Day Thirteen; When it rains, go underground.

Woke up to a rainy overcast day. Can't really complain as it is the first rainy day of our trip. Besides we were using this day to see one of the prehistoric caves that dot this region. Mary Ann and I had seen two of them 20 years ago when we were on vacation. To me it is such a thrill to see paintings in caves done by our prehistoric ancestors. Nothing like seeing the real paintings and carvings up close. But I am getting ahead of myself. First we have to get there. A one and a half hour drive.

But what a drive it is. Thorough French countryside on back roads where I think we saw 3 cars the whole way there. This is the countryside where the 100 years war was fought with France north of the Dordogne River and English forces to the south. So almost any village of any size today has a fortress along the river.

 A commanding view of the river

A church in a hillside village

We arrive in plenty of time for our 11:15 tour. It is still raining but not in the cave. Now the tour is given 95% in French. But they gave us a printed guide book in English with large print so we pretty much knew what our guide was saying, except for the jokes. I laughed anyway. It is absolutely forbidden to take any pictures, videos or the like even without a flash. So no pictures from the cave except for a couple from two postcards I bought.

This cave was much larger than the ones we had seen 20 years ago. The caves from 20 years ago had us walking single file and were not very wide at all. This was more like a cavern with Stalagmites and Stalactites and high ceilings in places. It also supported bears when they wanted to hibernate. Could have been very scary going in there with just a torch. At one point the guide turned out all the lights to show us what it might have been like without modern lighting. Great paintings and a very nice guided tour.

To not get in trouble reproducing images without permission, I guide you to their web site.

http://en.pechmerle.com/

After the tour of the cave, it is time for lunch. Since the town of Saint Cirq Lapopie is close, we decide to go there. What a find. We drive to above the village then turn around and find such a nice restaurant. 

Don't try to run your boats past this town.

And then our lunch. Another good one with each of us having a different quiche. Mine had duck in it.

 Mary Ann at our mountain Village Restaurant.

My Lunch for the day

We drove back to Sarlat and Mary Ann and Linda went to the apartment for a nap. I parked the car in the free parking lot and bought some nice local wine. Of course the lady in the wine store spoke no English and I very very little French. However the language of wine is universal.

She: Favorite?

Me: Medoc (strange look from her as she has none)

She: Pointing Malbec or Bordeaux?

Me: Bordeaux.

She: Tannin's or less Tannin's

Me: Tannin's

 And between the two of us she helped me pick out a very nice wine which I am enjoying as I type.

A Cahors Chateau Coustarelle 2015. I doubt they have it in the States, but you never know.

It stopped raining. But it is much cooler than yesterday. Walked downtown around 7:00 to eat a very light dinner. Didn't want to wait so long that everything was closed for a Sunday night. As it was many restaurants were not open. But again, lucky us. We find a crepe restaurant that had such a variety we were very happy. Plus Mary Ann and I had our first Kir (Creme de Cassis and white wine) actually I had two. 

 I had a simple House Chocolate Crepe while Mary Ann and Linda had one with goat cheese and a salad on top.

A very nice walk back up the hill to the apartment and to bed.

Tomorrow we hope to visit a Foie Gras farm and maybe even a truffle farm, not as early or as long in the car as today.