Lot Blog 8

A cheering ceremony in Cahors around Christmas when Madeleine Gaillard-Arnouil received a Yad Vashem medal from the Israeli consul based in Marseille in recognition of her grandmother's courage in hiding a young Jew, Frédéric Fendler, in her Cahors attic for a year during World War II.

Frédéric and his sister Suzanne had fled to Cahors from Paris, where their parents were jewellers, and it was there that Frédéric found refuge in the house of the late Esilda Arnouil, grandmother of Madeleine. His sister Suzanne was also hidden by the family. The 6-year-old Madeleine discovered the surprised Frédéric one day, a discovery which precipitated Frédéric's decision to leave his hiding place and join the maquis, scared that he would eventually be discovered. He did so and survived the war.

The incident was made public by the son of Fendler, Eric, which led to the award. "We are all Cadurciens today" said one of the Fendler family in their speech of thanks to the Arnouils.


French Country Dreams is the site of Carmen Myers and is undergoing reconstruction just now. Check it out when it is back if you want either to buy a house or rent Carmen's.


January 24th saw tempestuous winds gusting to over 100mph sweeping through the Lot, causing damage and flooding and misery. This is the second such occurrence in ten years. The last big storm was in 1999. Normally one would expect at least a 30-year gap between such incidents. The winds caused havoc all over the southwest leaving 4 dead and 1.3 million homes without electricity. Other departments were worse hit than the Lot.


Good to see that a proposed hydroelectricity scheme on the Dordogne has been blocked, though the site would have been upstream in the Auvergne. Both the Lot and the Dordogne rivers have been spoiled by such schemes. However, as we can see above, climate change is with us and maybe we should think twice before opposing energy projects. Surely we can find ways of doing this, however, without despoiling the countryside.


Plans are afoot to rejuvenate Gourdon's cultural life. The summer will see more exhibitions and concerts, many held in the Cordelier church. Gourdon now belongs to the Artothèque de Cajarc, which will see 5 new works hung in the Mairie every month and some people are dreaming of an annual festival of French song. Dream hard and fast - Gourdon needs a lot of help.


The Légion d'Honneur, established by Napoleon in 1802, is divided into five ranks: knight, officer, commander, grand officer and grand cross. The President of the Republic is always appointed Grand Master and has the power to appoint other members. You enter the order as a knight and to progress up the ranks have to contribute new services to your nation, with a suitable lapse of time between the promotions.

Recent notables to receive the order of merit include Ingrid Betancourt, the politician kidnapped by FARC guerrillas in Colombia; JK Rowling; Ellen McArthur; Shimon Peres; and, promoted to commandeur recently, Alain Dominique Perrin, the man responsible for turning Cartier around.

Perrin is now Executive Director of the Companie Financière Richemont, the group specialising in luxury goods that includes Cartier. M Perrin, whose country home is the exquisite Lagrézette château and vineyard near Cahors, is still closely associated with the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art. In 2005, Wine Spectator recognised Château Lagrézette as one of the 100 best wines in the world.

And speaking of Cahors wine, it is trying to make a comeback as the "original Malbec". Cahors is facing up to severe competition from Argentian Malbecs, which have a greater range and tend to cost a lot less, and their new blog/website hopes to go some way towards correcting this.

Perrin fell out with the Cahors wine community some time ago, denying them access to his unquestionable marketing skills. However, no hard feelings it seems - he is generously cited on the blog, which ends each section with the words, in English, "Cahors is back".


Rail Europe finally refunded me the cost of having to re-book the seat they cancelled following the Channel Tunnel fire. It wasn't done with a great deal of grace, but it was done.

Here's hoping that notice is finally taken of the long-standing recommendation, which was first made before the tunnel was even finished, that the rolling stock be enclosed, not open, to prevent spread of the fire. The recommendation was repeated - and again ignored - following the 1996 fire.

There are 40,000 vehicle fires per year so it is remarkable there have been no more fires. With increased use of the tunnel likely to continue this needs to be heeded if there is not to be a fatal incident in the future.