Saturday and we return to Bordeaux for an overnight stay at the airport, prior to our return flight to the US.

New security arrangements at European airports, all electronic devices must be charged and capable of being turned on. Smartphones, tablets, cameras etc.

At hotel awaiting the moment of check-in for a few miserable
hours in a cramped seat and totally at the mercy of the airlines

Friday and our last full day of touring before we have to head back to Bordeaux to catch the plane home on Sunday. Our car journey to the town of Souillac also turned into a bit of a fiasco and sent us off in directions unexpected.

We drove north east of La Roque-Gageac, really only a few miles, say 20, and we landed up in the Friday morning street market. Many interesting stalls with food, veges, clothes, shoes, "finger spinners" and the like. We ventured into the old Souillac Church "Les Amis Du Vieux Souillac", parts of which date from 1130 AD.

Much like the church in Perigueux, there are domes over the altar and main part of the church (transept and nave to be correct). The ceiling is badly stained and in need of renovation.

Once we had experienced enough of the morning markets we tried to head out of town, to wend our way back to La Roque. Well, many streets are closed off because of the market and many others are under the control of non-existent road repair crews - I'm sure they were at the market. Can you imagine how upset Samantha gets when one does not follow her exact turn directions? As I had never driven in Souillac until this morning, we had no idea of how to get out and find a marked "D" road - most all secondary roads leading out of and into French towns are numbered Dxx (xx donating the road number). Thus we did not know if we were Arthur or Martha, which direction to go in as every second street seemed to have been closed due to the non-existent road crews attention, with nary a Deviation sign.

Finally we seized the bull by the horn, turned off Samantha, spotted the town's aqueduct and made for it. Just our very good luck there was a Dxx road. OK, now input another town for Samantha to make for. Wrong; she loves back roads, the narrower the better, winding through rural French towns of 100 or less inhabitants, the smaller the better as far as she is concerned.

Once again seize the initiative and turn her off and make like Robinson Crusoe - just head in
a direction that seems to be going south west. By this time we badly needed a bathroom break and some lunch. Suddenly we came across a small cafe in the middle of one of those small towns, this time probably with a population of 650?

Imagine our surprise when the cafe was clean, well laid out and - wait for it!!!! - run by an Aussie (Chris) and his wife! She spoke English with an Aussie accent but that must have been because she learned her English with his accent. Anyway this lad was probably in his 30's, with a 2 1/2 year-old, in the middle of nowhere, France. Turns out the owner was his dad, also from Sydney. Together they own and run this small establishment. He used to be a surfer and motor-bike rider in Sydney but came to France 3+ years ago, got married and seems to have settled down.

Great lunch, potty-break and a chat later and we returned to a hot car and doing battle with Samantha. Found our way back to the hotel where we are now hold up until the heat dissipates somewhat.

By the way, for the lads at the Museum, we cannot shake Klio Hobbs off the French roads here - he's everywhere! 

Thursday and one of our most interesting days so far in this wonderful Dordogne region.

First of all we woke up to this image outside our bedroom
window - the Dordogne River in full mist. Compare that to the view from last night - on the right.

We started off by going to the Chateau & Jardines des Milandes in Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, built in the 15th Century and originally the home of the Caumonts, but most famously the long-time home of Josephine Baker. Again no photos allowed inside BUT we did not buy the English version, so the only images are of the massive Chateau and the impressive gardens, for your pleasure.


Josephine was born in St Louis in 1906 and came to France in 1925 at age 19, already

twice married and divorced. She would keep her second husband's last name, Baker, for the rest of her stage career.

She became famous in Paris for performing her "Dance of the Wild" at the Folies Bergère, with nothing but a string of sequined bananas around her waist. One of the original strings is on show in the Chateau as are many of her stage dresses and formal wear. She renounced her American citizenship and adopted French citizenship when she married for a third time in 1937. Her stage, singing and movie career became more and more professional and she soon was a sensation in France, even without the nudity.

Apparently Ernest Hemingway was much impressed and exclaimed that she was "the most sensational woman anyone ever saw".

During the Second World War Josephine worked for French military intelligence by passing on snippets of information that she gathered from Axis diplomats and others, in the show business circles she moved in.

After Germany invaded France in 1940, Josephine moved to her new rented home at the Chateau Milandes in the Dordogne region and started to smuggle in arms for the Resistance movement, housing fugitives and embarking on a world tour during which she would get messgaes to the British about German and Italian troop movements. After the war Charles De Gaulle decorated her with many French military and civilian honor, including the 'Croix de guerre',  the Rosette de la Résistance and she was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur.

In 1947 she purchased the Chateau and, over time, adopted 12 children who were brought up at the Chateau. The building is laid out as a tribute to her legacy. her career and her eventual downfall into bankruptcy. 

