by the stair that pilgrims once climbed on their knees. Rocamadour, in south-west France, appears to defy gravity when you come at it from the valley floor, the buildings climbing the cliff as if pulled upward by the sanctuary at the top.
In 1166 an intact body was discovered on the site — Saint Amadour, the hermit who gave the place its name — and Rocamadour became a major pilgrimage of medieval Europe, tied to the roads to Compostela and venerated as far as Spain and Portugal. The Grand Escalier, two hundred and sixteen steps, climbs from the lower village to the sanctuary, where the basilica of Saint-Sauveur, the crypt of Saint-Amadour and a cluster of chapels press against the rock; in the Notre-Dame chapel sits the Black Madonna, a twelfth-century wooden Virgin with the Child on her left knee, still a living object of devotion. A village of seven hundred people carries a world reputation, and the surrounding limestone causse, a UNESCO geopark, gives its name to the tiny Rocamadour goat's cheese.
Solo
Climb the Grand Escalier in the morning — the physical act of ascending connects you to the pilgrims who climbed these steps on their knees.
Couple
Stay overnight and watch the cliff face at night, the sanctuary lit and the canyon dark below — the village at night belongs to the few who remain.
- Chapels, basilica and crypt stack up the canyon wall — you climb the Grand Escalier that pilgrims once ascended on their knees.
- The approach from the valley floor is among the most dramatic reveals in France — the village appears to defy gravity.
- The Black Madonna, a twelfth-century wooden Virgin, still draws pilgrims to a sanctuary founded on a hermit's body discovered in 1166.
- Rocamadour goat's cheese from the surrounding causse is served warm on walnut bread at the village restaurants.
Rocamadour goat's cheese — tiny, creamy discs of the AOP cheese — served warm on walnut bread with honey.
Duck confit with a glass of Cahors, the Lot's Malbec, so dark the locals call it the black wine.
Takachiho
Japan
A basalt gorge where the sun goddess hid, and a night dance that has never stopped.
Batopilas
Mexico
A plunging canyon road ends among palms, aqueducts and silver-era stonework.
Yoshino
Japan
Thirty thousand cherry trees blooming up a sacred mountain in pink tidal waves.
Takeda Castle Ruins
Japan
Stone ramparts adrift on a sea of cloud at dawn — Japan's Machu Picchu.
Arles
France
Roman amphitheatre stones still warm at twilight in the town Van Gogh painted into fever.
Avignon
France
Papal palace walls thick enough to hold a century of intrigue, and a bridge stopping mid-river.
Aigues-Mortes
France
Crusader ramparts stranded on salt flats where the sea withdrew and left a walled port behind.
Nice
France
Italianate backstreets above a market where socca sizzles on copper pans the size of tables.