Julie & Guy arrived for their "annual" September visit. They had planned on going to Étretat for a couple of nights but
cancelled because of the poor weather. This enabled them a few days in Paris that they would not have had.
Saturday Lisa & Guy headed off to the Les Andelys Brocante. Sunday was the port of Cergy's 20th Anniversary
celebration. There was a competition for the best decorated boat. Although we had to forego the crepe paper because,
surprise, surprise, it was still raining, we decorated the stern in the colors of the French flag and strung balloons from
the wheelhouse to the bow. We got 3rd Prize! The following day we picked up a rental car and headed south to the
Dordogne.
In depth summary can be found below the photos on this page.
...scroll down past the last photo to read more...
Our first stop was at the village of Oradour sur Glane, (6 hours from Cergy and 2 hours from Sarlat). It is also known as
the Village des Martyrs. On the 10th of June, 1944, Nazi troops rounded up the entire population of 642 townspeople.
The women and children were herded into the town church, where they were tear-gassed and machine-gunned. The
Nazis grouped the town's men and executed them. They then set the town on fire, and left it's victims under a blanket of
ashes. Today, this ghost town as shown in these photos is left untouched and greets visitors that enter with only one
English word: Remember.
In these photos you will see plaques marking the family names and commerces.
We continued south to Les Eyzies-de-Tayac were one can discover the exceptional number of prehistoric sites in the
Dordogne, most of which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. There are a number of caves that one can visit, even
ones that are exact replicas of caves which were built to enable a larger number of tourists to at least experience what
a prehistoric cave is like. Caves such as Font-de-Gaume and Combarelles are severely restricted because of the damage
that the caves sustain from human contact. In July, we had reserved a visit to the prehistoric cave of Combarelles.
It was described as one of the longest with the largest number of cave drawings.
Each guided visit accepts only 8 people, so we felt very lucky to be able to get reservations.
It was very interesting but we preferred our visit to Peche Merle the previous year.
That night we stayed at the Auberge Veyret which was a working farm that had 8 rooms for overnight guests.
Breakfast and a 5 course dinner, with everything from the apéritif to the digestif, was included in our stay.
This is a family owned and operated farm and guest accommodation that was delightful.
Food that is served is grown, harvested and prepared by the family. It was delicious.
The next morning we drove 20 minutes in to Sarlat. We had planned our trip around Market Day in Sarlat.
The lovely cobble-stoned village was packed to the gills with vendors selling products of the region and tourists.
Parking was a nightmare, but we're glad that we saw it.
The next morning we were off to tour some of the castles along the Dordogne river and more…