April – 2024 | capetocarpe

Spring is truely here with both my Plum and cherry trees in full flower.

18th. Off at last. First stop Bordeaux Airport to pick up Vicky. A seemless excersize due the perfect timing of both of us arriving at the pick-up point simultaneously!

It involved a long, frustating and convoluted drive to get to our first night stop at Les Eyzies due largely to my deciding to imput the cordinates of the destination Aire into the satnav and follow it as opposed to my own route plan. BIG mistake. However we got there eventually.

The Aire has now become a Camping Car Park commercial Aire so electricity points at each site and from our spot lovely river views.

19th. Got off to a rather shakey start as I did a dramatic face plant on the wooded walkway of the bridge while taking Cassidy for his morning walk. He was somewhat over excited having been in the van pretty much all of the previous day and managed to wrap himself round my legs and bring me down.

Our next disappointment was to find that the visiting schedule for Grtte de Font de Gaume caves with neolithic paintings was fully booked for the whole week. So we satisfied ourselves with a walk round the village .

Vivki then went off to visit The Museum of Prehistory, set dramatically on the hillside overlooking the village, while I went back to the van to get some work done.

At the edge of the village there was an impressive fortifies church.

Having seen and done all that we could in Les Eyzies we decided to move on with our first syop being in the charming and picturesque (a word in danger of being over used in Dordogne!) village of Saint Leon.

The honey coloured stone of the area is luminous and joyfull. Be it in modest homes or the local chateaux. And as always in France there are the inventive shop signs.

And there was a charming village church with scraps of the original Medieval paintings on the interior walls.

Leaving Saint Leon we drove on to the riverside Aire at Montignac in preparation for the Lascaux caves tomorrow.

20th With great excitement we moved along to the parking for these World famous caves. What you actually visit is a reproduction at scale of the actual cave as the cave itself has been closed to the public since 1963 to protect the paintings from further deterioration caused by the humidity produced by all that human breathing! There are several of these reproduction sites and we visited the most recent one housed in am impresive modern building.

From the roof of which there are views back over the town.

The guided tour through the mock up of the cave was impressive and very life-like. I certainly did not feel that I had missed anything by not actually being in the real cave. If anything we benefitted by being immersed in total darkness other than the greace lamps that the cave painters themselves would have used and the guides torch. No photos were alloud but once this tour was over there were reproductions of the paintings in the meseum.

After the cave visit we took a look round town. Its pretty streetsm the riverfront and its lavoirs.

We decided to stay the night in the free car park at the caves and continue to Sarlat in the morning early.

21st, Parked up in the noisy parking on the main street we had coffee and croisants before walking into the Old Town. As it is Sunday we headed straight to the Church of Sainte Marie where there is a daily market as it will close at mid-day.

It was a bit disappointing in as much as the range on offer was very limited. Nuts, Foie Gras and products related to ducks, geese and wallnuts.

The town itself was beautiful. Stunning buildings. Roofs finished in stone shingles, spacious plazas lined with restraunts and narfow cobbled streets.

from the Lanterne des Mort and the Coer des Fontains above to the Rue de la Saamandre, Place de la Liberté and the Fountain Sainte Marie below

To quirky shop signs and miniture doors

The beautiful town of Sarlat had a lot on offer.

We returned to the van and reviewed our planing. As we were ahead of schedul we decided to insert the stunning cliff face village of La Roque Gagaea into the route before proceeding to Rocamadour. It was not a long drive and we settled into the Aire for supper & wine and a short walk along the river before turning in.

22nd. As I have explored here before I sent Vicki off on her own and had a much needed catch-up, not least of which was this blog. We have a river trip scheduled for this evening.

It is really chilly so we are both glad of the additional coats etc that I packed. After lunch we took a stole into the village to post cards and look at the bamboo garden.

In the evening Vicki treated us to a boat trip along the river. The boat we used was a replica of the Gabare, a sort of river barge which was first towed by man power, then oxen. They were made redundand , much as in England, by the advent of the railways.

First we headed downstream and admired the rock formations and cliffs.

Then we turned round and headed back up stream and past the village again and the relatively modern castle of Le Lucm a mere 100 years old!

Further up stream was the Cathar castle de-Fayrac and the seven acrched bridge ordered by Napolian.

The Cathars were chased out by Simon de Montfort, reputed lover of Ealenor of Aquitaine, at the behest of the Pope.

We passed one more un-named castle at a deistance before returning to the moorings and home to the van.

23rd. Today we drove to Rocamadour on some really beatiful , winding mountain roads with spectacular vies including this road side Chateau Belcastel.

At Rocamadour, much to our surprise we decended from the car park to the Sanctuary in a cable rail cabin to the Sanctuary and from there by lift down to the town. The railway went through solid rock and was quite an engineering feat.

The views from the Sanctuary station were spectacular.

We hurried on down to the town as we had taken longer to get here than we had expected due to several mis-turns! Lunch was really delicious and taken on the terrace with the usual views.

After lunch we walked along the high street. There were beautiful old buildings but one was better viewing then from the first floor upwards as the ground floor was almost solid shopping.

In the tourist brochure they efer to Rocamadour as the vertical city, you can see why!

Next we climbed up one level and had a look at the Sanctuary, whoci is basically a church, boasting a black virgin and a bunch of smaller rooms that could have been offices of residences. Religeous edifices are not really my thing!

However I will say that the Organ Loft and Minstrels Gallery were impressive

The most fascinating aspect was the fosils embedded in the entrance steps!

