A Whizz Round The Dordogne

I mentioned that we had done a bit of travelling since we came back from England. Mr and Mrs Septimus came to visit. Instead of them flying into and out of our local airport at Carcassonne, at my suggestion they flew into Bergerac and out of Carcassonne.

Their arrival was in the morning so, Bergerac being 5 hours drive away from our home, Gay and I went to Bergerac the day before and spent the night there. These are some pictures of this beautiful city:

Having picked up our visitors at Bergerac airport the following morning we proceeded to Sarlat, which has a wonderful market on Saturday, the day we were there. I did not take any pictures of the market but one or two of the splendid buildings in the town.

The following morning we went to the wonderful Lascaux II, to see the extraordinary prehistoric cave paintings. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed. These caves and the paintings were discovered only in 1940, the year I was born. Before many more years passed, it was becoming very obvious that they were becoming damaged by the breath of visitors, so they were then closed to the public. It took 16 years to make an exact copy of the cave and exact copies of the paintings, but it was well worth the effort. You completely forget that you are in a copy. The paintings are stunning in their complexity, their use of perspective and colour and their size.

I have borrowed this picture from a website called Sacred Destinations.

The pictures are 17,000 years old.

We moved on to spend the night in Rocamadour, a spectacular place built up around a place of pilgrimage.

The next day we travelled home via St Cirq Lapopie, which we have been told many times is the most pretty village in France. I found it very disappointing and not living up to that description at all. I have seen many nicer places in France. I did not feel inspired to unholster my camera.