IF you are going to choose to live in a foreign country you should really try to take advantage of all that the country has to offer.

If you live in Japan you should eat Sushi, in Canada you should make friends with grizzly bears, and in New Zealand attach rubber bands to your feet and jump off a bridge, OK, my argument may be falling apart a bit, but I am sure that you get the idea.

If you live in France it is churlish not to eat a bit of cheese, drink the odd glass of vino, and partake in one of the main reasons why France rates as one of the most visited tourist destinations. It is not just because people want to have their photo taken next to the Eiffel Tower, it is popular because the country is absolutely full to bursting with picturesque villages.

One such picture postcard village is found just to the north of us in the Lot valley and is called Saint-Cirq Lapopie. It is one of the many, so called bastide towns. These towns were built perched on hillsides, not by forward thinking counts seeing possible future photo opportunities, but mainly as a defensive gesture to defend their serfs, and themselves, from possible marauders. It has to be said that no small number of these raiders were English, therefore I think that the French owe us a debt of gratitude for making them build towns in such ridiculous hard to get at places. Saint-Cirq certainly fits into this category being perched on an incredibly steep site at the top of some cliffs overlooking the Lot valley.

One of the now ruined castles offers breathtaking views and provokes a feeling of awe for the people of the 13th century who struggled to build it. I would love to be able to travel back in time to be a fly in the wall at the first site meeting when the count dragged his builder to the top of the hill and declared his intention to have a huge castle with massive stone walls built. Imagine the intake of breath, the sucking of teeth, the shrugging of shoulders, but they did it. I guess they probably didn't have much choice.

The buildings are splendidly well preserved, with narrow alleyways passing between them, just wide enough to pass on foot, by horse at a push and with gullies to take the rainwater and wash the emptied contents of a chamber pot to the bottom of town.

As you wander down through the stone buildings with steep-pitched roofs, there are plenty of shops selling souvenirs, but at least they are generally of not bad quality - a bit of wine, some art and a bit of local produce.

You will need to put your high heels on backwards to negotiate the steep gradients as you descend, but that is not as bad as trying to get back up again. After getting back to the top, it is definitely worth stopping in one of the many restaurants for some superb ice cream, making sure you choose one with a terrace view, either overlooking the valley or the streets below. This can afford fantastic sport in summer when you watch the pale and pasty getting progressively redder as they ascend.

As with all tourist traps, it comes with one disadvantage, the tourists. But if putting up with a few sweaty baseball-capped people is the price for seeing a place of such spectacular beauty, it is well worth paying.