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.
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 |
posted by Dahlia and Lance Riley @ 12:37 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home