Eyes Wide Open

Floating on the Dordogne

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September 12, 2007

By Christina

The Dordogne continues to fascinate, and just driving around is enough to fill the senses.

For the past two days we have played tourist. On Monday, we did the “prehistoric thing” in a big way. As Dan mentioned in the previous blog entry, this area offers an abundance of Cro Magnon sites – from caves filled with 14,000 year old paintings, to museums filled with tools used by the cave dwellers living in this area. We visited two caves and the prehistory museum, and still did not get our fill. The first cave, Grotte de Font de Gaume, is the only cave with colored paintings still open to the public. On the walls, you can see bison, reindeer, horses and even the occasional wooly mammoth – many of which are three dimensional or portrayed as “moving”. The place is so incredible, that I am convinced that it will meet the fate of Lascaux and will be closed to the public in the near future.

Our village

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Our second cave was the Grotte des Combarelles. It is long and narrow (mom-you wouldn’t like it) and is renowned for its engravings of animals and some rarely seen human figures. Hands down, we all loved this cave. Despite the cold (13 degrees Celsius), we were in the cave for over an hour and a half, enraptured by our guide who was clearly passionate about the art on the walls. It was fun to try to spot the figures and to see how different they looked if the lighting was changed. We loved the pictures of the cave lion and bears, but had a heck of a time discerning the human figures (evidently, the artists did not like to portray human figures accurately, but more in an “abstract” way).

On our way home from the caves, we stopped at the store to buy fixings for a French feast: baguettes, local cheeses, smoked ham, fruits and veggies, a great bottle of Bergerac, and chocolate for dessert. What a pig out. Grayson continues to try everything. Prior to this trip, the kid wouldn’t go near cheese. Now, he has taken a shine to hard cheeses (Gouda and the like) and is interested in tasting some every time we go to the store. I remain partial to chevre myself.

By the way, we now have the shopping experience down to a science. We arrive armed with our own shopping bags and always weigh our produce before proceeding to the checkout counter. We are not yet willing to pay for the use of a shopping cart, however. It doesn’t really slow us down -- since there are four of us, we usually make do with one or two baskets (these are free!). Indeed, while shopping at our favorite store, E.Leclerc (which I have renamed De Klerk after the former South African President), we discovered that some of these baskets have wheels, which is really cool.

Yesterday started out on a rough note. We got up early (actually waking up the kids, something we are loath to do). After breakfast, we headed east, or what we thought was east, to visit a special “surprise” for the kids. We got lost on the way (this is easy to do, as there are no direct roads anywhere around here, and one must connect small roads to reach a destination). Needless to say, we were in the car for 2 hours by the time we reached our goal: Gouffre de Padirac. The Padirac cave contains a navigable river – 103 meters below ground level on which you can take a boat ride. Sounds cool, huh? Well, guess what? The boat pilots were on strike and the place was closed. (The labor lawyer in me just loved that one!) Actually, we didn’t get that worked up about it (I am still hoping we can visit it on Saturday on our way south, provided the workers settle their labor dispute). We all took a pretty Zen-like approach to the whole thing. I am sure this will not be the first time we make a Herculian effort to do something, only to be disappointed that it cannot happen.

The day got better after that. We headed to Rocamadour, a famous pilgrimage center. This place is visually spectacular. Perched on the edge of a cliff high above a valley, the village (along with requisite chateau and abbey) was an important stop on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. Evidently, the body of St. Amadour (a disciple of Jesus) was found here (fully preserved hundreds of years after his death) and its presence resulted in a number of miracles. As a result, thousands of pilgrims have flocked to Rocamadour, many of whom conclude their journey up the cliff on their knees. During the Wars of Religion, some whacko Protestant guy tried to set fire to the body of the Saint. When that didn’t work, he chopped the body into pieces. Nowadays, the remains are kept in a special sanctuary under the Chapel of Notre Dame. Abby was very interested in viewing the “chopped up bits of the Saint” but, alas, the sanctuary was closed for the day.

We concluded our visit by walking up the hill on a path whose switchbacks are marked by Stations of the Cross. Another new bible story for the kids to learn…

The kids had found a pamphlet advertising a nearby labyrinth (translate: maze) at the tourist office and were clamoring to go there. As you know from our entry on Chenonceau, our kids are wild about mazes. So, we hopped in the car and drove to the nearby town containing the maze (with only a short stop to view road kill – this time a red fox). The kids had fun in the maze while Dan and I soaked up some sun and read our books.

The day ended with an unprecedented event: both kids scored a perfect 10 on their pop quizzes!