In my early blogging days, I would have done a separate post for each one of these places to visit in Dordogne, including my most recent post on The Village of Martyrs, and it all would have been accomplished in two weeks. Now that I earn my living writing novels, and only post here once every two weeks, I find I’m having to cram it all into one post.
So today I’m going to share some pictures, tourist tips, and a brief (very brief) history of a few places in Dordogne, namely the prehistoric cave of Lascaux, the medieval town of Sarlat, the chateau of Beynac – one of a thousand chateaux located in the region and a prominent place for the Hundred Years War – and finally, La Roque-Gageac
The prehistoric cave of Lascaux
Lascaux is a cave with prehistoric paintings (accomplished by Cro Magnons) from the Paleolithic period 18,000 years ago. It’s located near the city of Montignac and was discovered in the fall of 1940 by a teenager and his dog. The dog was chasing a rabbit and disappeared down a hole and did not come back right away. The teenager, assuming the cave held buried treasure reputed to be in the area, returned the next day with three friends. They slipped through the opening and slid down the limestone slope, walking right past the largest cave of paintings without even noticing because they were looking for the treasure near their feet. It was not until they were in the adjoining cavern that they looked up and saw where the real treasure was. They vowed to keep the secret for the rest of their lives.
In three days the entire village knew of it.
The cave opened to the public in 1948, three years after the war had ended. By 1963, the scientists had realised they were destroying the cave with the foreign bacteria brought in by the one million visitors who passed through there, and they closed the cave. What we saw was an exact replica – a man-made cave situated right next to the real one.
The Cro-Magnons invented candles to see inside the cave. They were made of burning juniper branches, perched in animal fat, in carved out limestone dishes. They used magnesium for the black colors, and not charcoal, which is a bummer because it means you can’t use carbon dating. However, the tools the archaeologists found inside the cave allowed them to date when the Cro-Magnons had been there, and that allowed them to make an educated guess as to their dates. For the reds and yellows, the artists used ochre and the colors are still incredibly vivid.
The image above was painted into the white calcite on the ceiling, which retained the pigment. It’s one of my favorites. Look at how graceful the lines are.
The images tell stories and there are thousands of symbols for which we can’t decipher the meaning. In the whole cave, there’s only one image of a man, and he has an eagle’s head. They don’t know why. The rest are animals.
My father-in-law saw the original cave (Lascaux 1) when he was 18. Our experience in the replica was probably more comfortable than his since we could access the replica by a subterranean elevator instead of squeezing through a narrow opening.
There were other areas in the cave where they carved their images into the limestone. In those places, almost all the pigment is gone and it’s difficult to see. There is a representation in the museum for us to experience the engravings.
If you go to Lascaux, you need to book a couple months in advance, and you should see Lascaux IV since it has more to see than Lascaux II (and, I presume, Lascaux III, though I don’t know anything about that one). We got an English tour since my father and his wife were with us, and you can do that too. It is such an awe-inspiring visit. To think that you are looking at images that were made on the tail end of the ice age, and that exist to this day in almost the same state, is incredible.
Information and possibility to book here.
Sarlat
Rather than my attempting to provide a history of this town, you can read a concise summary here. It does indeed retain it’s antique charm with medieval buildings
And has plenty of cobblestone streets and wisteria vines if you go in the right season.
We had the worst weather imaginable for our stay, which was such a shame. My friend, who is from Dordogne, urged us to take a canoe trip down the river where you can glide by chateau after chateau on each side. We had nearly solid rain and even some hail, so we didn’t attempt it.
The duck statue is cute, isn’t it? This area is known for its foie gras, walnuts, truffles, and dense spiced cakes (I think I’ve got that right). And this plaza was where they ran a brisk trade of buying and selling ducks.
I have a recommendation for purchasing foie gras. We looked at a bunch of shops, and the best deal we could find was at Le Cellier du Périgord. They were really nice there too.
There was a ray or two of sun.
But it was mostly quite grey.
Never mind. It was still beautiful.
Beynac
To appreciate the Chateau of Beynac (and many others), you need to have a basic understanding of The Hundred Years War. I never could make heads or tails of it, so I looked it up and fell down a research rabbit hole for several hours trying to figure out Normans, Vikings, Richard the Lion-hearted, Joan-of-Arc, and what exactly the English and French were fighting over. Here are the basic facts.
Dates: officially 116 years, 1337-1453, though there had been skirmishes well before then.
Who: The Plantagent family of England against the Valois family of France, primarily.
Why: Defending who should be the rightful king over France. And it’s not quite as simple as “well, duh – the French guys, obviously” because there were treaties and cross-marriages between the two, promises and childless unions, which left the heir to the throne ambiguous.
What did Joan of Arc have to do with it? English King Henry V had military success – winning the major battles – but not political success, as the French did not want an English king. Joan of Arc led the French military to victory, lifting the siege of Orleans in 1429 and preventing English rule. Paris was freed by 1441 and the war died out without a peace treaty as the English realised they were the inferior army of the two and they desisted little by little.
What did Richard the Lionhearted have to do with it? Nothing. He was dead by the 100-year war, but he stayed at the Castle of Beynac… here, in the highest keep:
… proving that the shared rule between the French and English in France dated to much earlier than the 1300s. He slept here in 1194.
Here is Beynac – incredibly well-fortified.
And the dining room where, in all politeness, you hang your sword at the edge of the table.
The large hall. Yeah, I know. My pictures aren’t great. I was listing.
Gorgeous paned glass windows.
A view of the countryside that contains the Chateaux of Castelnaud, which was occupied by the British. In that way each warring nation could keep an eye on the other. (I don’t think the building in front is it, though. It’s worth the visit, though we didn’t have time).
A here you get an up-close view of the famous Dordogne rooftops made of stones stacked one on top of the other and stuffed with peat (I think) and which last 300 years…
And that’s Beynac.
La Roque-Gageac
We had so many plans for our trip, which included topiary gardens and Rocamadour and plenty of other places, which were put off for lack of time or because of the weather. But we did visit La Roque-Gageac, a city built into the side of a mountain.
As it is one of the more picturesque villages in France, I have failed in my mission to accurately represent it to you. We were more interested in getting lunch and getting out of the rain than we were in finding a vista point from which to capture the entire city. But there are narrow walkways through the city, and in some places lined with exotic plants.
There are other streets tucked away into the city, many of them residential.
The city is on the Dordogne River and was an important place for trade in the Middle Ages. The bishops from Sarlat also came here for their summer residence.
You can almost see how it can be considered one of the more beautiful towns, but I would need a sunny day and more time to do it justice.
So that’s my brief tour of the Dordogne region. If you give yourself a week and luck out with nice weather, you should do a much better job of visiting it than we did. But I hope this will whet your appetite to give it a try.
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Beautiful! thank you for sharing.