Let's Go to Lascaux

We had the usual great breakfast at Les Cordeliers.

Fine china and even wine glasses for the O.J. make everything taste better

Our activity today was to visit Lascaux IV, the latest replica of the authentic Lascaux cave. The cave was discovered in 1940 by some schoolboys. After the war, the cave was opened to the public, but closed in the 60s because the hordes of visitors were changing the air inside and causing the cave paintings to deteriorate. There is also a Lascaux II and a Lascaux III, II being not as precise as the new IV, and III being a traveling exhibit. I had tried, without success, to book an English tour for us online. Our host, Chris, offered to get online and do it for us. He said the website was very confusing, and hard to navigate, and I agree. So, we were booked for the English tour at 4:30, thanks to our kind host.

After breakfast we decided to walk through town and see a few of the notable sites.

The indoor market, held daily in a building that was once a church, then a gunpowder factory, then a post office, before becoming the market. The large doors weigh 7 tons each.

The Lanterne des Morts (Lantern of the Dead) is the oldest monument in town, dating from 1147. Built out of gratitude for the end of a plague that killed 1,000 of the 4,000 inhabitants.

One of several Foie Gras shops in town

The weather was nice, so we decided to visit the Troglodyte caves of La Roque Saint-Christophe before our tour of Lascaux IV. Said to have been occupied from 55,000 years ago up until the Renaissance in 1588, when it was destroyed in the religious wars, the settlement was situated 300 feet above the River Vezere, protecting the inhabitants from marauding Norsemen. According to Rick Steves' description, instead of ending prayers with just "amen", prayers in those days ended with "deliver us from the Norsemen, amen."

Early inhabitants probably lived within the shelter of the rock walls, with nothing but dirt floors. But depictions of later inhabitants showed how they had built walls on the open side of the rock, closing in the living spaces, and looking like more modern half-timbered buildings. The village was on 5 different levels, with evidence of storage nooks carved into the stone, and places where they would have tied animals up. There was a chapel. I wondered how the children would be kept from falling off the cliff, and obviously, later in their history, the walls would have kept them safe, but I still wonder about the early dwellers.

A series of pulleys helped get provisions, and sometimes animals, up to the settlement

Tools, ladders, and remnants of stone pillars and building blocks on display

One level of the troglodyte dwelling

A mock-up of what the settlement probably looked like 

After our self-guided tour, we headed out to find lunch. We ended up in the village of Montignac, and ate along the river at Les Pilotis Montignac. The food was good, and the view was nice. There were lots of locals out for their Sunday lunch.

Enjoying lunch along the river on a sunny Sunday

Of course I couldn't pass up a chance to have Café Gourmand for dessert!

After a leisurely lunch we headed to Lascaux, just a short drive from Montignac. We met our guide for the tour and headed into the replica cave - Lascaux IV. Once you're inside, it's hard to believe this is a totally man-made cave. Using modern technology, this latest replica is as close to the original cave as possible, definitely more accurate than the previous attempts. The paintings were all animals and symbols. The question of why no pictures of people is one that historians ponder. No landscapes. No sun, moon, stars. No weapons. It's interesting that it's just animals, and that seems to be the case with other cave paintings discovered in the area too. Nonetheless, the paintings were brightly colored, well-defined, depictions of some of the animals of the time. I read somewhere that though reindeer was a big part of their diet at that time, there don't seem to be reindeer pictured here. The museum, and short videos and exhibits were well done and interesting, and our headsets narrated the videos in English. Very high-tech. Ricardo and Marco checked out the virtual tour of the caves, and enjoyed it. The kids probably all love that part too.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside the cave, but the museum had life-size sections of copies of the paintings that we could photograph.

A copy of a section of the cave paintings suspended from the ceiling in the museum

Another copy of some of  the paintings. Even the fake stone wall is an exact copy of the wall of the cave where these paintings were found.

Back to Sarlat after a fun day, reflecting on how lucky we are to live in a time of flush toilets and electricity, and let's not forget - no marauding Norsemen.

We weren't very hungry, but stopped at a bar on the main square for a drink, and then found a crepe place for a crepe or two.

We meandered back to our hotel along the cobbled lanes, through the half-timbered buildings all lit up, feeling like we might want to call home and have the kids sell our houses and belongings. We'll just stay here.

Market Day in Sarlat

Our first morning at Les Cordeliers we were treated to a lovely breakfast. Eggs to order, fresh orange juice, and a wide array of fruit, yogurt, pastries, cereal. Really, all you want to do is just sit and savor the meal in the lovely breakfast room. No time to waste though, we're on our way to check out the Saturday market in town.

