Rocamadour

We boarded our minivan this morning for the final instalment of our three day tour of Dordogne.  To say the weather was glorious would be an absolute understatement.  The sky was so blue and it was warm enough to discard our jackets.

The hour long journey took us through more spectacular French countryside where we witnessed autumn scenes worthy of a calendar (complete with châteaux perched on hillsides).

Our destination today was Rocamadour which is probably in the top 5 of my favourite places in France.  This is a famous pilgrimage site, and has been so for the last 1000 years.  Legend has it that one of Jesus’ disciples, Zacheus, fled to France fleeing from persecution in Palestine eventually seeking refuge in this part of France.  The body of Zacheus (otherwise known as St Amadour) was discovered in 1166 and this, along with the black Madonna which was supposedly carved by Zacheus contributed to this becoming one of the stops on the “Chemin de St Jacques de Compostelle” pilgrimage.  To this day it remains an important pilgrimage site and the faithful climb the 200+ steps on their knees.  There are still 7 churches and chapels remaining at Rocamadour and one of them is dedicated to rugby (yes, rugby as in football).  I said a little prayer for the Aussies to play well against New Zealand in the World Cup grand final.  The chapel containing the black Madonna is adorned with miniature boats and in the ceiling a bell.  It is said that the Madonna rings the bell to save those in trouble at sea.

On the way back we stopped to take some photos of some geese... no doubt soon to be foie gras.

As our tour finished early, Jorgia and I wandered around Sarlat when we got back.  We took the opportunity to take the lift to the top of the church tower and enjoy the panoramic view of Sarlat.

Tomorrow we hit the road for the long journey back to Rennes.

Stepping back in time

Jorgia and I took a step back into prehistory today.  We started off at the Musée National de Préhistoire in Les Eyzies.  Our time was limited here, but you could easily spend half a day in the museum.  Les Eyzies is actually the birthplace of prehistory, not because it is the site of the oldest artefacts but because it was the first place to record prehistoric artefacts in 1868 with the discovery of five skeletons.  It is here that the term “Cro Magnon” originated.  “Cro” in the Occitan language (the language of this region before French was enforced) means “shelter”.  The five skeletons were found in a shelter on a property owned by the Magnon family.  We also learnt that “cave man” is really not an accurate term.  Caves were cold and wet, often inhabited by dangerous animals and if lighting a fire in them would create too much smoke.  So prehistoric people did not live in caves but rather in shelters that were generally huge ledges in the cliff face.  In addition, our image of prehistoric man hunting mammoth is also wrong.  These animals were so large that it would have taken a dozen men enormous effort to kill one.  It was in fact reindeer which were the most common source of food and other important products: skin for clothes, sinew for sewing, hooves for glue, antlers for tools and later teeth for jewellery.  

Above:  Decorated spear throwers.

Our next stop was Lascaux II, an exact replica of the Lascaux caves.  The original caves and their magnificent artworks which date back 19 000 years were found by a young boy out walking with his dog in 1940.  It didn’t take long for visitors to be attracted to the site and the huge numbers of people resulted in damage to the artwork due to respiration.  The caves were closed for good in the 1960s and the replica was made, opening in the 1983.  It is amazing in itself that the replica was totally done by hand, including measurements.  The artworks were replicated using the same materials and methods that would have been used by prehistoric man.

Our next stop was a lovely little village called St Léon where we had lunch at a quaint little café situated on the Vézère River.  It was called “Le déjeuner sur l’herbe” (Lunch on the grass).

Our final destination for the day was the Grotte de Rouffignac.  This is also a site of prehistoric cave art, but this one is the real deal.  They are able to allow people to enter because the cave system is much larger than Lascaux and they are very careful to limit the number of visitors.  You are transported in a little electric train so that it is impossible to touch any of the walls.  This cave was spectacular, even without taking the 15 000 year old cave art into consideration.  The cave ceiling was high and the grottos were deep.  In this cave there were also examples of engraving.  This was easily done in the soft limestone, even with a finger.

