Two days by the Dordogne
Yesterday, after waiting up until one am for the arrival of Bob and Ines from Spain, we were all a little groggy in the morning. The boys were excited to have Uncle Bob with us again and so failed to sleep in at all – thus robbing their parents of a compensatory sleep-in.
We drove down the road to La Roque Gageac in the early afternoon. This is another of the most beautiful towns in France. It is pretty but not, to be honest, as lovely as our own Beynac-et-Cazenac.
After lunch by the river, we went on to Castelnaud, a beautiful castle above the river. Beynac and Castlenaud have faced off against each other for the last 800 years. The chateau is another classic castle with battlements, turrets and layered defenses. We were interested to see large lozenge-shaped holes designed to fire long, thin cannons through. Castlelaud also has a great display of machines of war – trebuchets, ballistae, huge crossbows.
Today was another slow start – so much so that we didn’t leave the house until 3pm. We made our way to Gouffre de Proumeyssac – a huge cave about half an hour away from our house. Basically the visit involves seeing one enormous cavern lined with stalactites, stalagmites and other calciferous growths. The cool thing is that we were lowered into the cave in a little nacelle; descending 50m from ground level down to the floor of the cavern in the midst of a sound and light show.
If you can, go do the Gouffre de Predavec, oops, I mean Padirac too. You get to combine caving and boating – what could be cooler! Plus you get to start the tour at the top of what looks like a 1930s office, before being dropped via a large but dingy1930’s lift into the biggest hole in the ground I’ve seen for a long time.
Hey it’s the Dordogne — it’s all about the holes.
(PS the new occupants of the house dropped a grovelling apology in everybody’s letter box a few weeks ago, saying sorry the party got out of hand and the police had to be called and the SWAT team turned up etc. “It will never happen again”. I think all your touchy neighbours rather wish you’d come back).