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The Valentré Bridge
The bridge spans the winding River Lot that snakes like a serpent around the townBonjour - a few fast paced blogs coming up so we can catch up!
Saturday morning we planned to head for Bordeaux but changed our minds and headed straight down across country, it was a spectacular drive. We stopped for a rest at a small town the name of which escapes me for now - but I will look it up and edit this entry. As with everywhere in France there was an old chateau and I was, as usual, taken with their war memorial sculpture - I always find them so creative I like how they encourage you to ponder when you are looking at the images - what do they say to you? - see pictures when I can manage to upload them from iPad, its being very stubborn.
Our route passed through part of the Dordogne driving through avenues of Plane trees until we reached Cahors where we decided to set up camp. Tent went up like a dream - thank you Decathlon! - took us approximately 10 mins, this was better than we could have hoped for. As we were only planning to stay one night we chose the living room, this was fine and
This one is for Sandy
Thought this would amuse Madame Edinburgh very roomy. We know we have really invested well in this tent and there will be many more happy days spent in it. As we told you before its called MSH and has a living room and bedroom, and you can add pods to it and make a small village! Fancy coming camping anyone ha ha. You can pitch the bedroom as a small overnight tent or indeed the living room, or, both together - which we plan to do for longer stays.
We met a guy from Yorkshire on the site who was walking the Camino he had a very sore foot. We fed him and gave him some dressings and told him to get to the doctors as it looked infected. He was thinking of giving up but some sound words from Monsieur made him think again. We got him some information about taking the train to St John Pied a Port where he could restart and where he would find lots of orthopaedic help to get him on the road again. We do hope he made it.
So to camping - made Monsieur a yummy ham and egg salad and we settled down for the
Himself
Keeping watch over the town and river night. It was flipping freezing - those who know me will know that if I was cold then it was really cold! During the night Monsieur leapt up and said “I can’t take anymore its sooooo cold” and jumped onto my lilo, along with his blankets, ha ha, it was much warmer then. We woke to the birds singing, the nightingales were especially delightful, if you have never heard them, believe us it is the sweetest sound. Lying in bed we could see the shadow of the blossom tree that was above our tent dropping its petals on our roof. Had a yummy breakfast of Parisienne mushrooms and tomatoes and decided to stay another night. Nice little camp site but would not want to stay there in season as it would be very crowded and noisy. However for families with children it would be excellent. Smallish tight pitches but the facilities were very good, and the owners helpful.
We then set off to explore Cahors - what a great choice to stay here, as with everywhere else in our beloved France there is so much to see. The main square was planted with vines and roses - I cannot
What the heck was that!
Ian after being dive bombed by swallows think of a better combination. It had a typical european water feature in the centre (they are everywhere in Europe except the UK) and everyone was out enjoying the sun, the company of family and friends, birdsong, life and whatever…..
We went to look at The Valentré Bridge, construction began in 1308 and was completed in 1378. It is associated with Devil’s Bridge legends and a small sculpture of himself can be seen in the pictures at the top of one of the towers. In fact, the image appears all over town.
When we walked over the bridge there were swallows nesting in the archway of the middle tower and if you lingered too long they swooped and dived at you to tell you to move along! it really makes you jump as they come very close and it is totally unexpected. It seems that Sunday afternoon is a time for motorbikes to gather on the square and we watched as they arrived on their powerful, polished machines and paraded whilst being admired by everyone.
Below the main square is a car park where a Roman Amphitheatre was discovered during building. If you go down to Level
Vertigo!
Imagine having to go up and down those steps with no handrail - eeeekkk 2 they have sectioned off part of the level so that you can see the remains - can you imagine NCP doing that?
à bientôt
Monsieur et Madame
Memoires Mephisto watching you everywhere you go
Little girl discovering and playing with her shadow on the square
Swooping Swallows on the bridge
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Camilla Worth
non-member comment
Green with envy!!
Bonjour Monsieur Ian et Madame Carrie! Really enjoying your blog. It gives a lovely flavour of your travels and your selves. Mainly it's making my feet very itchy! Monty sends a special woof and a wag. All the best from us all, Camilla