Medieval and older

---

On Friday we arrived in Sarlat-de-la-Caneda, our base for the Dordogne region. We spent the afternoon exploring parts of this wonderful, intact medieval town.

On Saturday, we set out to visit the villages of Montignac, Lascaux, Beynac et Canezac, and La Roque Gageac. Montignac was our first stop. It is another medieval village. At Lascaux, we descended into a cave to view rock paintings that were completed by Cro-Magnon man in the Palaeolithic period, 20 000 years ago. These paintings were extraordinary, but we were not able to take pictures. We then proceeded to Beynac et Canezac, which is also a medieval village on the Dordogne River. There is a huge castle at the top of the cliff overlooking the village (as with many villages in this region). The final stop for the day was La Roque Gageac.

On Sunday, we went to Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac, the Maison Forte de Reignac and La Roque Saint Christophe. The latter two were prehistoric sites that had been developed in medieval times. At Les-Eizyies-de-Tayac we visited the Prehistory Museum. We then went to the Maison Forte, were we were able to see how people of the medieval times had built into the natural rock shelves that had been used in prehistoric times. The final stop was La Roque Saint Christophe. This was a similar site to the Maison Forte, but it was a whole village (the rock shelf was 800 metres long) .However, the buildings has long been destroyed.

---