Montcuq and Monopoly

In September, we stayed at our friend Lucy's fabulous house and fell under the spell of the Lot, the Occitan-speaking département in southwest France. The limestone plateau is cut by the meandering River Lot, carving impressive canyons between pastures and fields of vines of the Cahors Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée. This is where pilgrims walked the ancient trail to Santiago de Compostela, passing through Cahors and within steps of Lucy's house.




Not far is the charming village of Montcuq, where the morning market lures locals and tourists alike. We browsed through bountiful displays of fruits, sausage, pots of honey... Pierre decided he couldn't live without a set of crème brûlée dishes (sold with a fire-heated iron to burn the sugar on top).


The joke among the French is that the village's name is pronounced the same as 'mon cul' or "my ass." And now this vibrant little hamlet has been put on the world map because of the media attention surrounding the special release of Monopoly France, featuring names of French cities. A vote was held on the Internet to choose the cities for the game's new version and-- what do you know?-- Montcuq nabbed the top spot. But just recently, Hasbro, the game's manufacturer, decided to replace the number 1 spot with Dunkerque.