Figeac, home of Champollion

Between Lot and Célé valleys

Figeac will lead you on the tracks of Champollion, the decipherer of hieroglyphs

Figeac, Grand Site d’Occitanie, will seduce you by its vitality and character. The small streets invite you to stroll and the atmosphere of this small city, like its market, reminds you that you are in the South. The surrounding landscapes are also an invitation to discover: mountainous reliefs announcing the Massif Central to the north, pastoral landscapes of the Quercy limestone plateaus, meanders and cliffs of the Célé valley.

Vue aérienne de la place Champollion à Figeac

On the way to Santiago de Compostela

The enviable location of Figeac between the Massif Central and the Causses du Quercy has made it a flourishing town. It imposed itself from the 12th century by its commercial vocation and became a stage on the way to Santiago de Compostela.

Here, we live, we shop.

It is in this warm atmosphere that a set of houses and urban palaces dating from the Middle Ages, built by the wealthy merchants of Figeac, are revealed.

From the arcades of the medieval stores to the “soleilhos” (open granaries) where fruit was dried, one can read on the sandstone facades the evolution of the architecture.

All about writing

Your steps will lead you to the Place des Ecritures, where an exotic perfume reigns. A huge black granite slab with hieroglyphs covers the entire square. It represents the “Rosetta stone”, this fragment of Egyptian stele which allowed Champollion (1790-1832) to decipher the writing of the Pharaohs.

Overlooking the Place des Ecritures, the Champollion Museum – Les Ecritures du Monde – is housed in the family home of the Egyptologist. It brings together collections, made of writing objects and characters from all over the world, which express the wonderful diversity of cultures. The Museum opens onto the city through a facade with “1000 letters”, all of copper and glass, creating signs of light on the colored floors of the exhibition halls. An exciting journey of which Champollion is both the hero and the guide.