Loire Valley to the South of France
With Allan and Carla
The next 3 days we were based in Sarlat. This was the part of the trip that sold me on this RS tour, for the prehistoric caves and the canoe trip. There are several caves and on the RS tour you visit Rouffignac Cave. It's in the middle of nowhere and when you get there you take a train type shuttle down into the cave and see 13,000 year old drawings on the ceiling of bison, horses, rhinos and mammoths. Sadly, no pictures of Rouffignac as photos were not allowed. However, at the beginning of the tour, some of us had told Virginie that we wanted to visit Lascaux Caves which is the blockbuster site in France for prehistoric caves. Virginie arranged tickets and a ride for six of us. While I enjoyed Rouffignac, I loooved Lascaux. Again photos were not allowed within the cave even though it is a reproduction of the original site, but there was an exhibition hall with reproductions of the reproductions where I could snap away to my hearts content.
The caves were a much-anticipated part of my trip, but I can't think of a bad day we had in Sarlat/Dordogne. If you read the Tour Reviews on the RS website you'll notice a trend that for many, the canoe trip down the Dordogne was the highlight. Have no fear if canoeing isn't your thing, only about half of us went, while the other half settled for a cruise along the river on a passenger boat. We paddled between Cenac and Beynac past a couple of villages and saw some castles in the hills from the 100 years war.
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Wow! The Dordogne Scenery...Remember that I said that I'm like an 8 year old boy when I see castles? One of the castles we saw up close is in Beynac where Richard the Lionheart stayed while trying to beat up France during the 100 Years War.
If that's not enough, we took a stroll through Beynac which may be the most picturesque village I've ever seen. It's now a bucket-list item for an overnight stay on a future trip.
Fun Fact...Beynac is also where some of the outdoor scenes were filmed for the movie Chocolat.
We have homework?! Seriously?!...
Saturday is market day in Sarlat and we were
told to shop at the market and buy supplies
for a picnic. This was an immersion into
French culture and language that we had
been learning everyday on the bus. Some
vendors at the market only spoke french, but
confidently, and using the skills we had
learned so far, Carla and I managed to buy
fresh fruit, cheese, vegetables and some nougat for dessert. It reinforced today what
we had been discovering over the first week, that if you at least try to communicate in French, then the locals will give you a big smile and help. The stuffy French stereotype is not true. The woman who we bought the cheese from spoke no English, but we managed to order and pay. Aside from restaurants, this was my first real experience to be totally immersed into the French culture and it gave me a boost in confidence moving forward.
