France 2023: JULIEN

Our first destination today was a guided tour (fortunately in English) of the Caves at Lascaux.

The caves were discovered in 1940 by some teenage boys exploring the hills outside of town. Inside this circuitous, meandering cave were extraordinary paintings left behind by the local inhabitants about 20,000 years ago. The caves we explored are an exact replica of the ones found years ago complete with visitor center, restaurant, and obligatory gift shop (yes you do exit through the gift shop).

Notice the massive visitors center which is a very recent addition.

This is a replica of the replica; Kim is the real thing!

Even though the caves are a replica the lighting simulates the illumination the inhabitants used. It was probably animal fat lamps that did not produce soot which would have covered the paintings. So, no photography while meandering through the cave. There is an extensive display in full light of what you see inside.

We look much better in full light in front of the iconic rock wall bull.

Stop two is the medieval town of Sarlat - pronounced sar-la with the ending t just for show in the French style.

Like so many towns of the same period it burned to the ground during the 100 years war but was rebuilt to last entirely of limestone from the surrounding hills.

Finding parking in the town overrun by tourists (present company excluded) is hard enough but paying for parking is a challenge in a league of its own. This French local showed us the way - Merci.

Hard to pass up a flying buttress but not of Notre Dame acclaim.

A typical village street scene and Sarlat was no exception.

A perfect lunch spot just before it closes at 2:30. Five minutes later and we would have gone hungry.

We shared beef and frites, and duck (aka Canard) which is what is left over after salvaging the liver for Foie Gras (fatty liver). They have everything foie gras except foie gras ice cream (or we might have missed that).

Very old stone building. Some stone is older than dirt.

A flower of some kind.

We are addicted to The Amazing Race. In 2022 episode 7 took the contestants to the Dordogne. We may not have hit every location on the race but the "holy grail" was to find Panorama which is no easy feat since there are no signs anywhere. They were directed to Domme which is at the top of a very windy, steep, and obscure roadway (which we did bike up on a previous day). For us it was easy peasy since we made it here before and were able to follow the car GPS (not available to the teams).