Vitrines and Funny Flowers: The Charms of Cahors

There's a big old fortified bridge. And a cathedral chock full of ancient frescoes, where-- if you're lucky-- you can overhear the most uplifting concert practice: trumpets and French horns and clarinets and an organ filling the soaring space. And a cave where they'll let you taste all sorts of delicious bottles of that full-boded, inky black wine for which Cahors is famous.

But a walk through the old town of Cahors, capital of the Quercy region, is mostly entertaining for what you find displayed in the shop windows. Newspaper headlines shouting, "Ce soir ou jamais!" before the France-New Zealand rugby match. Pretty crocs all in a row. Not to mention the public flower arrangements, like this funny fish (pictured) with fork poised in mid-air above it, that we found on the riverbank.

And how much is that doggie in the window?