Another day in the Dordogne area took us to the Lascaux caves and another couple of beautiful little towns.
At some point beautiful little towns tend to blur into each other. Perhaps we have almost reached that point. Thats not to say we don't appreciate the one we are actually visiting in real time, just that it gets harder to remember the earlier ones!
Today we were Sarlat, built of golden coloured stone, and full of interesting little streets and odd shaped buildings...
and at Collonges la rouge, which is tiny but distinguished by its building materials - really red sand stone. The colour of the stone apparently comes from its high iron content. Collonges la rouge is a front runner for favourite cute town at the moment.
Just as memorable was the food (yes again!) Foie gras for one, and all sorts of parts of the bird prepared in many ways - I managed about 5 different duck bits in one lunch.
I don't think you would want to be a goose or a duck around these parts, even if you do get your own statue and specialist shops.
The truffles and walnuts are also memorable. Vin aux noix, or walnut liqueur is very nice!
Lascaux is in the Vezere valley, which has many caves containing prehistoric cave paintings - said to be the highest concentration of stone age art anywhere in Europe. Lascaux was discovered in 1940 having been sealed up by a rockfall for untold ages. Unfortunately the paintings deteriorated quickly once exposed to the air and human visitors, and today they are not accessible to the public. But the French have thoughtfully built a replica cave that you can visit.
Sounds potentially a bit lame? But in fact it was a most enjoyable and informative visit, helped by a guided tour which brought to life the 17,000 year old paintings that might otherwise have been quite hard to appreciate.
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