Some of the breakfast items, in the lovely breakfast room, at Les Cordeliers

Sarlat is located in the Dordogne River Valley, with its scenic hills, cliff-side villages, prehistoric caves, and of course the beautiful river. The area deserves a few days, and is best seen by car. Sarlat has been the site of an outdoor market for centuries, and the winding lanes and stone buildings full of shops and cafés make it a popular tourist destination.

Our lovely little hotel is right on the edge of town, so the market starts just yards from our door, and winds all the way through town. Block after block, filled with stalls. It was a beautiful day, so we walked around to see the whole market, along with hundreds of other shoppers. There were many stalls selling foie gras, a specialty of the area. In fact, there is a sculpture in town of two brass geese, giving you a hint of their importance to the local economy.

Looking down from our window to the garden next door and the market tents lining the street

Market tents in Sarlat, surrounded by stone buildings, some dating from the Middle Ages

So lots of foie gras, lots of walnuts, and everything you could possibly make with walnuts; nougat candy, wine. Artists and craftsmen selling everything possible. Clothing, shoes (Caterina is almost powerless to resist a new pair of shoes), household goods. Some of the market closed at noon - I think the produce and meat vendors - and some of it stayed open all day.

Since walnuts are one of the main products of this area, a newfangled nutcracker is essential

Chimney cakes look delicious

Every outdoor market has paella

We had gone our separate ways to shop, but surprisingly ran into Marco and Caterina at a bar along the square as we were thinking we might be a little thirsty, and perhaps a little hungry, so we joined them for lunch. We were sitting outside, and enjoyed watching the shoppers and vendors. In France they say, "faire du leche-vitrines" to lick the windows, or window shop. And aside from the outdoor stalls, there were plenty of shop windows to lick.

Our spacious rooms had nice sitting areas. Excuse the laundry!

Back at the hotel, we shared a bottle of wine in our room before heading out to find dinner. Six years ago, Ricardo and I stayed in a different village when we visited the Dordogne, but our hosts there sent us into Sarlat for dinner at Le Bistro de l'Octroi. So, we thought we'd try to find it this time. It wasn't far from our hotel, but outside of the cute, quaint old part of town. I guess that's why we didn't know there was a cute, quaint old part of town on our last visit! This time, we were able to walk to the restaurant, and luckily could get in on a Saturday night.

They have a tasting menu that I remembered from last time, because it was very unique. They served all of the courses, all at once, on a large square of slate. It was surprising the first time we had it 6 years ago. This time the menu clearly stated that it would all be served at the same time, and the waiter made sure we understood that they would serve it all together. They must have had some complaints in the past about this, but since they're still serving it 6 years later, it must be a popular menu item.

A sign advertising the tasting menu outside of Le Bistro de l'Octroi

The tasting menu, all served on one plate, with two desserts

The food was good, including a few different presentations of duck, and some nice sides and desserts. But it's a lot of food, much of it rich, and I think maybe they should offer two different sizes to appeal to the lighter appetites of some of us.

I said something to our waiter about how much I loved France, and he said, well then, you should learn to speak French! At first that seemed kind of rude on his part, but it came around to a good-natured discussion of how hard it is to learn a new language as an adult. He jokingly offered to move in with us in the U.S., along with his wife, two kids, and two cats, to help us learn his language. I'd love to take him up on that!

To Orador and Sarlat

We had another nice breakfast with Marcel and Katerina and got on the road about 10 headed for Sarlat.

We stopped on the way at Orador-sur-Glane, also known as the Village des Martyrs, the site of a Nazi massacre during WWII. Until this day in 1944, the town had been a vibrant and bustling village, full of shops and cafés. It's unclear what the reason was for killing the entire population of the small town. Possibly revenge for the murder of a Nazi officer in the area, but it also could have been brought on by the D-day landings, just a few days prior. Whatever the reason, the massacre was a horrific example of Nazi cruelty. After rounding up the inhabitants of the town, the men were taken to one area and gunned down, while the women and children were barricaded in the church and killed with grenades before setting the church on fire. Then, the whole town was set on fire. Altogether, 700 people perished. And it would have been the old, the young, and the women, who were still living there while their able-bodied men were serving in the military elsewhere. We bought a booklet written about the 4 young people who survived the massacre. They alone provide testimony to the events of that day.

A sign at the entrance to Orador-sur-Glane

Some of the ruined buildings in Orador. The town was left just as it was found in 1944, as a testament to the events there. Notice the sewing machine in the center of the photo.

