Lot-Dordogne: Grottes and Fairy Castles St Emilion and the Medoc

 We set off from Agen in the manual Pug 207 Diesel SW, which will be very economical motoring. Also I am very appreciative of its small size as we negotiate the things that our good friend TomTom calls roads. Yes we are reunited; she had a redundancy package to tide her over for the last week as she doesn’t do canals.

The temperature was a very chilly 7 degrees C with a cool wind, but we ducked off the road to see 11^th century churches (Romanesque style) and amazingly still in use.

We had a leisurely cruise through the countryside, small villages, bastides (you will recall La Bastidas from Spain….same thing) TomTom loves them but has little appreciation that modern demands mean that many of the alleyways are now one way. Past lots of cultivation, fois de gras farms and a countryside that looks prosperous, and quite densely populated.

 Ann had picked a scenic drive that took us through the Lot valley’s eight most impressive points of interest. TomTom was thrilled by the challenge and took us every which way, sometimes through farm tracks and maize paddocks, but we really enjoyed the views.

We then set sail for Saint Circ Lapopie, our first night’s stay. A really amazing medieval village on the side of a cliff. The castle associated had been knocked down by the order of Henry IV of France. Don’t understand what the misdemeanour was, mental note to add to reading list.

 

Our accommodation (aubergesombral@gmail.com) was excellent and we decided to stay in and have her menu of the day, after agreeing just a light meal tonight. We came to enjoy the local food so it’s difficult to say no when you see a menu that is all local produce. Usual story, lovely food, a very nice Cahors AOC  2007 Chateau Pineraie “Authentique”. This was 70% Malbec with a balance a blend of Cabernet and Merlot and maybe Tannat. They say the best Cahors wines are 100% Malbec, but that’s the local brew anyway.

Away early Sunday to visit Pech Merle a 1.2 km long cave system with paintings that were done 22-28,000 years ago, and a petrified footprint “made by an adolescent homo sapiens” about 25,000 years ago in soft mud that is now stone after all those years of calcification. The tour was all in French but we did get a bit of English input and learnt lots. But more for the reading list later on.

Programmed TomTom for our next stop to see Rocamador village on a cliff and the chapel of the Black Madonna. This place was a pilgrim destination, and is probably still a bit of a spiritual experience for most who call. Clinging to a cliff, again very impressive, and many of the miracles associated with the Black Madonna have nautical links, so we will keep her in mind. The list of her miracles suggests she has had a break of late.

We climbed up the cliff via the pilgrims’ steps to see her, as have many famous people through the ages. Then the trail carries on to a chapel and castle right at the top of the cliff, via a zigzagging Stations of the Cross route.

 

We arrived in the afternoon in Sarlat, fantastic accommodation at Les Cordeliers, a B and B (hotelsarlat@yahoo.fr) in another medieval town which is in great shape. The town has a lot of four and five storey buildings and a host of local produce shops.

Skyped today with Scott and Mel, Bruce and Ann talked to Jan. Much of this flurry generated by catching up with Megan’s accident. A fall in the foyer of the building opposite in PA meant a broken left elbow and a bruised right wrist. We did offer a prayer in the chapel of the black Madonna, for the black and blue Megan. Very sorry to hear she will miss her South Island tour, but very confident there will be other events and other opportunities. Also great to hear that Scott managed under two hours for the Auckland half marathon on three days training. More tomorrow

Stuck with the Plats menu tonight, Ann discovered that Rognons de veau are actually veal kidneys, and that Crème brulee aux noix can be served cold. The Limousin steak was good not great, and the Bergerac DOC Chateau de la Jaubertie 2007 Mirabelle was an OK selection. Bordeaux style, a mix of merlot 45%, Cab Sav 45% and Cab Franc 10% but not one I’ll go back to.

Today we had an amazing time. First we drove early to another cave site – Font de Gaume. Ann hadn’t been able to book tickets on the internet but they do have some spare on the day. Only 96 are allowed to enter the cave in a day, in groups of 12 for 35 min max, as it is the last cave in Europe where people can still see original polychromatic cave art. The temperature as we drove there was -2 degrees (yes minus!) and we had to stand in that cold, outside, in a queue for 45 mins. But we got an 11am tour that was English speaking so reward on investment.

