The Road Without Borders: When Lot wanted to change the world

On June 24 and 25, 1950, a bold dream sprang from the Lot: that of a World Route, a Route without Borders which, symbolically, would go around the Earth.

Louis Sauvé devant une borne de la route sans frontières, le 24 juin 195

A dream of universality born in the heart of Lot

At the initiative of Louis Sauvé, president of the Lot Globalization Council, and with the enthusiastic support of visionary figures such as Robert Sarrazac, this route was intended as a gesture of peace and universal brotherhood.

"The Appeal that will change the face of the world will start here at home", Robert Sarrazac

A symbolic and moving inauguration

The starting point? The Valentré Bridge in Cahors, a Gothic jewel spanning the Lot River. From there, the route continues to Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, passing through Laroque-des-Arcs, Lamagdelaine, Bouziès, and Tour-de-Faure.

Commemorative markers mark this section, each marking a stage of this World Route No. 1. The first of these was laid in Figeac on June 23, 1950.

A Nobel Prize to mark the event

The inauguration was led by a powerful figure: Lord Boyd Orr, 1949 Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the FAO at the UN. Having flown in from Scotland for the occasion, he was given a hero's welcome by a jubilant crowd gathered outside Cahors town hall.

Sound and Light: an avant-garde show

On the evening of June 24, the Pont Valentré became the stage for one of France's first "Sound and Light" shows. To the rhythm of the first movement of Beethoven's First Symphony, a fireworks display lit up the sky over the Lot—a musical creation by Louis Sauvé himself.

Then, in a magical procession, the foreign delegations and the inhabitants of the region travelled together along this World Route, between emotion and hope.

Lights to illuminate the future

On the hills, Saint John's fires lit by peasants lit the night. And at the end of the march, in front of the medieval village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, it was André Breton, the pope of surrealism, who stopped, fascinated by the captivating atmosphere. A moment suspended.

" The atmosphere was surreal ," he would say later. How could anyone not believe it?