Wednesday dawned bright and sunny with a clear blue sky – at long last! We decided we’d cycle to La Roque Saint-Christophe, a UNESCO World Heritage site, about 2km from the site. It’s a really impressive set of caves that have were first occupied over 55,000 years ago, and were continuously occupied for most of the last 15,000 years. In the middle ages they were altered to become a fort and town with stables, kitchens and even a forge!
It also includes a range of working civil engineering machines which have been reconstructed to showcase the ingenuity of the medieval builders.
We spent a lovely couple of hours exploring the over 1km long walkway on three different levels, mostly 80m above the river Vezere which runs below it.
After a coffee we cycled back to the campsite and took advantage of the good weather to top up our tans by the pool.
On Thursday we picked the hottest day of the trip so far to explore the area north and east of the site. We first visited Terrasson, about a 30 minutes drive away, as my Mum and Dad had waxed lyrical about how beautiful it was in their 1988 holiday diary, and Thursday was market day so it seemed a good day to go. The market was in full swing when we got there, and was certainly bigger and more varied than Les Eyzies. We had a lovely browse amongst the food stalls, and then crossed the river by the old footbridge to the non food market on the other side. I broke my three euro rule by buying extra pants at five euros – there’s inflation for you.
Karol also bought me my birthday present – a lovely French cap (no, not that sort!) and then after a coffee in the Place de Martyrs we climbed the hill to take in the panoramic view, and visit the church. As it was now lunchtime we stopped at a lovely restaurant (Les Agapes) in a quaint little square in front of the church for meal of the day. It was really busy but the lady who served us was great – really helpful and friendly – and although we had a bit of a wait it was worth it as all the food was home made, and as it was such a beautiful day it was a pleasure to sit outside in the warmth.
We then staggered back to the car, exploring the old town on the way.
We decided to drive back to the site circuitously – trying to spot some of the places Ken and Marjorie had visited, through Salignac, St-Genies and on to Montignac. We found Salignac a little run-down, with quite a few buildings being renovated (including the Chateau). We weren’t sure if it was half day closing or the town has a very long lunch break but there wasn’t much sign of activity. St-Genies is a gorgeous village with sandstone buildings, all beautifully maintained. Montignac is much bigger than we had thought, we parked up by the river and wandered through the back streets, some extremely narrow, of the old town. It was still very hot, so after a quick peek in the church we bought some bread and headed back to the campsite.
We need to mention our tame bullfinches – a couple who are omnipresent whenever we’re outside and eating! They are really tame, and very sweet. However, it’s clear that Mrs Bullfinch wears the trousers (so to speak) as she gave Mr Bullfinch a real telling off when he tried to pinch her pieces of bread instead of finding his own!
We are moving on tomorrow to Bourgougnague nearer to Bergerac, where we will spend the night at Gill and Philip’s holiday home – can’t wait to see it and them!