In 1968 Josephine, broke and in poor health. lost her beloved Chateau which, together with all the furniture, was sold by profiteers for a third of it's value. She was locked out of the house and forced to sleep on the kitchen steps until she was forced off the property. Josephine was, however, offered an apartment in Monaco by her old friend Princess Grace (Kelly).

In April 1975 broke and needing money, she performed a revue in Paris of her famous act, celebrating her 50 years on the stage. The opening night audience included Sophia Loren, Mick Jagger, Shirley Bassey, Diana Ross, and Liza Minnelli.

Josephine, exhausted and in extremely poor health, died 4 days after the performance, of a cerebral hemorrhage.

We spent over 2 hours at the Chateau, including a garden
show of Falconry by the game keepers. On the left is the impressive Dordogne forested region, taken from the Chateau grounds. On the right, the falconry show in the gardens.



Then back to Sarlat de Caneda for some shopping and back home for an hour's river cruising down the Dordogne. A full and rewarding day's excursions have left us panting for some refreshment.

Wednesday and we leave Perigueux for another sojourn onto the back streets of France, through the most rural areas and small towns - I reckon regardless of Michelle or Samantha that the shortest route to Garmin looks like the best, regardless of the road width or windiness.

Along the way we stopped at the Rouffignac Caves, formed some millions of years ago by a grotto with stalagmite and stalactite formations. Along the way the Dordogne Valley was formed, lower than the rivers that had formed the grotto and the Rouffignac caves dried up. There is proof that great bears occupied these caverns from the bear "nests" or lairs dug into the clay floor for their hibernation. Much evidence of their presence can be seen from the bear claw mark scratches along the walls above the lairs. Scientists have determined that these great bears had abandoned the caves many many years before man came on the scene and there is no evidence that man and bear ever met in the caves.

About 14,000 years ago prehistoric artists penetrated the caves and started to sketch and etch animal drawings on the walls and ceilings of the caves. These drawings include a predominance of woolly mammoths  and rhinoceroses, horses and rams or ibex. Unfortunately some visitors to the caves, before they were put under control, decided to add modern graffiti and their names to prove how daring they were to deface the drawings - this rhinoceros cave drawing shows the evidence.

In one section a sketch of the Great Ceiling contains 66 drawings of these animals. Apparently at the time the drawings were made the floor of that section of the cave was only about 3 feet high and the artist(s) must have laid on their backs with dim tallow lamps to light the area, and the sketches, in proper or full perspective, must have been almost impossible for the artists from a prone position, 3 foot away from the drawing. Thus a horse's head is done in great detail whereas the body is less so.

Scientists have only recently discovered that woolly mammoths had an extra layer of fur and protection around the butt area, and yet this detail was drawn on these sketches/etchings, thus it has been determined that the artists must have been familiar with the great beasts, in life, in order to correctly draw this biological feature. Rhinos also died out at the end of the last European ice-age and man must have mixed with them in order to sketch these animals at Rouffignac.

Again we were not allowed to photograph inside the caves but, by the modern miracle of books in English on sale at the front desk  I can post a few photos for your edification - see above.





Later in the afternoon we journeyed down to a delightful small "town(?)" - more like a row of
small hotels next to a road - right on the Dordogne River and stopped in at out hotel in La Roque-Gageac. Tomorrow we will take a small boat ride down the river for a couple of miles.


For dinner we drove to the town of Sarlat la-Caneda for dinner. Sarlat is a charming little tourist town in the Dordogne area. It seems to attract a great many tourists and deservedly so. We spend part of two days in Sarlat, dinner tonight and some shopping tomorrow.

Tuesday and we head out of the town towards the town of Tourtoirac where there is a most interesting set of caves open to the public "Grotte de Tourtoirac". We are the only visitors at 10 am this morning for a tour of the underground river, stalagmites and stalactites.

The underground cave was only opened to the public in 2010 and the operators claim that they enjoy about 30,000 visitors per year (not on May 30th). The caves were only explored by speleologists since the 1990's. Two of these explorers, Jean-Luc Sirieix and Annie Maire were part of a 4 person team one fateful day in February 1995 when these two got into some difficulty in the underground river and drowned . Not much is known as to the difficulty that they found themselves in but cloudy water and a narrowing gallery probably led to the tragedy.

Nevertheless the town elders were persuaded to open parts of the cave system to the public

and in 2000 a shaft was drilled some 75 foot into the main corridor. It was decided to open some 300 yards of the 1.9 mile cave (3 kms) and work was begun in 2007 to drill a larger access well and to install an elevator to allow the public below. The elevator and office are housed in this very unassuming little building deep in the forest near the town.

