Grottes we have visited...

Bonjour!

Well, May 1 is indeed a holiday in France! We circled three grocery stores – all shut up tight! One at least, Leader Price, did have a sign up saying it was closed for the holiday ... who knew? So, needless to say, no cooking last night for us! R was lucky to find croissants! By the time we were up and ready to go, it was raining gently – a precursor of the entire day! We headed out anyway for the cave at Rouffignac, about half an hour away. Lovely drive, as the roads were really deserted – where did all the people go?? By the time we got to Rouffignac, we were sure it would be closed, but, surprise! It wasn’t, and we got there just as it was opening!

Rouffignac is just amazing. It’s a HUGE cave, that winds for more than 10 km, with multiple stories and multiple channels leading off. It has been known for centuries – first mentioned in print in the 1500's; explored repeatedly by local spelunkers in the area. However, it wasn’t until the 1950's that the paintings were really recognized and verified for what they were – prehistoric! And, there is a train to get to them! So, off we went into the tunnels and on to the train. Talk about dark!! The train probably holds about 20 people, with the guide at the end. He is the only one with a light, although occasionally as the train passes through, floor lights come on. The cave is mostly a dry cave (no longer growing), and is the result of a dry river bed; in places it is still wet, and we were thankful for paying attention at Kartchner Cavern in AZ. Saw cave bacon and soda straws and turnips (why are cave formations named after food??? Especially with the grocery stores closed??!) As we moved along the passage, the cave paintings started to appear – absolutely beautiful; lots of bison, horses, rhinoceros, mammoths. What was interesting (albeit disturbing) was the amount of graffiti that was there, sometimes even around the paintings! Dates from the late 1700's, even titles like the Abbe de la Tour! At one point the guide turned all the lights out – and talk about DARK! How the cave painter(s) could even see what they were doing – incredible! In the last cavern, the ceiling was completely decorated – and apparently the painter(s) had worked on their backs, as the floor level had been much higher than it is now. The picture above is one of the paintings that we saw. You’re not allowed to take photographs, but we bought the guide book, and R photographed the photograph; I thought it came out well, and wanted everyone to see what I’ve been going on about! To be honest, Rouffignac is my favorite cave to date; just incredible!

From there (still in the rain) we returned to Les-Eyzies (think I finally got the spelling right...) for lunch. Found a small restaurant and had tomato salads and pizzas; great, and just thing for a cold, rainy day! Decided naps were in order, so drove back to Sarlat and settled in for a good sleep. (We’re so boring!) Rained all afternoon, sometimes really hard; lovely to watch the rain hitting some of the slate roofs we could see. For dinner, we decided to return to the Triboulet, where we’d eaten the previous night with Brenda and Chris. This time, I had steak hache and chips and R had the Sandre with celeric sauce and a wonderful round of spinach; no desert tonight. Back (still raining!) to Villa des Consuls – and R found a football (soccer) game on TV – great game, Liverpool vs. Chelsea; semi-final game of the FA (Football Association) Cup. So, much on the line for both clubs. It went to penalty kicks, after 90 minutes of regular time and 30 minutes of overtime – and Liverpool won! Yea!! I’m hopeful we’ll be able to get another game tonight ... we’ll see!!

Just about ready to go down for breakfast today. Weather predicted to be intermittent showers, but very dark at the moment (guess we’re at the intermittent stage...). We’re heading to Gourdon today to see if we can get in the Grottes de Cougnac – so yes, more caves hopefully in our future today!!

Take care, and love to all!
m