Villages on the Dordogne River & Lascaux II Caves

Thursday, June 26, 2014
Peyzac-le-Moustier, Aquitaine, France
Today, we did a tour of three landmark villages along the Dordogne River. Out first destination was the village of La Roque-Gigeac but on the way we stopped at the castle of Montfort where Simon de Montfort resided for ten years. We were hoping to get a view from there over the Dordogne valley but couldn't find an accessible lookout point even though we walked around for about 15 minutes.

A few more kilometers took us to La Roque-Gigeac, squeezed between towering cliffs and the Dordogne River . It's another picture postcard village and we walked the length of the promenade from one end of the village to the other.

Another few kilometers took us to the village of Beynac, squeezed between the cliffs and the Dordogne River like La Roque-Gigeac but also perched on the side of the cliff, reaching up to Beynac Castle located on the tops of the cliffs.

We then backtracked and headed towards the village of Domme which is situated high above the Dordogne River on the top of cliffs that are even higher than those at the other two villages and also on the other side of the river. It was a very challenging drive up to the village with many switchbacks and narrow roads. However, the view from the village was magnificent and worth the effort.

We were running out of time so, instead of a leisurely lunch, we picked up savory crepes and ate them sitting on a wall around the square . The road down from Domme was much straighter and not as steep as the road up.

After returning to Le Manoir to change into warmer clothes, we headed into Montignac for a 40-minute guided tour of the Lascaux II caves. These are an exact replica of the original caves which were discovered in 1940 and contained many prehistoric pro magnum cave paintings. The original caves were open to the public in 1953 but were closed 15 years later because the carbon dioxide and moisture from a million visitors was causing serious deterioration to the paintings. It is estimated that the painting were done about 17,000 years ago. The French government went to extreme lengths to build an exact replica of the caves, down to the within a centimeter of the original dimensions. They then hired expert painters to paint exact replicas of the original paintings on the replica walls. The tour was very interesting.

Unfortunately, Sally has gone down with a bad sinus infection and has spent the whole day in bed trying to shake it off so she missed today's events.

This evening, Karen and Darlene have gone off to the local restaurant while the other four of us are having a wonderful meal of baguette, cheese, fruit, flans and wine around the table outside Le Manoir in the warm evening sun.
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