ENTRAYGUES, with its riverside streets and attractive grey houses, has an airy, open feel which belies its mountain sleepiness. It lies right in the angle of the junction of the Lot with the equally beautiful River Truyère. The brown towers of a thirteenth-century Château overlook the meeting of the waters, and a magnificent four-arched bridge of the same date crosses the Truyère a little way upstream, alongside the ancient tanners' houses.The tourist office is on the main street (July & August Mon–Sat 9.30am–12.30pm & 3–7pm, Sun 10am–12.30pm; Sept–June Mon 2–6pm, Tues–Fri 9.30–12.15pm & 2–6pm, Sat 9.30am–12.15pm & 2–5pm; tel 05.65.44.56.10). It frequently remains open outside of its official hours and will provide information about walking, mountain biking and canoeing in the area. Reasonable places to stay include the Hôtel du Centre, on the main street (tel 05.65.44.51.19, fax 05.65.48.63.09; €30–40; restaurant from €11-29), and the Lion d'Or, on the corner of the main street and the bank of the Lot (tel 05.65.44.50.01, www.hotel-lion-or.com; €40–55), with an outdoor swimming pool and garden and attached restaurant (€18). There's also a campsite, Le Val-de-Saures (tel 05.65.44.56.92; closed Oct–April), and two gîtes d'étape – Mme Galan (tel 05.65.44.50.73) and Le Battedou (tel 05.65.48.61.62) – on the GR65 at GOLINHAC, about 7km south of Entraygues on the other side of the Lot. There is one bus per weekday to Aurillac in the north and Rodez to the south. There are further accommodation options at ESTAING, another beautiful village huddled round a rocky bluff and castle in a bend of the Lot about 10km beyond Golinhac. The Hôtel aux Armes d'Estaing, named after the family who occupied the castle for five hundred years, offers attractive rooms and very good food in the centre of the village (tel 05.65.44.70.02, perso.wanadoo.fr/remi.catusse/home; under €30; closed mid-Nov to Feb; restaurant from €10.70–29.70). There's also a municipal campsite (tel 05.65.44.72.77; closed Oct–April) and gîte d'étape on the GR65 (tel 05.65.44.71.74). A date to watch out for, however, is the first Sunday in July when the place fills up with people, many in medieval dress, who come to honour the relics of St Fleuret, bishop of Clermont, who died here in 621 AD and is buried in the fifteenth-century church by the castle.
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