Figeac is a well-restored medieval village southern France – still vibrant in the 21^st century, and one of the "most beautiful detours"" in the country!

I know it’s neither cool nor politically correct to say you’ve “discovered” a place that has existed for 1,500 years and that has its full share of visitors wandering through the streets on any given summer day.

But it’s certainly true there are two categories of “charming medieval villages” in France: those that are globally famous, and those that don’t get much exposure outside the local press. Places like Carcassonne, Mont St. Michel, and Rocamadour are already well known to travelers, especially to British and American visitors.  They are prominently featured in travel magazines and Facebook posts, and they’re often overwhelmed by visitors during the busy season.  I’m not immune to their charm; despite the crowds, Karen and I have especially enjoyed the medieval wonders of Sarlat-la-Canéda many times over the years (and I’ve reported on that town’s unique market days and why it makes a great base for travelers in the Dordogne region of France).

Still, I was very pleasantly surprised to "discover" a new place (that is, one I had never heard of even from French friends who live in the region). Last summer I spent several days in Figeac (pronounced FEE-zhac), a beautifully preserved medieval city in the département of the Lot in the south-central part of the country.  I was surprised again to encounter so many Americans in my hotel and in the streets – and to learn that many of them were there because of a connection to an American manufacturer of aircraft parts at the edge of town.  And it’s not the only such industry – in fact, this ancient “city of art and history”, a waystation on the road to Compostela, is also home to several other cutting-edge companies focused on aerospace and aviation.

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After almost 10 years of writing almost exclusively about the Auvergne, the Dordogne, and the Correze in “the deep heart of France”, this year I’m expanding this blog’s coverage to include the départements of the Lot, Lozère, and the Aveyron, just south of my old stomping grounds.  All three are rich in history and extraordinary natural landscapes, yet they are among the most sparsely populated, least visited parts of the country – so I think it’s perfectly logical to add them to my definition of the “deep heart” of the country.  Please let me know what you think of this undertaking – and particularly let me know if you have suggestions for future posts involving this region.

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There have been human inhabitants in this area since the Neolithic, perhaps 6,000 years ago, and the Romans built a road through here 2,000 years ago, but the first recorded mentions of the modern settlement date to the middle of the 8^th century C.E.  The legends say that Pepin the Short, King of the Francs, passed through the area in 753 C.E., saw a flock of pigeons flying in formation in the shape of a cross, and decreed that a monastery should be established on the site. Pope Étienne II came here to bless its opening in 755.  A hundred years later, a troop of Vikings swept through the area and killed 60 of the monks and all the local residents who took refuge in the church.  The community was resilient, though: after the Vikings left the abbey church was restored and the monastery carried on.

The Knights Templar established an outpost here in 1187; you can still visit their commanderie in the center of town today.  But real prosperity came to Figeac in 1302 C.E., when King Philippe IV (also known as “Philippe le Bel” and “the Iron King”) bought the right to attach the monastery to the crown and put the city under royal control.  He went an extraordinary step further when he granted the town the privilege of minting money.  That activity, alongside the presence of a prosperous community of merchants and artisans, guaranteed the future of Figeac.

Of course, like every other place in this sparsely populated region, this town was victimized by the larger movements that kept France in chaos over the centuries.  During the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453 C.E.), bands of mercenary routiers established a base here and used it to raid the surrounding territory; it wasn't always clear whether they were fighting on behalf of the English army or just on their own account.  And when the Wars of Religion swept across France between 1592 and 1598 C.E., the violent conflicts around Figeac were largely dominated by forces on the Protestant side of the argument.

In a more recent conflict, the forest north of the city became a base for the French Resistance during World War II, and their agents carried out a number of very visible campaigns against the occupying German forces.  (Among other attacks:  local resistants blew up machinery at the propeller factory operated by Ratier in Figeac to disrupt the supply of parts to the German Luftwaffe.  They also raided banks and post offices, occupied the town’s train station, and stole wagonloads of food destined for German troops.)  Of course, the Nazis responded by cracking down hard, encircling the city with a large police force in the summer of 1944, executing several maquis fighters for their acts of sabotage, and deporting hundreds more residents to the prison camps at Dachau and Ravensbruck.

The tradition of manufacturing products for the aviation industry has carried on to the present day.   Ratier (the propeller manufacturer) now belongs to Collins Aerospace, an American company; it’s been a subcontractor to Airbus for more than 50 years.   Figeac Aero is a newer presence, with high-tech factories that build metallic parts for aircraft engines and fuselage structures.  (It also has facilities in Kansas and Texas in the U.S. and in several other towns across southern France.)

If you’ve read this blog before, you know how much I love stories about people who come from small towns like Figeac and rise to a level of national prominence based mainly on their distinctive talents.  I’ve written elsewhere about people like Blaise Pascal, the towering genius from Clermont-Ferrand who drove revolutions in science, math, and religious thinking…about Lafayette, born in a rustic chateau in the Auvergne, but destined to lead real revolutions on 2 continents…about General Desaix, who left his family’s small backwoods estate and became one of Napoleon’s most important military leaders.

So of course I was happy to learn about Figeac’s own native son, Jean-Francois Champollion, born here in 1790.  His particular gift was in philology – the study of how language is used in writing and conversation in a particular historical context.  He could read Coptic, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic, and he demonstrated his talents as a teenager when he published his first paper on how to decipher ancient Egyptian texts written in Demotic script.