Many of the images are still very clear after 14 000 years and they are mainly large herbivores of that time, bison, reindeer and horses in shades of red and black using the shape of the rock wall to add reality. The art was impressively realistic with perspective, movement and depth, so much more strikingly 3D than the reproductions we see in books. Apparently the whole cave is covered with paintings, but calcium and human intrusion has damaged a lot. Our guide was very good and described a theory that the way the paintings were drawn, in the flickering light of flames from candles meant that those observing them actually saw moving, breathing depictions in the flickering flame and shadow!!

Next on to Maison Fort De Reignac, literally built into a cliff in an area inhabited by man and predecessors for around 200 000 years. The displays covered much of that timeframe and the final exhibit was a torture museum which we had both seen enough of by about half way through. Societies do some excruciatingly unkind things to criminals, heretics and other non-conformists.

Some of you will be wondering why all this stuff is in this particular area. Main reason is that in the last ice age the ice sheets came only as far south as the Loire and this area was a relatively verdant area with reindeer, bison, rhinoceros, horses and in their time mammoths all thriving.

Last visit for the day was Castlenaud, high on a cliff above the Dordogne River and looking across the valley to Beynac, a rival entity that stayed with France in the Hundred Years' War, while Castlenaud remained supportive of the English. It was amazing to see how near Beynac was to Castelnaud, and we were impressed with the powerful trebuchets used to defend the castle.

The whole Aquitaine/Burgundy area was English for a long time, but that all changed after the Hundred Years' War. This castle was basically destroyed after the French Revolution, much was demolished and the blocks rolled down the hill to build the port on the river.  It was at one time supportive of the Cathars, a deviation from Catholicism so the Bishop of Bordeaux ordered that it be burnt down!! In another story that particular lot of heretics did not prosper, the last 600 were trapped in a battle, given the opportunity to resile from their beliefs or burn. They burnt to the last man, woman and child.

Quiet night for food: French Pizza with a Cahors DOC red

We started our final Sarlat day with a wander through the town which revealed why it looks so tidy and well-preserved. The town remained loyal to the French through the Hundred Years’ War and was rewarded subsequently by Philip. The local merchants all competed to have several storeys and impressive towers to flaunt their wealth. Then it prospered, surviving various plagues and was preserved by some enlightened legislation which removed it from roading reforms.

The eglise is particularly light and airy and the restoration programme for old buildings is excellent. We bought a sanglier (wild boar) dried sausage in the market and both tasted the truffle-enhanced water of life drink. The inventor encouraged the ‘skulling’ approach to consuming, anyone who doesn’t understand how to do this should immediately ring niece Nic for advice, and if she’s not home maybe Michelle can help. We both tried the brew and will now live a long life enhanced by truffle-infused pure alcohol.

We decided to select yes to toll roads with TomTom, so had the advantage of 130 kph roads for a lot of the trip to St Emilion, a trifle frustrating in the 207 Pug diesel SW but you do the best with what you’ve got. Again great accommodation, Chateau Franc-Pourret, (www.ouzoulias-vins.com) in a chateau in a vineyard. Our room on the top left, with great views from the windows over the many vineyards of the Saint Emilion area. They seem to stretch forever.

And her breakfasts, described in TripAdvisor as substantial, certainly are.  Along with cereals, dried fruit, juice, coffee, fresh bread stick, eight jams and croissants, she always gave us some local delicacy warm from the oven. The first day tarte tatin, the second cannoletes (like mini rum babas) and the final day pear clafoutis. Made lunch quite redundant!

Our host recommended the venue for last night’s meal, and we got there in the dark and about 12 km away through the narrow lanes. Lovely local fare:  some oysters and some roebuck, the sanglier selected wasn’t available and the translation for what we had varied between Bambi and roebuck. It was something out of the forest anyway. And Ann had a real Crème Brulee!

