The 25 secret gardens

Allées des Soupirs

Rue Wilson

Les Cordeliers are a religious order of St. Francis of Assisi. In the cottage garden, flowers and vegetables grow together in perfect harmony in five dry chestnut coffers. Looking up you'll see the tower of Gambetta college, built in the seventeenth century.

Junction of rue Bergougnioux and rue Nationale

Symbolizing a rest area, this green punctuation mark, located along the major axis of the medieval city, serves as a link on Secret Garden tour. The great medieval building located nearby belonged to the wealthy Issala family of lawyers.

Place Saint-Urcisse

A raised garden, this green spot remembers Pierre Lastie, an emissary sent by the consuls in Avignon to Pope John XII, born in Cahors.

Below the church of Saint-Urcisse

The main plants mentioned in the Old and New Testaments are found in this garden: cypress, fig, pomegranate, olive, rose...

Place Saint-James

Spices created desires and fantasies in the Middle Ages. This site is organized around the dogs' drinking fountain built in 1992 by Jean-Luc Bertrand, stonemason of Cahors.

Rue du Petit Mot

This Arabian-inspired garden refers to the occupation of southern France by Moorish troops. It consists of three small flowering courtyards with lush vegetation and heady scents.

Cour de l'Archidiaconé

The garden is composed of chestnut hurdle beds planted with forgotten or little-known vegetables and pot herbs.

Next to the Cathedral Saint-Etienne

On the side of the street from the Chantry, six beds present a series of herbs used in the Middle Ages for food, clothing and medicine.

Next to the Cathedral Saint-Etienne

Place Champollion

Born in Cahors in 1496, Clement Marot wrote “L'Enfer” (Hell), which is his major work. He is considered the inventor of the sonnet in French poetry. At the foot of the fountain, you will discover two flower beds.

Square Olivier-de-Magny

Located in the heart of the Daurade neighbourhood, this park is dedicated to the ladies, referring to the former Benedictine convent. It is enclosed with woven living wicker. Some Beautiful houses built between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries offer their facades to the gaze of visitors to the garden.

Square Olivier-de-Magny

In the grounds of the Dames de Cahors house, these beds are devoted to eight families of flavours: citrus (very volatile essential oils of citrus fruit), aromatics (scents of sage, rosemary, thyme, lavender, aniseed), floral notes (related to flowers), greenery (smell of grass, moss, leaves), fruit (raspberry, pear, peach, blackberry), spicy notes (clove, peach, nutmeg), woody notes (warm notes such as sandalwood, cedar, patchouli), Oriental or balsamic fragrances (oriental scents a blend of warmth, sensuality, vanilla). The other three squares are dedicated to the violet of Cahors, mint and scented geraniums.

St Etienne cathedral cloister

The cloister garden is religiously inspired and refers to the Song of Songs. It is composed of boxwood and lavender.

Rue du Château du Roi

This garden is composed of plants related to witchcraft (mandrake). A symbol of evil in a star shape is drawn on the ground with white gravel!

Rue Fouilhac

This garden evokes Paracelsus' "theory of plant signatures" from the late Middle Ages. He believed in the association of the collective imagination of such a plant to treat disease. Vines and red wine necessarily treat blood diseases.

Îlot Fouilhac

An Italian garden occupies this space, evoking the great heyday of Cahors in the Middle Ages. It contains Mediterranean plants: cypress, pomegranate, basil.

Church of Saint-Barthélémy (14th century)

The garden consists of a pilgrim and a scallop shell fashioned from woven dry chestnut. Cahors is located on the road to Satiago de Compostela, one of the most important pilgrimages in Europe.

Church of Saint-Barthélémy (XIV siècle)

This garden is a haven of peace, quiet and relaxing. A meditative garden with sweet scents of sage, mint, verbena and violet, welcoming pilgrims.

Place Luctérius

Rue du Pape Jean XXII

This small contemporary garden, surrounded by gabions, where you find four metal flower beds, evoking the ancient monastery of the Poor Clares.

Place Lafayette

The smuggler's is the largest of the Secret Gardens. It is built on four terraces at the foot of Place Gaillart overlooking the high entrance to the city in the Middle Ages.

Bottom end of the footbridge

Metal and cane constructed flower holders, decorated with vines and herbs, redrawing the path along the river Lot.

Promenade de Coty

This garden, close to the remains of the Old Bridge, is a series of eight "rooms" full of greenery with herbs and plants recommended by the Capitulaire de Villis.

The history of the Melusine fairy is one of the most widespread legends of the Middle Ages. A character from a novel by Jean d'Arras in 1392, the Melusine fairy turns into a snake when she becomes angry! The garden is divided between white roses and grasses.

Eglise des jacobins

A monochrome white garden in the vicinity of the ruins of the ancient monastery of the Jacobins, inquisitors of Cahors. The term "Jacobins" denotes French Dominicans since their inception in Paris in 1218.