Dordogne Undone

For such a small region, I am quite floored by how much there is to see and do here. And so, after four packed and fun days, we feel like we could easily come back for another four days, or a week, or two weeks even, and have just as much fun doing completely new things. If we were going to return, I think we'd probably aim to stay closer to Sarlat, to avoid the vomit-inducing winding drives. Having said that, I enjoy our time in Périgueux and there are some things in the area that we don't squeeze in. For example, l'Appel de la Forêt is an excellent-looking ropes course in nearby Thenon, but it seems to only be open in the afternoons, which does not work as well for our schedule. (And yet another, Airparc Périgord, which looks like it is for bigger kids only.)

Another thing I might do differently, now that I know what I know, is to do our canoe ride on the Dordogne itself, in castle country, instead of on the Vézère river. However, the Vézère has its own charms, and it works out fine for us since we at least get to see La Madeleine from the outside. 

The next time, we would actually like to see the inside of La Madeleine, and so perhaps we'll set aside a few hours to tour the troglydite troglidyte trogladite troglodyte village. We talk about it several times on this trip, but it just never seems to happen. Well, no use griping about what we missed; it's ancient history (rimshot, please...).

And speaking of ancient history, we also manage to miss the Grottes de Font de Gaume, where one can see genuine prehistoric cave paintings, as long as one knows well in advance that one will be wanting to go on this tour. When we make our phone call on Thursday to see the cave on Friday, we are directed to send in an e-mail. And when we send in our e-mail, we are sent a reply that all reservations are booked through the end of August. Given that it's just May, that's a lot of advance planning required.

We could go instead to the Caves de Lascaux, which are the most famous of the cave drawing sites, but a) we do not have time for it either and b) Anthony is less intrigued by Lascaux since what we would be seeing is not the original but a carefully reproduced faux cave. The authorities decided Lascaux wouldn't survive so many tourists and created what is reputed to be a very elaborate and thoughtful reproduction. I still have a small soft-spot for visiting Lascaux, genuine or faux, given that I remember studying about it with my first fantastic French teacher, Mlle. Joan Brim, at Bay Trail Middle School in Penfield, N.Y. I loved her class so much (and was, apparently, so much of a dork) that I once spontaneously wrote a non-assigned epic French poem in which I rhymed Lascaux with....what else?....Moscow.

Though we make it to the lobby, we don't even have time to visit the Museum of Prehistory in Les Eyzies. We miss getting into the museum by about half an hour, and despite Gigi being very interested -- having just studied prehistory as part of the third grade curriculum -- we never make it back during open hours. Down the hill in town, there's a magical-looking fairyland of a garden restaurant where I would eat the next time I visit, too: Le Restaurant au Vieux Moulin at Le Moulin de la Beune. Given that it's a hotel, I might even want to stay here, just because of the almost unbearable cuteness of the setting. You would need a more convenient rental-car arrangement (hint: don't arrive or depart on a holiday or Sunday), however, since there's no train station in town.

For a different sort of cave experience, on our next trip we would also like to visit the Gouffre de Proumeyssac, an immense underground "crystal cathedral" of a cave. This and others in the area boast of tours through beautiful stalactites and stalagmites (mneumonic device: StalaCtites, C=ceiling, so they hang down from the ceiling. StalaGmites, G=ground, so they stick up from the ground).

For slighly more modern history, we could visit le Village Bournat in the town of le Bugue, which is a resconstructed historical village showing life in 1900. It's considered one of the biggest family attractions in the region, but just this past summer, we went to Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts (whose time period is more like 1800), so we give it a miss this time.

There remain many towns on the "Plus Beaux Villages de France" list that we have yet to visit: Saint-Amand-de-Coly, Saint-Leon-sur-Vézère, Belvès, Limeuil, Monpazier, Monflanquin, Turenne, Saint-Robert, Collonges-la-Rouge, Carennac, Loubressac, and Autoire, all ranging from 20 - 70km from Sarlat. And in and near these towns are hosts of other castles that look fabulous, and gorgeous gardens including the famous -- but as yet still unvisited (by us) -- Hanging Gardens of Marqueyssac. So perhaps I should have titled yesterday's posting "The Penultimate" since it looks like we may need to go back.