Doug and Kerry Hudson in the Dordogne, France

World Trip >> Europe >> France >> Dordogne

After a lovely seventeen nights spent in the Cote d'Azur, we moved on to the Dordogne region of France, famed for truffles, goose liver pate and pre-historic cave-paintings. We managed to find a lovely campsite just outside the medieval town of Sarlat-le-Caneda.

On our first morning, after an excellent sleep and a delicious breakfast in bed of croissant and orange juice, we decided to visit Sarlat. This town was extremely quaint and old, and we spent the day wandering around its charming narrow streets. We happened to buy some goats cheese to sample from the local market. By the afternoon there ws quite a pong emanating from the bag. At first Kerry could not work out where or who it was coming from. Surely that smell is not Doug's feet?!

We had lunch at a restaurant with a strong claim on the title of World's Most Surly Waitress. On the bright side we did get to sample some of the local delicacies, such as the pate and duck with truffle sauce, not forgetting to mention the salad with duck's gizzard. Sounds disgusting? Well Doug enjoyed every morsel.

The following day we went pre-historic. First stop was the world famous Lascaux caves. The story goes that four teenagers accidentally found the caves in 1940, when their dog fell into a hole under the roots of a fallen tree in the Lascaux woods. Having rescued the dog, they returned with torches because they thought they had found the secret tunnel to the nearby Montignac castle. However, they actually discovered something far more remarkable. It proved to cave-paintings dating back 15,000 years!

We were blown away by the Lascaux caves. Images of wild animals such as bulls, deer, bears, horses and cows charged around the circular chamber at head height. All the animals were rendered beautifully in reds, browns, yellows and blacks, and in such a way that the contours of the rock formed part of the animal.

After Lascaux, we visited the Roque St. Christophe. This is actually a cliff with enormous horizontal grooves large enough to accommodate human dwellings. This rock was inhabited as long as 50,000 years ago, and as recently as 500 years ago. It was fascinating to learn how the people adapted to life on the edge of a cliff. You can see where they gouged holes in the cliff to support beams or tie up animals.

Continuing the cave theme, we finished the day with the Gauffre de Proumeyssac. This was tourism poetry in motion, with crowds of people funneled through the caves extremely efficiently. The cave itself was admittedly impressive, with large formations of stalactites and stalagmites. We found the light and sound show a bit tacky, detracting from the caves natural beauty.

The following morning we spent the morning on a 10.5km cross-country walk organised by the campsite. We learned so much. Did you know that the Japanese are buying French chateaux? Only to empty them of all the furniture, which they then ship back home to Japan, leaving the chateaux empty? How outrageous! We also learnt more about how truffles, which grow underground, are found. Since they are so valuable, the farmers jealously keep the locations of the mushrooms a closely guarded secret. To find these mushrooms, they traditionally use a pig, but you have to be careful or the pig will scoff the lot. So nowadays they use dogs. (Obviously not Mishka or Jamie though, who would gladly scoff the lot too!)

On our final afternoon we went to the Chateau de Fenelon. To get there we wound our way through a lot of backroads. We were happy to find it not overrun with tourists, as many of the chateau are. The chateau itself was magnificent, and we thoroughly enjoyed the tour. What made it magnificent? It was not fancy, it was just raw, brute strength. Doug was very interested to learn about the defences, and during the tour we learned more about the weapons too. For example, the crossbow could penetrate armour from fifty yards. For this reason, the church denounced it, because a lowly peasant could take out a nobleman or even a King, and that just is not fair. They believed that only another King should be able to kill a King! The crossbow was considered the ultimate weapon of its day, and that as a result there would be no more wars. Now where have we heard that one?!

Kerry was more fascinated by the interior decoration of the chateau. It was simple but elegant, with incredible antiques and tapestries. We saw the Lord's four poster bed, which has never left the chateau. It was less than five feet long. The reason for this was that people then were not as tall as us, and also, they slept propped up by cushions in a sitting position. They slept this way because they associated lying down with being dead. Furthermore, the rich food they ate was heavy on the stomach!

We continued our French adventure in the Loire Valley, where we would see even more chateaux.

World Trip >> Europe >> France >> Dordogne

Last updated: Sunday August 27, 2006