Allo! Allo!
I know this will come as a surprise to all, but we found even MORE caves ... excuse me, grottes – to explore! Headed first toward Gourdon, a really lovely little town about 20 km from Sarlat, on the south. Arrived right at opening time (10 a.m.) at Grottes de Cougnac. Again, it was raining gently but steadily. We were on the first tour – along with two other folks, and a very charming guide who did a nice job explaining things in French with occasional English thrown in. Cougnac is actually two caves. The first is entirely natural; a living wet cave, and it was spectacular! Perhaps we are a bit jaded from the thoroughly hygenic and protected Kartchner Caverns; air locks, guides at both ends, don’t touch anything; very rigid guidelines; all good, but this cave, while not as big, was equally spectacular, and was still living and growing without an air lock! Lots of cave bacon and fried eggs – and R took the wonderful picture of the tiny bat who was just “hanging out.” We exited that cave and then walked 1/4 mile to the natural AND prehistoric cave. Just wonderful, and this included our first humans!! WOW! Two drawings, one of a person sitting and another of a person lying down – no heads, but definite bodies; looks like the person lying down was pierced with arrows or the prehistoric equivalent. These paintings were dated at 25,000 years old, the oldest we’ve seen yet. While we were talking about the human drawings, our guide mentioned that there were other human drawings at Pech-Merle, another cave which wasn’t exactly nearby...however, we decided to go there next, so headed off. By this time it was lunch, and as we’re still in the “low” tourist season, everything closes daily. So, stopped at a place near the Lot river (just beautiful, by the way) for salad for me and steak hache/chips for R (is this starting to be a habit, you ask?). Then headed to Pech-Merle, which is quite an operation. There were 18 of us on this tour, and we (the English speakers) were given a book which supposedly would go over what the guide would talk about in French. Interestingly enough, they had books in Hebrew and other languages, so we all just trailed along looking for numbers so we could know what was being said. (Robert says the guide mumbled and talked (and looked) like Sylvester Stalone...) Not a great tour, but some lovely drawings, again, in a living cave. And this time, we saw what was called “wounded man” as well as a variety of hands!! painted on the wall! Apparently, painters would put one of their hands on the wall and then take the paint either in their mouth or via a hollow tube and blow it against their hand! What incredible images! Again, amazing.
Having now done two caves in one day, we decided to head back to Sarlat and the grocery store. Found the Champion, and have to admit, it wasn’t a particularly good store ... if we were staying in this area we would try another. Awful traffic jam getting through Sarlat (road construction), so R found a really BACK route to avoid it – WAY up high around the city; lovely drive, and put us out right before the market. Got food for three days; SO nice to have a chance to cook! R bought shrimp (pre-cooked, unfortunately...) and made his spicy shrimp saute, with rice and petit pois; excellent, and SO nice to be able to eat at home! I did yet another load of laundry, and boy, did the flat smell good from dinner when I came in the door!! Had hoped to end the day with another football game (AC Milan vs. Manchester United) for the second team in the final of the UEFA Champions League ... but no, instead we had the debate between the two contenders for the President of France – go Segoline Royal! (FYI, AC Milan won 3-0 and will now be playing vs. Liverpool in a few weeks.)
So, off to bed after another busy day! Hoping for a bit clearer weather, but we’ll take what comes!!
Take care, and love to all!
m
No comments:
Post a Comment