The Chemin de Halage is the most unusual walk in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and one of the great short walks of the southwest. From the village it descends to the river, then follows the Lot upstream along a 19th-century towpath that was literally chiselled into the cliff face — for several hundred metres, the cliff overhangs the path so completely that you walk in a tall stone tunnel open on one side to the river.
Along the way a contemporary sculpture by Daniel Monnier is carved into the rock above the path: an abstract relief of geometric shapes that the artist worked into the limestone over several seasons in the 1980s, in homage to the original quarrymen. The full out-and-back from the village takes about 90 minutes at an easy pace; wear shoes with grip in wet weather, when the limestone slabs can be slippery.