Chateau De Beynac

Next morning, Sunday, May 5th, we drove up to Beynac-et-Cazenac's new camping aire, parked there, and walked on up to the Chateau de Beynac, a 12th century fortress that stayed mostly French during the 100 Years War.

Chateau de Beynac, rising from the morning river mists

Passing by the parc archaeologique; apparently leftovers
from the set of a movie about Joan of Arc; I believe some
episodes of F Troop may have been shot here as well

Still en route, this is the garage concealing that Ferrari
250 GTO you've been dreaming about finding...the present
owner has no interest in it--something about a divorce--says
you can have it if you can get it out of the garage, and, with 
a quick jump-start, you are on the road, shifting into 5th...

Ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa...oops...so here
we are at the castle

Siege view of Chateau de Beynac

Main gate

People were much shorter in the Middle Ages

The Dordogne from Chateau de Beynac...Castelnaud and
Marqueyssac beyond (?)

Chateau yet to be identified

Vicki ponders what an appropriate down payment might be

In the village, the Pottery Barn

Walking down to the river-level village of Beynac-et-
Cazenac (where scenes from Chocolat, indeed starring
Johnny Depp, among others, were shot), we pass by the
Causerie Medievale; none of the French-type personnes 
we encounter can tell us what causerie means; the nice
lady at the Office of Tourisme (where we bought some
Medieval toys for Penelope) later informs us it is a
society of Medieval re-enactors

The roads between the village below and the chateau are
among the most challenging we have seen; people do live
up here, and drive

Roofers' nightmare

People were much shorter in the Middle Ages

Precisely...we've skipped far more than we've seen; but
then we had seen a lot of it '89

Cruising The Dordogne

One of the things one does in these parts is a rented canoe ride or a boat cruise on the Dordogne. We checked out the canoe rentals, considered Vicki's surgically-repaired shoulder and my increasingly achy one, and opted for the goofy boat ride. See illustration. This was as close as you can get here to Disneyworld or EuroDisney...a very short ride (7 km), scenery no better than the road, a ridiculously silly and contrived audioguide story, narrated by a river boater of bygone ages, surrounded by unhappy 3 and 4 year old boys who became very unhappy when the boat turned around and Johnny Depp did not appear. Mike Fink's keel boat rides, en Francaise. And not inexpensive. Part of the learning experience.

One of the boats; there is a name for them, but those pages of Rickie Stevie were
ripped out and are now gone...

Perhaps canoeing would have been the wiser choice; we would have washed up in
Bordeaux

A chateau

Cliffs, observation tower

More scenery, river, chateaux

End of cruise, a bridge, a chateau we'll see better the next day

Interesting...a privately-owned 66km fishing creek

A grey heron; or possibly, egret or short-beaked pelican

Canoers and kayaker

Arriving back at La Rogue Gageac

La Rogue Gageac

Thus engorged, we decamped and drove on the few miles to the village of La Rogue Gageac on the Dordogne. This was aided in fact by our crack satnav Tom's finding many ingenious shortcuts across the beautiful rolling countryside, some of which may once have been intended for 4-wheeled vehicles. La Rogue Gageac is totally touristy but has a nice setting and another aire de camping cars, this one not free but not expensive. We settled in, explored the town, investigated the recreational opportunities, did a river cruise (next post), had a repast, took a hike up the cliffs, and rested. Tourism is hard work.

La Rogue Gageac, from the river, which is at this point quite wide, deep and fast;
it passes through by many such cliffs hereabouts

Walking about La Rogue Gageac

Ditto

Repast of poulet roti from the Sarlat market and white
asparagus from Cahors (I think the wine was left-over
Ribera from Spain)

Another hike

Looking down on the pretty public park and aire at La Rogue Gageac, and the
Dordogne

Part of the cliff collapsed some years back, destroying
several homes and killing three; but it's a view to die for...

The limestone apparently retains heat so well it is possible to have plants here
otherwise not possible at this latitude in France; here, walking back down to the
aire, we are emerging from a bamboo forest

The Dordogne does flood from time to time, marked on the
stones at the left of this buidling; the highest about 8 feet above
street level

Sarlat Market

We timed our visit to include Sarlat's Saturday market, said to be one of the best. It encompasses 10-12 blocks of the main drag plus half a dozen side streets, some general merchandise, but mostly food, augmented importantly by all the entrail and truffle and wine stores.

The aire de camping cars at Sarlat--overflowing into other
lots, streets...

A bit of the market

We bought our goose entrails from this nice lady, who
convinced with two generous samples

More market

Author/illustrator signing a book for Penelope

Plaque for Andre Malraux, the Minister of Culture
responsible for much of France's cultural preservation and
restoration post WWII

Ever more market; we may have over-
stimulated this economy, buying foie gras,
a bottle of Montbazillac, walnut oil, cake,
poulet roti, the book for P, some chocolate,
dinner, plus all the usual cheese, olives,
veggies, fruites, etc. One tends to force-feed
oneself in these surroundings; perhaps it is
an act of solidarity with the geese...

Le Badaud, The Onlooker

And friend

Sarlat

We drove on from the Lot to the Dordogne and Sarlat, a town where nothing much happened but which is beautiful to look at and otherwise experience. This is ground zero for duck and goose entrails, truffles, and a variety of great wines. We found the large aire de camping cars with relative ease and set forth on foot the few hundred meters to Sarlat's main drag and an afternoon and evening of exploration there.

Welcome to the Dordogne...I was singing "I left my heart, I mean, liver, in
Sarlat-la-Caneda..."

Very famous statue

The place is littered with dozens of 16th and 17th century
architectural items, beautifully restored

Thus

And thus

And thus

Cathedral interior

Lantern of Death...sort of a Plague thing

Vicki in Sarlat

We had a great 4 course dinner here

To my astonishment, she actually tried the foie gras; to my
dismay, she said she liked it and asked for more...

The Auberge Le Mirandol has its own grotto (it's next to the old city spring),
appropriately decorated...Lascaux and all the rest are very nearby

Cahors' Pont Valentre

After Alcantara, I would not normally do a bridge that has not stood the test of time and doesn't carry heavy goods vehicles. But Cahors' Pont Valentre is 14th century, it is a fortified bridge, and is said to be the most photographed bridge in France. And it was only a few hundred meters away. A fortified bridge, unlike sherry, has to do with warfare, and in this case the bridge's three towers were used for the Medievals' favorite mode of warfare, namely, throwing crap down on people (cf. any scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail that ends with "run away..."). Thus...

Standard view; not a postcard nor grabbed from the web 

Little side-stream that actually provides Cahors' drinking
water

View from the far shore

Just downstream, another dam and lock for boats

OK, it's not the Yellowstone, but you do see a Lot of fisherpersons

There's even a Federation for Personnes Who Fish a Lot (nyuk)

Nice place, but we're moving on to Sarlat