It has rained quite a bit every day for the last six days. We spent two nights in Aubusson keeping an eye on a slowly rising--but quickly moving--river fifteen feet from our back door. We made the sloppy walk into the town once to see the tapestry museum and a small workshop there. It was a lovely old town . . . but too miserable to enjoy.
Then we moved on to the prehistoric cave area. The rain stopped long enough for us to tour the Lasceaux II cave paintings. These are copies of the 17,000 year old paintings found by four boys in 1940: the actual cave was closed to visitors in 1962 because the paintings were being damaged by the carbon dioxide and humidity brought by the thousands of visitors who came. So a model of the original was constructed--dug into the hillside--and opened to the public in 1983, a few hundred feet from the original. It is quite a remarkable thing to see. While waiting for the English version of the tour, we spent some time talking to a British couple who recommended visiting St Emilion, a medieval town near Bordeaux, so we added that to our list. First, though, we headed to Les Eyzies, where cave dwellings literally hang over the town. In this part of France one can stay at Cro-Magnon hotels and eat in Cro-Magnon restaurants and, of course, buy little plastic Cro-Magnon men with spears.
We didn’t do any of those things. Instead, we stayed overnight at a camperstop for €5 in Sarlat-la-Caneda (yet another medieval town), sharing the space with fifteen other motorhomes. Rover attracts a lot of attention in places like that where you are parked side by side in a parking lot.
And then it was on to St Emilion. This is quite an amazing place. It feels like you are in a movie set that cannot quite be real. The town is perched on a hill overlooking thousands of acres of vineyards all around. It was once home to 10,000 but now only 300 people live there. Many of the houses are shuttered and vacant and need repair, which is very difficult and expensive to do because it has been named as one of the top 100 historical sites by UNESCO. The streets are cobbled, steep, and sometimes consist entirely of steps (and, because it had been raining, they’re slippery too). But the most amazing things are underground. We visited St Emilion’s cave (where he lived between 750 and 767!) And we toured the crypts and the entire church that had been carved out of the limestone in the 11th and 12th centuries. There are 50 wine tasting shops tucked into every corner of this magical place, which is also known for its macaroons, here made with almonds instead of coconut. We spent as much at the cookie/chocolate shop as we did for lunch. It really is an amazing place, and I am very glad it was recommended to us. It was well worth the visit.
We stayed at a large campground two miles north of the village. Because of the narrow approaches, we had to go about ten miles out of our way to get there without going through the village. We were briefly stopped by a bike race coming to its conclusion right at the edge of the village and followed a biker through the vineyards to the campgrounds. This sounds simple, but it can be frightening. We knew we couldn’t drive through the town, and as we approached it, already feeling some trepidation, we met a traffic circle with a roadblock set up for the bike race. We know we cannot turn around anywhere: we HAVE to go to the left . . . and, after a momentary stop, the gendarme let us do just that.
This campground has a welcoming committee of six tame geese that approach every single individual as soon as you leave your vehicle, hoping you will be the one who feeds them. They are probably the most photographed geese in France. It was delightful. (This is the foie gras region, and duck is on every restaurant menu . . . which may be why the next morning we were greeted by only four of them.)
And--six days and counting--it is still mostly raining.