All-in-all, we had a fantastic day!

Road trip to the Périgord

On Sunday I surprised Jorgia by turning up to her place in Vern-sur-Seiche three days earlier than she thought.  She was speechless when she saw me walk in the door.

We had lovely day on Monday, starting off with a visit from Paul, the young man who came to stay with our family for a few weeks in 2012 and with whose family Jorgia stayed at the end of 2012.  After breakfast we headed into Rennes to look at the main sights.  In the afternoon Jorgia and I kicked back and watched a couple of French movies.

On Tuesday morning we headed off in our hire car for a long road trip to the Périgord region.  With stops we were on the road for eight hours and unfortunately Jorgia couldn’t do any of the driving because you have to be 25 to drive a hire car.  Nevertheless, we made it to Sarlat-la-Canéda without incident.

I visited this town with my friend Anne three years ago and I was very keen to share this beautiful part of France with Jorgia.  It is most well known for its duck and goose products such as foie gras but also for fruit and nut wines peach, walnut and chestnut.  Yummy!  We had a bit of a wander around the medieval village before having an early dinner.  I enjoyed a lovely confit de canard.

Today we started our three day organised tour of the region.  We were met by our guides, Maryanne and Matt, and they took us on walking tour of Sarlat where we were told about the architectural styles of some of the significant buildings of the town and how to tell the house of a merchant from the house of a nobleman.

Next stop was Domme where we enjoyed spectacular panoraminc views of the Dordogne River and surrounding area.  It was simply beautiful with the colours of autumn everywhere.  The villages in this region are just so quaint and picturesque.  You can imagine Disney characters wandering the streets.

We then went to the town of La Roque Gageac.  This place was just stunning.  Troglodytes are visible in the cliff face and we took a little walk up behind the church.  Interestingly, as the cliff faces south and is protected from the cold, there is a tropical garden planted along the path – banana trees, palm trees and bamboo.  It was quite surreal.  Amazingly, only 10 people live in this village.  Due to a significant section of the cliff breaking off in the 1950s, many areas are now not stable enough to live near. After our little walk we went on a one hour boat ride in a traditional flat-bottom boat (called a gabarre) on the Dordogne where we had amazing views of several different châteaux.

Our final stop was the Château Beynac where Marianne shared with us the intricacies of how the 100 Years War and War of Religion panned out.  She said that there was very little fighting and most of it was hashed out with diplomacy (i.e. usually arranged marriages between warring factions).  But when there was a fight, she told us the best way to enter the château for invading soldiers and the obstacles they faced on entering.  For example, the ground floor is always circular with nothing in it.  This is so the invading troops had nowhere to hide from the defenders above.  Also the spiral staircase up to the nobleman’s keep was always built in a clockwise direction in order that soldiers would be unable to draw their weapons.  While we were at Beynac we were able to witness a beautiful sunset on the Dordogne.

We are both tired but looking forward to another excellent adventure tomorrow.

Villages of Limousin

On Sunday, Anne and I stopped in a couple of little Limousin villages on the way back to Vichy.

First stop was Montrol-Sénard.  In this town they have set up a number of locations to show you what it was like in days gone by:  the farrier, the local laundry, a schoolroom,  a café, typical houses, pig pens and chicken coops.

Then onto Mortemart which was a beautiful little town.

Finally we stopped at Bellac where we took in a spectacular view over the village. It is in this town that Jean de la Fontaine wrote his fable “The stagecoach and the fly” (not one of his better known fables, I don’t think).  We were also amused by the sign ordering “no trotting in town.” Unfortunately, being Sunday, everything was dead… not even a café or bakery open!

We hit the road and Anne was brave enough to let me drive.  It was good practice because I will be driving later in my trip when Wayne gets here and we head from Annecy to Vichy.  The first few minutes were a bit nerve wracking for both of it, but I soon got the hang of it and handled country roads, motorways and town driving when we got back to Vichy.