Thursday 21st June, 110 miles, warm and sunny
Last night in Cognac we experienced our worst storm to date in Horatio. The van didn’t rock like it did on the Ile de Ré as there was no wind, but the noise from the rain was so loud you couldn’t hear the thunder – and there must have been plenty as the lightning was constant. At one point I thought we would end up waking up in a lake like those photos we saw from Wales last week…
But in the morning the sun came out like nothing untoward had happened and we decamped (eventually), heading for the Dordogne. The original plan was to head for a place called Sarlat, 2 hours away, and have lunch. As we were late leaving (again!) we decided to stop in a place called Brantôme – it was on the way and had 2 stars on my Michelin map.
The abbey at Brantome
It was certainly worthy of 2 stars with a fabulous abbey building alongside the river. I had a bit of a meltdown there (sorry B) as we arrived at about ten to two – ten minutes before most restaurants stop serving food so I thought I might not get any – sacré bleu! In the end we found one, but were only allowed salad or pizza. Not, as it happens, a problem, but a continuation of the learning curve about lunchtime in France which is not an option, but in fact compulsory, and doing it late is just not French! After a calming pichet of vin rosé I agreed with B that we should visit or travel first, and then I do the work thing later – either before or after “ze lurnch” which is so important….
A call to one of my bosses confirmed that a pending meeting would be a week later – superbe! This meant we did not have to rush the next couple of days on route to Toulouse so we geared down and picked a closer stopover, which had 2 stars on the Michelin map!
Les Eyzies de... er.... see below!
Friday 22nd June, 17 miles, Kymi 16km, cool, sun and cloud.
Les Eyzies de Tayac-Sireuil (yes, really) is another example of a small place with a ridiculously long name. It is in the middle of an area of troglodyte dwellings and, more importantly prehistoric caves with many drawings and paintings left there by Cro-Magnon man. As we had not planned this stop I had not read the guide book and noted that most of these caves get booked in advance and to have any chance of getting in at all you need to be at the door at 0930 when they open. Of course we were not and so ,sadly, could not get into the caves with the best paintings. We were also told to wait until 2pm for the ones we could get into.
Out came the map and we spotted La Roque Saint-Christophe. This is a cave they believe has been occupied by man since 55,000 years BC based on objects found there. More recently it was turned into a troglodyte fort and city with fortifications built into the rock face. They gave us a guide book in English to read and it gave a lot of the history as well as information on the construction and function of the fort. Very impressive book-guided tour. The last room – just off the inevitable gift shop – gave rather too much detail of methods of torture through the centuries, so much so that we both had to leave without viewing all the exhibits. Urgh.
A troglodyte fort - the floors and back walls are all solid rock
Later we went to La Grotte de Rouffignac – a set of prehistoric caves which you visit on an electric train as you go 1km into the rock face – and boy is it cold! But we saw lots of drawings of mammoths, bison, rhinoceros, ibex and prehistoric horses, some etched, most in manganese oxide pencil. You also see “bear beds” where bears used to hibernate in the winter – lots of dished areas in the rock floor – which was so unexpected. No photos as we were not allowed to use cameras.
Apologies, this is a long post as it was a long day! After Rouffignac we stowed Kymi and set off for Sarlat La-Caneda on the Dordogne river and spent a couple of happy hours in the evening exploring and absorbing the medieval and renaissance architecture of this beautiful town, often described as an open air museum. Unfortunately, we feel that our photos did not do it justice….
Medieval town house in Sarlat la-Caneda
This one shows more Renaissance features