Dordogne area – prehistoric man, caves and pate de foie gras

Perigord geese, in Sarlet en Caneda

Pate de fois gras – I am not keen on how the French produce this delicacy - the liver of force fed geese and ducks - but it is a treat with a bit of baguette tradionelle and a glass of Monbazillac (a dessert type white wine). We covered off both items this week.

It was Sunday afternoon when we arrived at Sarlet Le Caneda in the Dordogne region – luckily a few places were open. It is a lovely ancient town dominated by a huge church that dates back to the 9^th century. We stopped for an espresso and a cafe noisette (an espresso with a dab of frothy milk) at a bar in the mellow honey coloured, cobbled square. Everywhere foie gras was for sale – it is the town’s specialty. There was a bronze statue of three Perigord geese honouring their importance in the area. On the way to Sarlet we stopped to photograph some of these geese – probably destined to be pate - they seemed quite friendly, no hissing just a bit of honking as they rushed to and fro in their pleasant little field with a stunning backdrop of a chateau overlooking a silky river.

Roque Saint Christophe

We enjoyed travelling the Vezere Valley, it has an abundance of sites inhabited by early man dating back over 50,000 years, which makes New Zealands habitation look a bit like a baby. The remains are well preserved due to the limestone that is prevalent in the area. Neanderthal man and Cro-Magnon man both lived together here at one stage, until Neanderthal man died out there was a period of 10,000 years that they existed in parallel. Cro-Magnon man looks like modern man and was responsible for the artwork at Lascaux, Neanderthal was shorter, stockier and has a prominent brow-bone. The museums we visited discredited early theories that Neanderthal man was unintelligent, but had no explanation for their demise. 

Chateau built into cliff

The Lascaux caves are the “must see” in the area. We don’t get to see the original as the caves were shut 13 years after they were opened because the paintings were degrading quickly due to lichen and calcite formed by carbon dioxide exhaled by so many visitors. The reproduction cave is accurate in three dimensions to 1cm of the original cave. It took 20 artists over 20 years to recreate exactly what had been done 20,000 years ago. The paintings incorporated perpective and scaffolding had been used to paint on the ceilings. The paints were mineral based and had been applied by stamping and brushes and probably also by blow-tubes. It is thought some of the shapes had been created by stencils.

There was a depth to some of the paintings as the artists used the contours of the cave to depict relief in the paintings. Most of the pictures were bulls/cows and horses, lots of horses. Strangely, historians have found that 95% of the prey of Cro-Magnon man of the time was reindeer. They didn’t paint what they hunted.

Cliffside house above Dordogne river

The cliffs over the rivers in the Dordogne area have been inhabited for over 20,000 years. What started out as simple cave shelters evolved into dwellings that sometimes evolved into chateau. Roque Saint-Christophe was a fortified village carved out of the pre-existing caves used by early man and in the early middle ages further adapted to make a strategic defensive village. The limestone wall is 1km long and 80m high. It was inhabited until the Renaissance period, as we walked through it we found it hard to get our heads around the timescales involved. Just down the road was Maison Forte de Reignac, a chateau built into the cliff on the site previously inhabited by early man 20,000 years ago. The facade was built in the 15^th century, the chateau was occupied until the 20^th century, it looked all a bit too basic to me for a chateau.

Sarlet de Caneda

We headed deeper into the Dordogne area in search of a bottle of Monbazillac to accompany the foie gras. We found it on an aire in the village of Monbazillac. We were staying on a working vineyard, vines separated us from the other mohomes and we watched the pickers at work. We had a tasting of the different wines they produced and settled on a Sauvignon which was quite nice (for Sav) as well as the quite sweet golden Monbazillac. The tourist office gave us a sample of different Monbazillacs, some were sweeter than others, they were all great to me!

We have had some chilly nights so on the way to the interestingly named town of Condom, we stopped at a supermarket and treated ourselves to some fleece lined crocs! Stus are camo to match his new cap, mine are mens’, decorated with a US flag and motorbike. All about price!

Condom wins the prize for best aire this week – spacious, hardstands, picnic tables, nice outlook, and free. A walk along the riverbank took us into the town which was a lot livelier than some towns we have been to. There was an imposing, ornate old church and bronze statues of D’Artagnan and the three musketeers. The tourist office said that D’Artagnan had been born nearby.

It was raining lightly that evening and too late to change the menu of the day, so Stuart stood outside in his rain jacket holding a rainbow coloured golf umbrella over the barbecue while he barbecued pork chops. This device is connected to gas and slides out from the side of the truck and can be used as a regular cooktop also. The rain deterred any male on-lookers. Generally when we use the barbecue we get men coming to have a look at a gadget they haven’t seen before. Some return with their wives in tow, pointing out the ‘must have’ accessory.

The town of Condom, D'Artagnan and three musketeers

Sunny Spain beckons but we still have the Pyrenees mountains to explore, so you will have to wait for the next exciting installment to hear all about it.