Today was really interesting, some wine tasting, a tour of the local historic places, even the chateau where the English surrendered after the Hundred Years’ War.

You may have been following the progress of this event, but I’m afraid it is over and after a hundred years we can report France 1 England 0. For the war mongers, don’t worry we’ll soon be back in Spain and the Christian/Moors thing went on for about 1000 years so plenty of opportunity still available on that front.

Back to today, the tour of St Emilion’s underground world was great. The cave where the popular Emilion lived as a hermit for the last 17 years of his life (he died in 767), the catacombs, the underground church built by Peter of Castillon when he came back from the first crusade around 1100, were all just rivetingly fascinating. Why an underground church? Apparently he’d seen some in Cappadocia on his way back from the Crusades, and also they are easier and faster to build, especially with the skills of the local tradespeople - just 40 years for this one compared to centuries for some of the great cathedrals.

Our guide added lots to the tour, we should import her for training Motuihe guides. Another lovely town, surrounded by a sea of grapes.

End of the day was a guided tour of a winery across the road from where we are staying, and that was well done too. Saint Emilion wine is dominantly merlot with the usual set of regulations to maintain the reputation. We did our picnic shopping at a little supermercado up the road from the chateau. The third time Steve went in the owner, behind the counter said to me " English Weather!" and he said, "Tell someone who cares, I'm a Kiwi" so we had a long chat, told me about his two rugby playing sons and if he was a rich man he would have come to NZ for the World Cup. Next day when he went in it was all handshakes and he had obviously become a local, they do lots of handshaking.

A tour of the Medoc region north of Bordeaux on a rainy day, and with great assistance from TomTom filled most of the next day. Different style of region, a lot of large chateaux, unfortunately no tour of Chateau Margaux, or Chateau Lafitte Rothschild, either closed or undergoing a bit of a reno.

We did tour the fortifications built to keep out the English and Dutch marauders. The fort, in the middle of the Gironde, subsided a couple of metres into the soft sand so some of the defensive firing slots ended up below water level. None of the fortifications ever fired a shot in anger, so the practice of spending money on defences which are never used is ages old. The protagonists would of course argue that the whole defensive system of forts on the Gironde was very effective, neither the Dutch nor the English ever turned up. The English were probably too busy drinking the 80 000 hectolitres, I think that’s 80 000 000 litres, of wine they used to buy out of the area. The population of Britain was about 4 000 000 at the time.

Today has been reasonably relaxed, just a drive into Bordeaux. We couldn’t get the hotel we wanted and went with Booking.com’s recommendation for a place near the railway station Gare Bordeaux St Jean. We discovered when we went for a walk to find the opera house etc, that it is actually more like Bordello St Jean. There were some very interestingly dressed young ladies, one with the most fantastic uplifting bra I have seen (probably that’s not very many, but it does help paint the picture). By the time we had decided we were in the wrong part of town, the guard had changed at that particular corner as we went past again. Apparently when someone gets a job and departs another occupant moves into the spot. So the area is pretty dodgy and we won’t venture too far when we look for sustenance tonight. 

The backtracking however was successful and we did see a much more pleasant part of the city, some very striking buildings and a very crowded Rue de St Catherine which is probably the main city centre shopping street.

Quite a lot of walking punctuated by a stop in the Place De La Comedie adjacent to the Grand-Theatre for the best Café Grande we’ve had so far in Europe, then a beer and a G&T in the Place de La Victorie a few kilometres further on. Beer was fine but the G&T vastly inferior to the Donostia variety.

This area around the Gare Bordeaux St Jean has lots of immigrants and a strong African and Muslim presence. One coifferie we walked past had five chairs, each with a gent getting a zero side cut and a No 1 top which seems to be favoured by those with African origins. (Again, camera stayed firmly in bag!)

Tomorrow we have a drive to Toulouse via Marmande and its market to find some local produce for lunch. Marmande is near where we canal boated. Then we drop the Pug at Toulouse airport and hunker down for a 6 05 am departure on Sunday to the warm climes of southern Spain - back into the stubbies!