From here we drove down the road to a fortified flour mill dating back to the C14th. We were given the guided tour by the owner who was totally charming and who at the end of the tour took us to what would have been the miller’s residence and offered us walnuts and a shot of plum liquor which I would estimate was 100% proof.

24th. We drove from Rocamadour via the Malbac vineyards of Le Lot valley. Obviously we had to stop for wine tasteing and to buy a bottle for our hosts for tonight, Mike and Jane at Montjoi.

At Montjoi we stopped to yake a look at the village, a real “Bastide”.

Moving on to Mike and Jane’s we got a tour of the property with all it’s fruit trees and the improvements to the house before having a delicious dinner and settling in for the night.

25th. What we had envisaged was going to be an easy drive today took far longer than we imagined. After a quick coffee with Mike we got onto the road before 9am and stipped at a boulangerie for coffee and croisants on the road. The usual bad signage caused us some confusion on the route and then when we arrived at the Aire in the centre of the city it was full. We did seriously try to wedge ourselves into a corner, but it was not to be. So we put in the cordinates for the next Aire and were taken over an old bridge in the process on renovation. The path between the scaffolding was so narrow we had to turn our wing mirrors inwards.

When we did get to the second Aire it was pleasantly quiet and free. We walked into the city via the old bride again with views on the Tarn.

In the City we visited the Toulous Lautrect Museum which is housed in the Bishops Palace. This and the Cathedral, both built in small red bricks in the C17th by the Bishop to remind the populous in general of the supremacy of the Pope and the Catholic church following the defeat of the Cathars in the area.

There was a beautiful ArtDeco covered market

and some splendid C18th multi storied Town Houses

and the church of Sainte-Salvi with its prety little cloister.

Then it was back to the van for super and bed,

26th. made an early start and once we had dealt with all the housekeeping. Filling water and fuel tanks etc. Set off in the direction of Carcasonne. Arriving at lunch time we settled into the Aire and after lunch headed for the Bastide, medieval Cité.

We entered through a double wall with an outer moat for water and an inner dry moat which is a virtual “killing field” as attackers are trapped between two walls and are at the merci of the defenders above them. Arrows and othetr misiles would have been rained down on them.

The fortifications were truely impressive but there were soooo many tourists.

The streets inside were full of tourist shops and places to eat offering everything from ice cream and slush to full menus including local specialities. But we agreed it was a bit Disneyfied.

The fortifications were quite something but they have been extensively renovated and there is no telling what is original and what is renovation which somewhat took the edge off it for me.

The basilica of St Navaire had some seriously impressive gargoyles.

And there are views down into the “Ville Base” and across to modern Carcasonne.

27th. We drove as far as Limoux, to a riverside Aire with electric plug in. For me this was a work day with cliet month end reports to get out. However in the late afternoon I was clear and we took a walk into what Vikki has initially thought was a nothing special little town.

Firstly it had more churches than you could shake a stick at! Then we did see one impressive little stone built house and were intreagued by the hinges on the window shutters. But basicallt so far, so Ho-Hum.

The we found a medieval bridge that was a pedestrian reserve where a number of people were looking at something below it. It turned out to be a Brass Band, part of the town’s Festival of Brass. They were playing outside one of the many churches on the banks of the river Aude.

Then we stumbled across a Museum of Automatons. The parents-in-Law of the man who showed us in had been making automatons for 50 years and now he and his waife had taken up the art. The exhibits were amazing in their detail and imagination. After viewing the displays we watched videos of the history of the art which dates back to 1760 and evolves into the costruction of the first prosthetic limbs with moving parts.

We arrived back at the medieval bridge in time to see the finali of the brass performance featuring a trumpeter arrive from up river in a canoe!

Not such a Ho-Hum town after all!

28th. Nothing much to report today and not many photos. We left Limoux at a leisurey pace in the rain, we continued over two mountian passes, in the rain, we arrived at Céret, in the rain. In Cérat, which would probably be delightful in the sunshine.

In the guide book The museum of Modern Art promissed Picasso and Matisse so we headed there. No Matisse but wandered round with Picasso and friend!

And enjoyed Picasso’s ceramics and some colourful wall hangings.

When we left the museum it was still raining so we went in search of the first available camp site as we intended to stay 2 nights and spend tomorrow doing laundry. We found one very close to town and settled in for the night.

29th. Still raining cats and dogs! Spent the day moving between the camper and the laurdry room washing and drying bedding, towels and clothing. Quite a process! The rain never stopped so we did not feel we were missing out on much and just hoped that tomorrow it will lift as we head for the Med.

30th. First stop Collioure, a fishing village with coulurful houses painted in different colours. We headed for the Port as we wanted to have lunch over looking the water.

The Port had fortified arms either side of the entrance and was overlooked by a Cathar castle. Even though it was still raining the port area and beach had a certain charm.

There was a windmill on the hill below the Castle and below that was a tiny square, white mosque.

We had a stunning and very indulgent lunch

before taking a walk round the town on our way back to the van

Instead of popping over to Port-vendres a little to the South we decided to continue North towards Narbonne in order to shorten the journey for tomorrow. This was a good move as we ended up in the Port town of Le Bacarés. There was a big Port du Pleasance for the liesure boats and an outer harbour with a tiny entrance.

Some very old fishing boats with Latine sails were tied up there. Now-a-days they are used as trip boats. There were story boards telling of their previous lives.