Take Me to the River

Carcossonne
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September 15, 2007

By: Christina

The past three days have been all about water. On Thursday, we drove to Domme (a hilltop village with 500-year old graffiti on one of the town’s entry gates) for a morning at the open market. After purchasing a huge jar of cassoulet (a type of hearty stew with duck, sausages, and white beans – we all love it), we headed to the Dordogne River for an afternoon of kayaking, a very popular pastime in these parts. What a great way to see the country. We floated past castles, pastures, fishermen, naked people (more on that when I see you in person) and even a few caves (which of course, we explored). We spent at least an hour hanging out on an island in the middle of the river, skipping stones and throwing rocks at targets. It was absolutely glorious.

Pont du Gard
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The cassoulet for dinner that night was also glorious.

Yesterday, we took it slow, as a couple of us older folks are fighting colds. The troglodyte accommodations at our Dordogne spot were quite dusty and wrecked havoc on our sinuses. Anyway, after doing a load of laundry and playing a couple of games of Scrabble, we headed back down to the Dordogne River for some fine swimming and lounging. Side note: on the way to the river we FINALLY heard a decent song on the radio – Green Day’s Holiday, which brought back great memories of Orinda Idol a year ago. We cranked it up and rocked out, much to the consternation of the older couple hanging out on the bank of the river.

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We were surprised to find that the river was approximately eight inches higher than when we had visited the same spot five days earlier; evidently, it is not unusual for those dam people up river to fiddle around with the flow from one day to the next. While Dan and I read, Grayson and Abby built a replica of the German batteries at Omaha beach. They then proceeded to reenact June 6, 1944, bombing the heck out of the place.

Last night, we did it up right for our last night in the Dordogne region, and went out for a fantastic meal. We all indulged in the bulge and pigged out. Grayson had duck yet again (this area is noted for duck and goose, especially goose liver - foie gras, although none of us like it*) and we had a walnut tarte for dessert – another local specialty.

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*During our entire stay in the Dordogne, we would scream out “Fwa Gwa” every time we saw a duck, goose, or any reference to either one, which was frequent. We also would constantly refer to our dear friend “Mrs. McDonald” (Clare) who loves fwa gwa and reflect on the fact that she truly is a francophile to eat that stuff.

We hit the road early this morning, heading south. (With the iPod and speakers thoroughly charged, we avoided all reliance on French radio and indulged in Hiatt’s “Drive South” as our morning opener). Our sweet village quickly faded in the rear mirror as we made our way to our first stop: Carcassonne. The gasps in the car were audible when we caught first sight of this amazing walled city with its well known red and black “witches hat” roofs. We had a quick look around, ate lunch, and had some chocolate noir (not just dark chocolate, but black chocolate, a true chocophile delight!) ice cream for dessert. After some shopping, we continued further south to our true destination of the day: Pont du Gard.

A UNESCO world heritage site, Pont du Gard is a spectacular representation of just how cool those Romans were. Pont du Gard is a three tiered aquaduct that was built in 38 A.D. Yes, we are talking close to 2000 years old. After spending some time cooling off in the Gard River, we sat looking at the Roman arches and marveling at the accomplishment of building an aquaduct of this size and magnitude (it took 1000 guys something like 3 years to finish it). In my enthusiasm, I stupidly offered either kid 3 euros if s/he could build a similar arch out of sugar cubes. Needless to say, Abby practically had hers completed by the time I had emptied the grocery bags back at our motel. Grayson was not long to follow. As I sit here now typing this, they both are squatting on the floor, designing and building fabulous buildings out of sugar cubes. I can’t help but think maybe this is how the Romans got started…