Europe 2010 - Day 7 - Side Trip: Rocamadour

For this trip, we opted for a GPS unit in the rental car. And just for getting us out of Paris in rain and traffic, it was worth it. But sometimes? We got extra adventure...

Driving no man's land...

Where are we? I don't know. Next to this heap of wood?

That's our Fiat 500. Great car, by the way.

Our off-roading did bring us to this cool stone building, for which we totally trespassed to get a closer look...

Back on the "road." Finally...Rocamadour!

Since Rocamadour is built on a cliff, the thing to do is go to the top of the chateau and walk out on this ledge and...wait, why am I doing this?...

Oh, right, to look down...

And Shan's out of there. But Dave's brave...

A stone gutter on the roof...

The real reason people come to Rocamadour is it's on one of the pilgrimage trails to Santiago de Compostela, so the thing to do is actually the hillside stations of the cross...

...which lead to all kinds of chapels below. One of them has a very famous black madonna, seen in the center of this photo, against the blue background. A beautiful chapel with stars painted behind the altar, and a lot of ship/navigation references. This is a very naughty photo, as taking it was technically forbidden...

Two more angles on the church...

And more great door detail...

While walking out of town, a backward glance...

Nifty succulent plant on this lane...

On our way back to the B&B, a shot of one of the many walnut orchards in the region...

...and a moody vineyard...

...and another house in the rock...

Europe 2010 - Day 6 - Side Trip: La Roque St-Christophe

Visited Lascaux II this morning. Great replica and a fun, enthusiastic guide, but no photos. :(

Stopped in St Léon Sur Vézère for lunch. Had a great meal at Restaurant de la Poste, where the chef was also the barkeep. Then we checked out the town's Romanesque church...

Then we went to see La Roque St-Christophe, a kilometer-long rock shelter above the River, first occupied over 50,000 years ago and later fortified...

Some of the most interesting displays were replicas of medieval construction machines...

Notice the posts and beams set into the rock. Holes for this kind of construction can be seen in rock shelters and on cliff faces throughout this region...

Cool storage niche...

A stone water basin catching water dripping from the limestone ceiling...

Reconstruction of a half-timbered wall...

We (and everyone who ever lived here) had a great view of the valley...

Europe 2010 - Day 5 - Side Trip: Maison Forte de Reignac

Breakfast at Ferme de Tayac. Off-camera: cereals, yogurt, bread, and croissants. Great way to wake up!

Today, we drove up the Vézère River to see the fortified house of Reignac, at a rock shelter into which houses have been built for centuries, in various forms. Doing so made the house more easily defensible, and gave inhabitants natural climate control. Rooms carved into the rock stored food, wine, and other supplies. The current house is stone...

Our favorite room was the kitchen...

The hearth...

A stone stove...

...and stone sink (drains to outside under window)...

Mouse trap?...

Cool rotary mixer...

Most interesting: the lockable bread cabinet...

Europe 2010 - Day 4 - Sarlat to Les Eyzies de Tayac

We decided to drive the "smile" curve of the Dordogne to get to Les Eyzies. On the way, we stopped briefly in Domme. The light was dim in the church (and photos frowned upon - don't tell), but this is a stone carving of a girl holding her wooden shoes in her right hand...

Rock shelters with ruins were common along the river valley...

We also stopped in Saint-Cyprien, founded by a hermit (Cyprien) who holed up in one of these rock shelters in the 7th Century. In the 9th Century, monks first fortified the settlement against raids from the far north. This is the approach to, and facade of, the church...

Our hosts in Les Eyzies were Mike and Suzanne at Ferme de Tayac -- lovely people, lovely place! This is the great room where we spent our evenings before a fire, reading books and drinking wine, and listening to Suzanne's Celtic music mix -- perfect for the misty/rainy weather of the season...