It's actually Oct 13 today ( happy birthday Jolene!) and I finally have a chance to write about the last 2 days. We haven't had much free time.
Tuesday
We said au revoir to Bordeaux and began our coach trip eastward. Our driver will stay with us the rest of the trip.
The landscape changed a bit and where we are now is less vineyards and more geese/duck farms and a lot of corn is grown here, as well as lovely walnuts.
Our first stop was to see our first cave paintings. The Frence use the word " cave" for wine andthe say " grotte" ( like grotto) for what you & I would call a cave. The first grotte we saw today was called Rouffignac. It's one of the largest caves, it's privately owned and we got a private tour to see the original paintings. They had a little train ( like a golf cart with several cars behind it) and entered the semi dark cave. The guide would shine a flashlight on an area & explain what we were looking at. Wow! Most informative and exciting to see!
Next we lunched at Les Eyzies and walked along the cliff side to see the view. Here there were some of those houses built into the walls of the cliffs. I had seen some in the Loire before but never up close. Got some pix. Beautiful scenes!
We ended up in Sarlat where we checked into Hotel Renoir for 3 nights. Walked around the village with pedestrian - only streets. Ancient, quaint village--- gorgeous. Really like Sarlat!
Wednesday
On Wednesday mornings Sarlat has its market (sorry I can't use accent marks to write marche). My new friend Merle and I decided to buy our dinner for tonight to have a picnic, since we're on our own for dinner.
Our driver then Took us to Montignac to a highlight of the trip: Lascaux II. It's the exact replica of the major parts of the actual grotte ( discovered in 1940) which has been closed to the public (thankfully) since 1963. The paintings are fantastic-- and give us a sense of our oldest ancestors nearly 15-20 thousand years ago. Mon dieu! It was thrilling on many levels.
Lunch today was in a quaint village St Leon sur Vezere -- on the river Vezere. Got some gorgeous pix.
Finally we visited the 12-13thcentury fortified / walled city: Bastide Domme. It looks down on the Dordogne river.
We returned to Sarlat for a free evening. Merle & I wanted to do laundry so we had an adventure in a launderette ☺️ Happy to have all clean clothes!
Our picnic awaited us in the hotel: Brie, olives, croissant, fruits, and of course vin!
Quite a spectacular day!
Jane
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