Roc St Christopher and Sarlat 19th Sept 2011

Quick notes from the 19th Sept:

- Lazy breakfast then travelled towards Les Eyzies, getting lost.

- Combarelles cave sold out before we got there at 11.30am. Damn. Didn't think it through properly.

- Drove out to Abri Cap Blanc and walked down the hill to ticket office. Nope, next tour is at 4pm and not in English. Put our names down for 11am the next day.

- Wondered what to do. On a whim, headed to Roc St Christopher, the troglodyte city. Glad we did. This is a huge rock shelter inhabited for 50,000 years. Saw most activity in the middle ages before it was destroyed in the wars of religion. We learned how people carved out square holes in the rock to make it easier to build shelters. Also there was a church with graves dug in, medieval building devices and a few interesting scenes laid out with original weapons or tools. The site features in the latter Ayla books.

The huge rock overhang has had a long history

How it may have looked in the middle ages

View down the river

Recreations of medieval construction machines

Stairway to heaven

No pictures!

Bottom of the rock shelter

Lovely view over the valley. Really enjoyed the visit, it was unexpected. Also had a nice E3 vegie soup for lunch.

- Headed to Sarlat, parked the car and wandered about the old city. It was Monday so half the place was closed. there were, however, 16 different fois gras shops all selling exactly the same thing in different containers.

Early French rocket prototype

Sarlat. It has old stuff.

-Sarlat is big on old buildings  but I think we're a bit beyond that stage now. Looked a bit, didn't spend too long.

- Very serious photo being taken by a group at the Sainte Marie fountain. I made faces to they laughed at the last minute.

- Had ice cream, creme brulee and Luke had lemon merangue pie... very nice.

Went shopping, bought leeks and chicken to make risotto... a big success.