Blogs from Dordogne, Aquitaine, France, Europe - page 3

9/6/09 It was early this morning but Andrew couldn’t resist a ride in the Dordogne hills. We headed off to see the cave of pre-historic man today. The first cave we arrived at was the Lascaux Cave in Montignac, France. This is the home to some of the oldest cave paintings of over 17,000 years old. The original caves where damaged by letting people in and the carbon dioxide (see, Global Warming). So, they made an exact replica right next to it as to preserve the original art. It was amazing and almost as cool as the Sistine Chapel paintings. Most of the paintings were of bulls, buffalo, horses, deer and other animals. The colors were brilliant and made from iron oxide powders. They used different techniques to paint such as crating carving knives, brushes, and ... read more

September 5, 2009 - Salat & Dordogne River, France We walked down this morning to Sarlat as today was the big market day. Once we hit the village we were amazed by all of the vendors and booths that had appeared overnight. They must have started brining people in at 2 am. The food was amazing. Butchers were there with fresh meats and sausages and fresh fish. Huge wheels of cheese, which we tried several. And of course tons of people selling and letting you taste fois gras. The fruits and veggies where most impressive as you bought them from the local farmers. I tried to buy just a couple of nice peaches and got yelled at from the farmers wife. I assumed I couldn’t buy only a few as she kept loading me up with ... read more

9/4/09 - Sarlat, France The drive to Sarlat in the Dordogne was fairly short and the countryside green and lush dotted with sun-kissed gold stone chateaus and cottages. Sarlat was to be our base for 3 days while we explored the region. This area is known for goose liver pate and fois gras.  We saw tons of geese farms on our way in to town and I made Andrew stop and take pictures. We found brochures in our tour books from 1999 which is when we started thinking about going to Sarlat and the Dordogne. Andrew bought me a big picture book from the area many years ago and we have been wanting to go ever since. We found a lovely campground (Pierre) that was only a 10 min. walk downhill to the medieval village. ... read more

Planned at beginning to go to France with parents. My aunt decided to come too - she ended up organising the trip as she knew France quite well and wanted to drive in Europe in her sports car. With Sarlat in the Dordogne as the base we were guaranteed beautiful scenery. Dad & Mum travelled down by train and I hired a 4 seat car for the week there. Turned out we got fantastic weather the whole week in Sarlat and had a marvellous time. Canoeing down the river Dordogne for 15 km between Vitrac and Beynac was a definate highlight. Saw fair share of chateaux. Also saw wonderful replica cave paintings at Lascaux II - originals only accidentally discovered in 1940 by 4 teenagers and Robot the dog! Road trip was great, lots of good ... read more

Luscious Lillie’s blog Well, we’ve excelled ourselves over the last few days, staying in Sarlat, which turned out to have an ancient medieval cité, restored as only the French do. We spent a pleasant day and evening there. However, we stopped over night at an Aire on the outskirts of town which turned out to be the noisiest ever, not a wink of sleep. Moved onto visit Les Eyziers which was marvellous set in the heart of the Dordogne countryside by the banks of the Valeezes, surrounded by pre-historical sites where nethandrical man once dwelt. Our Aire was amazing so peaceful, quiet and welcoming (see picture). The first day we cycled along one of the recommended cycle tracks, supposedly an easy 12km, however we got lost and ended up cycling about 18km mostly up very ... read more