Dordogne Valley, France 17-31 August, 2009

We arrived at our final summer exchange home at the outskirts of Ste. Foy Le Grand, a cute bastide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastide) town on the Dordogne River established around the 12th century along with many others like it along this fertile river valley. The older of the black cats greeted us in the yard, while the other scared the daylight out of Dahlia when he jumped into the living room through the open window late in the evening. He was equally started by the unfamiliar presence, and rushed back out.

Shelley and Arnold Hersberg, friends of ours from Ventura County, joined us the following day and we spend the afternoon in the beautiful town of St. Emillion, a very quaint old city, surrounded by acres of manicured vineyards. The town has an old, 12th century abbey and tower atop a hill and the views down the steep slopes, on a patchwork of tile roofs, and vineyards is truly spectacular.

We took a trip to Bordeaux, about an hour drive away, and it turned out to be a lovely surprise. It is a beautiful city, with elegant consistent architecture, a lovely river front and quays, pleasant cobble stoned streets with wonderful shopping arcades, restaurants and book stores. The highlight was a visit to the old, restored, Grand Theatre, which hosts opera and theater performances in very elegant setting, as it was in the early 18th century.

We spent a grueling hot day trying to visit Sarlat-la-Caneda (a very quaint town about 70 miles from our exchange house, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarlat-la-Can%C3%A9da) on market day, and decided the only sane way to see that area around it was to book a hotel in the town for a couple of nights and use it as a base for exploration. (It took 3 hours to get there!)…We returned three days later and this time we planned a bit better. Our first stop on this beautiful day, which happened to be Dahlia’s Birthday was at Beaumont-de-Perigord, which was celebrating a market and the summer festival honoring the Occitane local cultured. Every street was decorated with strings of paper flowers hanging overhead, creating a beautiful joyful festive atmosphere. The lovely organ grinder lady played Happy Birthday and Dahlia managed to grind out a whole French song on her own.

From here we went to Cahors, another bastide town with an interesting double towered bridge over the river. After lunch we visited the Pech Merle cavern (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pech_Merle) with cave paintings dating to over 15,000 years ago and some amazing formations of stalagmites and stalactites formed over 2 million years of drop by drop accumulation. It Gives one a different perspective on time. Before heading to Sarlat we stopped at a magnificent medieval village, one of the most beautiful in France, St. Cirque LaPopie, clinging to a cliff overlooking the Dordogne (http://www.quercy-tourisme.com/st-cirq-lapopie/english/saint-cirq_english.html#vues/).
The next day we saw Chateaux de Castelnaud (15th century) beautifully restored and documented, and gorgeous views across the river of Chateaux Beynac and the Dordogne Valley(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Castelnaud-la-Chapelle/) and had a wonderful lunch at the town Beynac (http://www.francethisway.com/mbv-beynac.php/) another gorgeous cliff hanging village, highlighted by an old impressive Chateaux. After that we Spent a relaxing afternoon in Sarlat, shopping and watching street performers, and had dinner in a romantic courtyard setting. Before heading back to Ste Foy La Grande, we visited the bastide towns of Domme and Le Rocques Gageac, both with spectacular views of the river.

I imagine that the text full of superlatives sounds exaggerated but these places literally take your breath away, with their ancient history, old buildings, tiled roofs, along steep sloping, cobblestoned streets leading almost straight to the river below. At La Roque Gageqc we climbed up the cliffs via a new steep stairway to see the inside of the Fort Troglodytique, , which was built high up into the cliff walls, creating a strategic defensive and controlling position above the river. http://www.les-plus-beaux-villages-de-france.org/fr/roque-gageac-la-vue-fort-troglodyte/. Looking down on the river one could see swarms of kayakers navigating the river on this warm beautiful day, floating by these spectacular villages was one of the most exciting things we did on our previous visit here.

In between driving expeditions we took a day to relax and rented kayaks for a 4 km ride down the river in the local area.

Shelley and Arnold left on Monday, and we took a few days to decompress and relax a bit. We spent the next few days exploring the local area and then took an overnight trip to Arcachon, a nice beach town at the seashore and saw the largest dune in Europe, Dune de Pylat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Dune_of_Pyla) . From there, a short boat ride took us to Cap Ferret , a very picturesque sandy point, facing the ocean on one side and Arcachon bay on the other. Unfortunately the weather was wet and windy so we ended up just having lunch in a lovely restaurant by the water and took the next boat back.

On Saturday we really enjoyed the market day in Ste Foy La Grande. Today is Sunday and tomorrow will be our last day here before heading to Paris to catch our flights to Israel and Baltimore. It’s been another great experience, shared with many friends, but we’re ready to be home again and back to our projects and friends.

2009-08-31 Dordogne Blog

Paris, France, 2-16 August 2009

Our lovely exchange home was located in Saint Maur-De-Fosse, a southeast suburb of Paris, on the Marne River and about a 20 minute train ride to Paris. The house was very pleasant and comfortable, with a nice big patio where we ate most of our meals and a garden with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of the sweetest fresh tomatoes.
We never used the car as the public transportation system was terrific. The train station was literally 3 minutes away with an excellent fast connection to the center of Paris.

Since it was August, many businesses in Paris were closed for the summer vacation, and the city is filled with tourists. The weather was quite warm, but generally not too uncomfortable except for a few scorchers.

The best part of home exchanging is being able to spend time with friends. This time we were joined by our friends Peter and Irene Zimmerman from Germany for a few days and Sandy Amber from London for a brief visit. We spent much time catching up with each others lives and explored this magnificent city. Despite the crowds, the heat, the noise and endless tour buses, it is impossible to remain unmoved by the majestic grand boulevards, by the beautiful buildings with their elaborate balcony railings, the palaces, the monuments the museums and the iconic images one encounters every few blocks and how they all line up so neatly.

When we got tired of museums and walking we took a boat ride on the Seine, once in the late evening and once at dusk. Seeing the Eiffel tower glittering at night, the Notre Dame illuminated and all the beautiful bridges crossing the Seine, linking the various monuments is a thrill even on the seventh time.

The highlights were the Musee D'Orsay (twice), the Rodin museum, The Marmottan museum which is dedicated to Monet and some of his contemporaries, the Paris Pinacotheque (Suzanne Valadon and Utrillo-- what an interesting life story here..), walks in the Marais, the Left Bank and Montmartre, walking along the Rue de Rivoli, San Germain de Pres, and Rue Montaigne.

Another highlight was visiting two magnificent palaces outside Paris, the Vaux-le-Vicomte which with its spectacular gardens and impressive interior, and the Fontainbleu Palace with one room more unbelievable than the next. Started around the 12th century and served as vacation home for the French kings queens qnd emperors, each making it a little grander till the last Napoleon. Each room stuns you with the wealth of art, the gorgeous tapestries, gigantic beautiful rugs, painted and sculpted ceilings and fireplaces, furnishings...and they go on and on... 1500 rooms in all (luckily only a fraction were open for visit). It boggles the mind to think anyone could have actually occupied these spaces..

Another, unexpectedly cool place was the Clignacourt flea market. In addition to the ususal schlock and clothes, there is a huge section with all sorts of antiques, old paintings, furnishings, books etc. We went there a second time with Shelley and Arnold who just arrived in Paris and will join us in the Dordogne.

From here it's off to St Fois le Grand, in the Dordogne region, with temperatures promising to be in the 90s!!!!

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2009-08-18 Paris, France 2-16, 2009 Blog