| Rocamadour is easy enough to find your way around. There's just one street, rue de la Couronnerie, strung out between two medieval gateways. Above it, the steep hillside supports no fewer than seven churches. There's a lift dug into the rock-face (€3 return), but it's far better to climb the 223 steps of the Via Sancta, up which the devout drag themselves on their knees to the smoke-blackened and votive-packed Chapelle Notre-Dame where the miracle-working twelfth-century Black Madonna resides. The tiny, macabre statue of walnut wood is appropriately lit in the mysterious half-light of her protective black cage, but the rest of the chapel is unremarkable. High up in the rock above the entrance to the chapel is a sword, supposedly Roland's legendary blade, Durandal. There's no relief for the non-religious in the neighbouring Musée d'Art Sacré (mid-June to mid-Sept daily 9am–7pm; mid-Sept to mid-June 10am–1pm & 2–6pm, closed two days a week; tel 05.65.33.23.23; €4.60), which contains sacred art treasures, reliquaries and various historical documents. It's dedicated to the French composer Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) due to his being one of the modern pilgrims who received miraculous inspiration from the shrine, though in his case the results were musical rather than medical. You can climb still further to the ancient ramparts above the chapel (daily 9am–7pm; €2.50) via the winding shady path, La Calvarie, past the Stations of the Cross, or take a more direct path: either way the views across the valley are stunning. There are two different wildlife centres worth visiting above Rocamadour in L'Hospitalet: the Rocher des Aigles (April–June & Sept Mon–Sat 1–5pm, Sun 1–6pm; July & Aug daily 1–6pm; Oct to mid-Nov Mon–Sat 2–4pm, Sun 2–5pm; €6.40), a breeding centre for birds of prey – don't miss the demonstrations of the birds in flight – and the Forêt des Singes, off the D673 (daily: Easter–June & Sept 10am–noon & 1–6pm; July & Aug 10am–7pm; Oct to mid-Nov Mon–Sat 1–5pm, Sun 10am–noon & 1–5pm; €6.50), where more than a hundred Barbary apes roam the plateau in relative freedom.
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