Inside the church where the women and children were martyred. The walls and altar are riddled with bullet holes.

A sign at the entrance asks visitors to maintain a respectful silence as they wander through the ruined streets.  I visited in 1996, and since then there has been a concerted effort to conserve the site. There is now an underground museum as you enter, an 8 euro entrance fee, and maps and booklets for sale at the entrance. 

After our sobering visit to Orador, we stopped for lunch at a little place along the road, and had their lunch buffet.  Dessert was isle flotante.

Isle flotante with a drizzle of caramel sauce. And, we probably paid as much for the Coke as the glass of wine!

It was a full day of driving, and we finally arrived at Sarlat-la-Canéda just before 7, all exhausted. We're staying at Les Cordeliers, owned by Brits Chris and Amanda Johnson. After we got checked in, our host Chris suggested a place for dinner, and walked us over at 7:30, giving us a tour of Sarlat on the way. The hotel is right on the edge of the old part of town.

Approaching Le Présidial, our restaurant for dinner

The restaurant, Le Présidial, was in a quiet square, and we had a very good set menu for 19.50 euros. Paté, duck confit, dessert. Caterina had a nice shrimp cocktail and Marco had beef carpaccio. 

Paté de foie gras at Le Présidial

Heading back to our hotel through the charming streets of Sarlat

We knew we'd like this little town. It had beaucoup de charme.

Visiting the Abbeye Royale de Fontevraud

Part of the courtyard seen from one of the bedrooms at La Closerie Saint Martin in Ligre

After a great breakfast at the B&B, half of our group left to go to Charles deGaule Airport, where they would return the rental car, spend the night at a nearby hotel, and fly out tomorrow. They had originally planned to drive to Tours, after doing a bit more sightseeing, and take the train into Paris and then on to CDG. But the French rail train strike threw a monkey-wrench in that plan. We had been lucky that the rolling train strikes in both Italy and France hadn't impacted us up until now. Strikes there aren't spontaneous, but planned ahead. For instance, we would see in the news that the trains would be on strike on Tuesday and Friday this week. Then the next week it might be those same two days, or maybe other days. This would go on until a settlement had been agreed upon by the government and the train workers. It would have complicated our trip greatly if the strikes happened on our long travel days, so we were lucky up until this last train trip!

We already had the rental cars, and theirs was booked through the 20th anyway, due to the planned late return time on the 19th. The only casualty was that they missed part of a day of sightseeing.

The drive was not without stress for Il Padrino, their fearless driver, but it all worked out. Luckily, he and Ricardo had spent some time the day before figuring out the GPS, and switching the GPS language to English. Il Padrino said it saved their bacon driving to the airport. Apparently the main ring road around Paris didn't have very good signage to the airport.

Il Padrino, fearless driver, finally done with the car and able to relax.

Meanwhile, back in the bucolic village of Ligre, the remaining 4 were planning another leisurely day of local sightseeing. Marcel, our host, suggested a nearby abbey, the Abbeye Royale de Fontevraud, and we headed out after breakfast. Fado, the resident dog, was just waking up at 9:30, which is his usual schedule. Ricardo and I were quite jealous, as our dogs usually start fussing at 6, if not earlier.

The weather was beautiful, and off we went.

Fontevraud Abbey has a long history. It was founded in 1101, and was a double monastery, where both men and women lived, separately, within the abbey walls. They didn’t mingle. It was the burial place of Eleanor of Aquitane, Henry II (king of England), Richard the Lionheart (their son), and his sister-in-law. 

The chapel at the abbey

Inside the chapel

The cloister at the abbey

The tops of the sarcophagi belonging to the 4 royals. The resting place of their actual bodies is unknown

Eleanor of Aquitane

We had lunch at Auberge de la Route d’Or, in a little village near there, Candes-Saint-Martin, and climbed to the top of the hill behind the church for a panoramic view of the area. It's at the confluence of the Loire and the Vienne rivers.

How could we resist this place?

A great lunch at Auberge de la Route d-Or

Fish, served with mashed potatoes and vegetables. Nothing like our lunches of pb&j at home.

At the top of the hill above Candes-Saint-Martin, a great map of the area

Since our B&B didn't offer dinner tonight, Marcel recommended a place in Chinon, just a few minutes away. We had dinner at Au Chapeau Rouge, and sat out on the square. I had a catfish cake, and the others had guinea hen. The hen was dry. The catfish cake was delicious, but more of a mousse, rather than the piece of fish I expected. 

