Today we woke to beautiful sunny skies but the forecast was for hot weather today, so we got an early start and drove about 20km from Sarlat to St. Cyprien for their big market. We browsed the streets and were able to take our time since the crowds had not yet arrived. It was still relatively cool but we knew it wouldn't last long.
We had planned to spend our day visiting Hautefort Castle, one of the biggest and best in the area, most of which is inside. We wanted to do something to stay out of the afternoon heat. We drove by Font-de-Gaume cave and decided to see if we could get tickets. This is the best of the original pre-historic cave art in the world. We had not originally planned to see this cave since we had visited Pech Merle and Lascaux and it is low and narrow and given my claustrophobia was a little concerned but decided to try given the magnificence of the other caves we had seen. They limit the number of people to 100 per day to preserve the paintings. We lucked out and were able to get tickets for the 3pm English speaking tour with only 9 people on our tour. We met a couple from England and one from New York.
We spent mid morning until lunch visiting the fabulous Pre-History museum in Les Eyzies de Tayac, a town just down the street from the cave after which we had a leisurely lunch and then a brief drive to the small town of Le Bugue. We didn't do much walking as there is not a lot to see here plus it was so hot (97 degrees)!
The cave tour lasted 45 minutes and it was great to see the original artwork from 17,000-20,000 yrs ago, mostly paintings of bison and some reindeer.
We were a little worried about the apartment being hot and no A/C but it was actually cool when we walked in; we couldn't believe it. Those thick limestone walls really do keep things cool.
It's supposed to be another hot day again tomorrow, so we will be spending it doing some inside activities.
We had planned to spend our day visiting Hautefort Castle, one of the biggest and best in the area, most of which is inside. We wanted to do something to stay out of the afternoon heat. We drove by Font-de-Gaume cave and decided to see if we could get tickets. This is the best of the original pre-historic cave art in the world. We had not originally planned to see this cave since we had visited Pech Merle and Lascaux and it is low and narrow and given my claustrophobia was a little concerned but decided to try given the magnificence of the other caves we had seen. They limit the number of people to 100 per day to preserve the paintings. We lucked out and were able to get tickets for the 3pm English speaking tour with only 9 people on our tour. We met a couple from England and one from New York.
We spent mid morning until lunch visiting the fabulous Pre-History museum in Les Eyzies de Tayac, a town just down the street from the cave after which we had a leisurely lunch and then a brief drive to the small town of Le Bugue. We didn't do much walking as there is not a lot to see here plus it was so hot (97 degrees)!
The cave tour lasted 45 minutes and it was great to see the original artwork from 17,000-20,000 yrs ago, mostly paintings of bison and some reindeer.
We were a little worried about the apartment being hot and no A/C but it was actually cool when we walked in; we couldn't believe it. Those thick limestone walls really do keep things cool.
It's supposed to be another hot day again tomorrow, so we will be spending it doing some inside activities.
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