An underground cement path was laid leading to a long ,metal footbridge where the public can view the underground wonders. As reported above the caves were only opened in 2010 to the public and thus stern-voiced Garmin lady had NO idea that the caves even existed. I found out that her name is Michelle - no Michelle I ever knew sounded like her.

Such is the fear of disturbing the delicate structures that no
one is allowed to touch any of the stalagmites or stalactites - or take any photography underground. Thus the lack of any images folks, BUT you are lucky - we bought a book on the cave system (in English) and I've taken some photos of the pages, so that you can share with us the wonders of this system and some of the concretions. I know my almost-a-geologist older brother would have lapped up this tour underground. The website for the Grotte de Tourtoirac does have a wonderful slideshow and explanation in English. should you want to see some more of this site.

In the village we stopped by the old church - old enough that construction began in the year 1003. On one of the windowsills we saw what nearly 1,000 years worth of pigeon crap looks like.




At midday we stopped by the side of the road to consume some makeshift sandwiches from the baguettes, cheese and parma ham that we had purchased earlier.

We then tried to visit the Chateau Hautefort but work shuts down at this impressive building at 12:30 pm until reopening at 2 pm.  Bastardos!




We couldn't wait around that long - making for another set of underground caves. Michelle led us to a dead end road deep down a one lane road. Michelle is history for her mistake and has been replaced by Samantha, a much less stern sounding lady. We no longer trust Michelle!!!!!!!

Monday May 29th - Memorial Day in the States.

We left the hotel in Cognac and journeyed down into the Perigord region and the town of Perigueux. Our hotel is right on the river and, as we face the back of the establishment, our window opens up to the Cathedral Saint-Front.

The original cathedral was destroyed in a fire in 1120 (yes, it's that old) and it was rebuilt in the form of a Greek cross, like St Mark's in Venice. It is half Byzantine and half Roman, and the form of the domes gave the architect, Paul Abadie, a good grounding for when he designed the Scare-Coeur in Paris.



As we drove into Perigueux we thought, what an unattractive town. After we checked in and

decided to rest up a while, from the heat of the last few days, I did a walk-about the Centre-Ville area around the cathedral. What a different place it is to the unattractive town environs, teeming with life and cute narrow winding pedestrian streets and many, many interesting restaurants. It seems that this is the area of the city's university and young people are all around, sitting in the open air restaurants while they consume an enviable variety of beer and wine selections.


I drop into Watson's Pub (www.watsons-pub.fr) which apparently was established in the middle ages, that's 2015 to you and me!. Now if you check that website and scroll down, I can assure you that is not me in a red and white rugby jersey - could be my younger brother?

Checking in at the bar, I order one of my favorite beers, Grimbergen. The only difference is that this variety is the rouge version and we cannot get that in the States. Rouge is a Iambic-style, highly acceptable in small quantities, and when one is craving liquid of the golden or red variety.



I then explored the Cathedral and was amazed at the size of the building for such a small-ish town, only 30,000 for the metropolitan area. The peasants must have had to contribute a great deal of their income in the early days to afford such splendor.


We came back later and ate at Watson's Pub in the evening, probably preferring Hercule's but that establishment only opened much later and who knows if they had Grimbergen? I consumed a 50 cl glass of Grimbergen La Ambree, a superior brown Abbey beer, and that we can get in Kansas, but this was Grimbergen on tap. Heaven!

Sunday and I will have caught up to date!

This morning was a very solemn one for us  as we visited the WWII destroyed French town of Oradour-sur-Glane. On 10th June 1944 a Waffen-SS company  entered this town and, in supposed reprisals for Resistance action in the area, destroyed the entire village and killed the 642 residents.


190 village men were gunned down and then burnt to death.





Then all the women and children were locked in the church, an incendiary device set off beside the building and the women and children gunned down as they tried to escape. In all 247 women and 205 children were killed. Indescribable that men should instigate such horror boggles the mind! This is the church, still standing in solemn memory of those who perished within and without its walls.


Charles De Gaulle ordered that the town be left exactly as it was found after the massacre and destruction and so it stands today, as a memorial to the act perpetrated in June 1944
This is the altar of the church.



Our morning was not fun therefore but I felt we had to go and pay homage to those poor unfortunates, a town that had stood for centuries, wiped out overnight by animals.




 This was a bakery or a butcher's shop.

Silence was the order of the day for all visitors to this place.







Upon returning to Cognac we had the answer to our cognac tour and taste testing, Hennessy.





Smooth tasting - Hennessy VSOP and Hennessey  XO.

Lastly tonight we went into town and ate at the Le Coq D'or - only the Rhodies among us will appreciate that!