The amuse bouche served at Au Chapeau Rouge

Paté with toasts. I love the little hills of salt and pepper on the plate

We saw a chocolate dessert being delivered to others around us, and it had a dramatic plume of spun sugar coming out of it. Motorbikes were racing around the surrounding streets making lots of noise during our dinner. Otherwise, it was a lovely setting, out on the square, and a delicious dinner.

Back at the B&B, it was pretty quiet with 4 of our group gone. The final 4 had lots more of France to see!

Too old for a drone at Chenonceau

We awoke to another nice day and had a great breakfast at the hotel in Bourges.

Coffee at the Hotel d'Angleterre

After breakfast Marco, Giuliana and I walked over to the cathedral, which was built in the Middle Ages. The Cathedral of St. Etienne is a great example of Gothic architecture, with its flying buttresses, stained glass, and mammoth size. Though there had been a Christian church on this site since the third century, the current cathedral was started in 1195, and completed 55 years later. The design was inspired by Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral.

The Cathedral of St. Etienne in Bourges

A reminder of the wages of sin, on the outside of the cathedral

The front of the cathedral. Some of the statues have lost their heads and others are completely gone.

We could have spent much more time at the cathedral. The view from the tower is supposed to be terrific, and there's an astronomical clock, made in 1424, still working, in the nave.

We left town about 11:30, headed to Chateau Chenonceau. We were still in the countryside, and it was lush and colorful.

A field of mustard, or maybe canola

Chenonceau is one of the most photographed chateaus in the Loire. It was built in the 16th century, during the Renaissance. Its colorful history includes King Henry II, who gave the chateau to his mistress Diane de Poitiers in 1547. When he died in a jousting match, his wife Catherine de' Medici kicked Diane out and moved in. 

The beautiful tree-lined drive heading toward the chateau

There's a little security hut before you walk down the drive, attended by two guards, and a garden gate to pass through. At the gate, one of the guards looked in my purse and asked me if I had a blah-blah-blah. I said, what? He repeated. A blah-blah-blah. I repeated, what? He finally showed me a picture on the security poster. A drone! I laughed, pointed at myself, and said, trop vieux! Too old! I'm too old to have a drone in my purse! I decided maybe I should get one to keep in my purse for the future. I don't really want to be too old to have a drone.

Me and Marchesa crossing the bridge to the chateau. The tower behind us predates the chateau.

A famous view of the chateau. The kitchens are in the arches.

The chateau is enormous, and quite a lot to see. There were huge portraits of notable people all through the main rooms and bed chambers. We didn't recognize them, but maybe students of French history would!

Flowers being arranged to decorate the chateau

Flowers everywhere!

At least we recognized this painting. I don't remember when it was done, but the boat indicates it's a few centuries old.

We had lunch at the cafeteria at the chateau, and sat outside in the sunshine to eat.

One of the gardens at Chenonceau

Another view of the gardens

After spending some hours touring the chateau and the beautiful gardens, we were on the road again. This time we were headed to our B&B in Ligre, which is not far from Chinon. We arrived at La Closerie Saint Martin about 5:45.

The entrance to La Closerie doesn't hint at the charming courtyard inside

A pigeon enjoying the statue and roses in the courtyard

Ricardo and I stayed in this B&B six years ago, and enjoyed the house, the proprietors, and the food. We thought this group would enjoy it too.

Drinks were served before dinner, deep in a cave under the house. 

Going down the candlelit path to the underground cave.

You'd think it would just be down a few steps, like a cellar, but it's actually down a rather long path under the house. We heard from our host, Marcel, later, that there are lots of caves in the area, and they weren't dug just to store wine, although that turned out to be a great use for them. Initially, that's where the stone came from to build the houses and shops in the area. 

It was chilly down in the cave, but such a fun atmosphere for our before-dinner drinks.

A fun place for our first glass of local wine

There was an old well in the cave, and when dinner was ready the little water cups on a chain going into the well started moving. That was the signal for us to come up to the courtyard.

It was a lovely evening, so we were able to eat outside

Dinner was quiche with white asparagus and salad, then spaetzle with beef stew, a cheese course and chocolate mousse, all served with nice Chinon wines. Our hosts, Marcel and Katharina Hirt, are from Switzerland, and have a wide repertoire of dinner ideas, both French and Swiss. They serve dinner at the B&B on select evenings. It's not to be missed, and they're happy to work with your preferences for the food. We enjoyed spaetzle on our last visit, and requested it again this time.

Our first course was quiche with asparagus and salad.

We'd had a long day, and all fell into our beds after the great dinner. The quiet of the countryside lulled us to sleep.