Champollion has a distant connection to Napoleon, too.  When the French army invaded Egypt in 1798, one of the souvenirs Napoleon shipped back to France was a chunk of black granite – we call it the Rosetta Stone -- covered in hieroglyphics, Egyptian Demotic script, and Greek.

Scholars from England and Sweden went to work trying to crack the code, but it was Champollion who figured it out and published a complete translation in 1822.  (The text turned out to be what the Encyclopedia Britannica calls “a fairly banal piece of administrative business” – a decree from 196 BCE ordering a celebration in honor of Ptolemy V, but the stone itself was enormously important because for the first time it became possible to read and decode Egyptian hieroglyphics.)

Jean-Francois went on to manage the Louvre’s collection of Egyptian artifacts.  In 1828 he led an archeological expedition to Egypt, and in 1831 he became a professor of Egyptian antiquities at the College of France.  His career was short, though – he died in Paris (of problems linked to his Egyptian expedition) in 1832 at the age of 41.

His memory is certainly honored in Figeac by one of the most remarkable small museums I have seen anywhere in France:  the Musée Champollion, dedicated to “the writings of the world”.  Set in a medieval house with 6 large exhibit rooms, the museum tells the story of how humans have communicated in writing, from the earliest use of crude symbols 5,000 years ago to the invention of alphabets and the evolution of books through 20 centuries of history.

One room is devoted to Champollion and his work on the Rosetta Stone; another explores the use of the written word to influence, to create, and to inform.  For anyone who loves language and the science of human communication, this museum, on its own merits, is worth a detour if you happen to be anywhere near Figeac in your travels!

This town makes a great base for exploring the surrounding region, but be sure to save a few days just to explore the medieval history and architecture of Figeac itself.  You can actually stay in one of these landmarks; I spent the week in the Hotel Mercure Viguier du Roy, which occupies a building once inhabited by the King of France’s local magistrate for 400 years.    (Don’t worry – the building is old, but the rooms are spacious and ultra-contemporary.)

My first full day in the city happened to be Saturday, a market day, and (as it is in Sarlat and so many other French towns) this gives you the perfect excuse to amble slowly through the medieval streets.  It’s a large market, covering most of the centre ville, and I loved absorbing the sights and sounds of people negotiating over artisanal crafts, sampling an incredible variety of local foods, and shopping for everything from T-shirts to pipe wrenches.

Here are some of the other main sights you’ll want to visit while you’re in town:

• The Egilse Saint-Saveur, situated right in the center of Figeac, started as the abbey church of an order established by another king, Pepin the First of Aquitaine in 838 C.E. But there’s a great story of scandal in its past:  this church was supposed to share an Abbott with the abbey of Saint Foy in Conques (25 miles down the road from here), but the monks in Figeac wanted no part of that, and there are several recorded incidents of vandalism and mischief carried out between the two communities.  Most of the current building is the result of additions started in the 11^th century and continued over the next 800 years, so you can see a remarkably harmonious mix of Romanesque and Gothic styles.  The central dome of the church collapsed in 1917 but has been beautifully restored.

• Place Champollion is where you’ll find that exceptional museum dedicated to Figeac’s most famous native son and the history of writing – but it is also one of the most pleasant places in town to spend an evening at one of several restaurants set among the medieval buildings that surround the square.

• The Masion de la Monnaie – “the House of Money” – is also a fine old mansion built by a rich merchant in the 1200s. You’d be forgiven if you thought it had some connection with Figeac’s ancient royal privilege to serve as a mint, but that notion and the house’s name are really 19^th-century inventions.  Today it houses the town’s Office of Tourism, where you can get maps for a self-guided walking tour.

• Figeac was once part of the network of outposts established by the Knights Templar in the 12^th century, so it’s interesting to tour their headquarters, the Commanderie, in the center of town. It’s operated today as a commercial site, but definitely worth a visit; self-guided tours are available in English, and several of the rooms have been restored to their medieval appearance.

• If you can stand the steep climb, it’s also worth taking the zig-zag steps up to the Terraces of Le Puy. You’ll be rewarded with a spectacular view over the whole city!

• Finally, at the top of that hill overlooking Figeac, you’ll find the impressive Eglise Notre-Dame-du-Puy. The site was likely occupied by at least one previous church before the current building was started in the 12^th  It escaped the ravages of the Hundred Years’ War, but when France’s Wars of Religion swept through here this church was taken over by a Protestant faction; they held on to it from 1576 to 1622, and in the process turned it into a defensive fortress with a guard tower and a dungeon.

All these important landmarks – and the dozens of other medieval houses and shops in every narrow street of the city's center -- help you understand why Figeac has been designated one of “the most beautiful detours” in France.  Is it easily accessible?  Not especially – it’s a 2- or 3-hour drive from most of the larger cities in southern France.  Is it worth a detour (or better yet, a dedicated stop on a longer sejour)?  My vote would be “absolutely”.  The Musee Champollion and the rich medieval heritage of Figeac make it worth the trip!

Have you visited any of the other well-preserved medieval towns in France?  What were your impressions – what appeals to you most about a town like this?  Please take a second to share your experiences in the comments section below – and while you’re here, could you also take a moment to share this post with someone else who appreciates the people, places, history, and culture of “the deep heart of France”?  Thank you for reading!

Unless otherwise noted, all photos in this post are copyright © 2025 by Richard Alexander