Sarlat and Les Eyzies de Tayac

Day 31. Sarlat. Samedi 13th.

This morning we checked out the local market. At first we wern't too sure (thought it might be a bit touristy), but it was great! Masses of French food - all looking fresh & tasty & cheap! We were more restrained than the last market we went to, and only bought what we needed. But really enjoyed looking at the food and other produce. You can buy garlic by the dozen, and about 5 different varieties! Yum. But we didn't need that much garlic, so we justlooked. We're in Fois Gras territory now so there were heaps of places selling it, and all differnt types also, but we havn't tried it and don't feel the need to!! We had planned on riding back down to the Dordogne River today and seeing some chateaus, but my knee was hurting a bit (overworked from yesterdays ride!), so we decided just to go to one closer by. The ride was lovely - a long slow gentle uphill followed by a great view of the castle and then these fantastic steep switchbacks through a small town (not a town at all, more a collection of 3 houses!) and a farm, and then through thick, dark forest with some green light filtering through the leaves. It was cool!! We came out at the main road just opposite the castle, and rode up to the entrance. Unfortunately we couldn't get in until the guided tour at 2:30 so we sat in the forest and ate our picnic lunch. The castle, Puymartin, is known for it's 'lavishly decorated interior and the mysterious tale of the Dame Blanche, whose restless spirit is said to haunt the chateau corridors'. Now, the castle is certainly decorated in a pretty fancy way - _way_ over the top!! The guest room had paintings on all the walls, including some of women that used to be withouht clothes, but have since had them painted on, as it was a bit too rude before apparently! And a couple of them have been converted to young men - they have been given moustaches! And there is a room which is entirely painted - all walls and ceiling - but it's tiny and a bit claustrophobic. The ghost is of a woman who was caught in the arms of her lover when her husband was away at war - and was incarcerated in the top of the castle in a tiny room for 15 years until she died, and then was buried behind one of the stones in the wall. Nice. The same family has resided in this chateau (and still today) since the 14th century - wow! We spent the rest of the afternoon cycling back to Sarlat and wandering around the town - it's very pretty and interesting. But a bit overdone, with all of the buildings in the same medieval type and a little touristy. We went into the Cathedral, some of which is from 12th century, other parts from the 16th and 17th centurys. It has a beautiful large organ occupying one ond of the cathedral and is decorated in a lavish but not over-the-top manner. We then cooked up a great meal in the hotel and watched a bit of the England-France game in our room, but were too tired to go out! Ahh, aren't we sad ;-)

Day 32. Sarlat to Les Eyzies de Tayac, the Dordogne region. Dimanche 14th.

We had planned to catch a train part of the way today, but since my knee was feeling all better, we decided to cycle. We followed part of the route from yesterday, the long gentle uphill section (a bit longer and slower today because we were fully laden!)And our long downhill was great - down a small valley, all downhill to the main road. We had lunch (picnic again) just before we got onto the main road, as we found a pretty little 'place' in a tiny settlement. Then we were on the main road, but it was nice and wide and _very_ very easy riding - all downhill and just gentl enough that you need to pedal but with almost no effort at all! We saw another two chateaus on the way down to Les Eyzies and we arrived at the town in no time. We had a quick drink when we got here and checked into nice hotel (the first 3star for the trip!) with a great view out over the town square and up towards the cliffs that run along the town. Amazingly, built into the cliffs is the National Museum of Prehistory - it's literally built up to the cliff, and looks amazing. We then rode out to the cave we had decided to visit this afternoon. It's called the Grotte de Font de Gaume. We had a 4pm tour with a small group of people, and it was really fascinating. There are 230 figures in the cave of mammoths, bison, horses, fish, reindeer, bears and tectiform signs - a sort of stamp that is seen throughout this area (in lots of the caves) and seems to be a mark that they used. We saw maybe a dozen or 20 paintings - bison were the main theme, and they were very impressive. What is particularly remarkable about this cave is that the paintings are polychrome - that is they have been painted in both red (ocre) and black paint - only a few caves show artwork like this. In the later afternoon we realised we had forgotton about the old - all french towns close on a sunday afternoon - we had no food for dinner (because we had been sensible at the markets yesterday!) and nothing appropriate for breakfast! OOPS. So we went out for dinner - to a great little pizza place, fantastic food and lots of it!

Day 33. Les Eyzies de Tayac. Lundi 15th.

This morning we rode to the little shop to buy breakfast goodies. It was cold and misty. We then rode through the fog up the valley towards Les Combarelles, a grotte known for its engravings. It was _freezing_ riding. We were wearing shorts and my gloves are fingerless, so we were both frozen by the time we got there! But it was really lovely riding through the valley in the fog. We ate breakfast in a little rock shelter and then the tour started at 9:45. It was just 3 of us and the guide, and it was our first tour in English, which was great! The caves are long and very narrow - formed by an underground river cutting through the rock. Initially the cave was accessed by crawling but the floor has been lowered quite a bit to allow for tourist access (and researchers). The cave is amazing - it contains about 800 (with more being found regularly) engravings and paintings of reindeer, bison, horses and human figures. They are incredibly well drawn. The horses looked so realistic it was amazing. At the end of the cave - the climax if you like, there is an engraving of a cave lion which was almost scary to look at, and was so well drawn! And a few wooly rhinocerous's and wooly mammoths also, with massive curved tusks. And a young deer (a doe) which was so beautifully lifelike and such a fantastic expression on its face! And there was a tiny child's hand in negative also, hidden up on the ceiling. And on the way out the guide showed us the most recent discovery, a bears head - the rock had been used for the shape of the head and simply a mouth carved on, and eye carved out and the snout of the bear - the rock chipped off. It was great - and so simple! These people knew their anatomy - the drawings are almost sciencitific in nature - they show muscles, and posture and action - horses leaping for example. This cave contains some of the best carvings we've seen yet - really really fabulous, and it was obvious the guide was really keen also. There were also some carvings on women in this cave - interestingly very stylasied, compared to the highly detailed carvings of animals weve seen. They apparently are similar (very similar) to other stylaised carvings of womens shapes seen across europe - they think this is to believe that there was a true transcontinental culture across Europe during this time (about 14,000 years ago). Really amazing to think about.

This afternoon we spent about 3 hours wandering around the National Museum of Prehistory. It is truly a masterpiece of a museum. It starts with a timeline of the history of man - from austrolpithicus (and a replica of Lucy, the skeleton discovered in Africa) through to today. Then up the corridor is a bronze of footprints from Tanzania - apparently about 54 footprints were discovered fossilised there - it appeared to us to be a father and child walking arm in arm- the footprints are obviously of two upright walking beings, but the feet are quite different from our own. Amazing. The museum details tools from the first humans through to the bronze age, and also shows how they would have been made, and what they would have lived with (ie what animals) and how they hunted, and learnt to sew, and then burial rituals, and finally the lamps and carvings that they either carried with them or used in the caves. It is a really great museum and worth setting aside half a day for. We have a new understanding and appreciation for the sophisication of stone-age culture. The tools increased in complexity quite rapidly and we have both come to the realisation that these people were in so many ways just like us, and it blows us away to think about. We found it really interesting (but tiring at the same time).