France 2011

Monday, June 27, 2011

Another 100 degree day, but the humidity is only 22% :).

We got a 10am start to Chateau de Hautefort, a truly picturesque castle, one you would recognize. Though the spot it was on has had some castle from the 9C through the 17C, it was bought by Baron Henri de Bastard and his wife in 1929 and restored it as well as adding French style gardens. A fire hit in 1968 and they had to rebuild. The place however looks like a classic French castle and not as the medieval castle it started as.

We spent an hour and a half there and then began driving, looking for a small town to eat at and found St. Agnan. A small village, with a quaint eating place and covered patio and arbors. Pizza for Karen, but no matter how often Michael says he'll have a small lunch, again, not so. Though this time no wine. A salad with Avocado, shrimp, Lettuce and mayonnaise dressing followed by a large filet of Salmon, with Haricots Verte and a garlicky sauce and tomatoe, that followed by an Apple tart which we shared. Dinner will be late tonight.

Off to stop at St-Amand-de-Coly, population 394. The main attraction being its 12C church, with 12 foot thick walls, which went from church to fortress, during the Hundred Years War, and then back. Those thick walls meant that when we entered, granted it was probably 100 degrees out, it felt like we walked into a freezer.

Finally off to Abri du Cap Blanc, a rock shelter uncovered in 1909, with a frieze almost 50 feet long of bas relief in stone of horses and bison. This was once a cliff ledge on which people lived 15,000 years ago and created these artistic sculptures in the limestone walls. Today they've built a protective structure over the cliff face and you enter it to walk the ledge and admire the art. Truly an amazing site to see.

Then back to Sarlat to rest and wash up and go out to dinner.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

June 26 - St Cyprien, Les Eyzies de Tayac, Le Bugue, Font de Gaume Cave

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.