Au revoir to the Dordogne

Today is a sad day because we are packing up our things, and tomorrow we will be leaving l'Abyme.
We have had a very happy three and a half months here. We've really got to know a beautiful part of France, and we've been able to share it with lots of our friends who have come out to visit us.

We never did get to see the barn owls that were nesting in the roof space, they made enough noise, they were definitely there! Nor did we get to watch the baby kestrels fly for the first time. Their nest was in the end of the house, but we know they were well fed. We witnessed mice, voles, slow worms and all sorts being taken in to them by their parents. Maybe that's where the tree frogs ended up, as they have mysteriously disappeared!

So, tomorrow we will say good bye, ( but only until the next time, because we will be back! ), and we start the next part of our adventure. We will be heading east towards Lyon, Turin and on to Ancona in northern Italy where we will board a ferry to Patras in Greece, and then over to Kefalonia which will be home for the next six weeks. Looking forward to a lovely greek summer, before the tourists arrive!

                                                   

                                                          à  bientôt!

 

 

Oradour sur Glane

We decided to have a few days away, so on Wednesday morning we packed up the campervan and headed up to the Haute - Vienne, about 80 miles north of here.

We visited a village called Oradour sur Glane, just west of Limoges.

 On 10th June 1944, a group of German soldiers entered the village, and for no apparent reason they ordered all the women and children to go into the church, and all the men to assemble in some barns in the village. At 4pm a massive bomb went off in the church, killing everyone inside, and at the same time all the men were machine gunned to death in the barns.
In case anyone had managed to survive either of these atrocities, the German soldiers then set fire to the entire village.
Only one woman and 5 men managed to escape, all had to pretend to be dead. The next day the Germans, laden with booty stolen from the houses, left and made their way northwards towards Normandy.

  Burnt out cars remain untouched.

Main street with tram way. 

 Church were all the women & children died.

The village has been left as a memorial to the 642 men, women and children who died that day.

From there we found les Lacs de la Haute Charente, and stayed overnight on the edge of Lac Lavande in the campervan. An English couple own a bar there on the shores of the lake. We had a delicious fish and chip supper, washed down with a bottle of wine there and they let us stay overnight for free.

The campervan was then taken to a nearby campsite where it will remain in storage for the next couple of months while we get on with the next part of our trip to Kefalonia.

Rocamadour in the Lot

Time is running out here at l'Abyme in the Dordogne, and I really wanted to visit Rocamadour before leaving the area, so yesterday Barbara and I made an early start and set off to the Lot valley.
Dating back to the 11th century ,the village of Rocamadour comprises a mass of old dwellings built into the cliff face, and is topped by the castle ramparts which seem to defy the laws of gravity.

 

It has a very religious centre and the pilgrimage to Rocamadour is one of the most famous in the world. Penitents have been known to climb the 223 steps to the Altar on their knees with chains around their arms and neck. Luckily no-one like that got in our way, and we didn't feel the need to have anything other than a camera and a bottle of water with us!

Leaving there we did a tour of my favourite places in the Dordogne: Domme, Castelnaud, Beynac-et-Cazenac, La Roque Gagaec and Sarlat-la-Caneda. There were several canoeists on the river and the whole area looked beautiful. Time for us to leave as the tourists are starting to arrive for the season!!

                                         
                                        The Chateau de Castelnaud above the river Dordogne.

Canoeing and markets.

The weather has been fantastic for about a month now. We've been very lucky. My brother Paul, and Pip came over this week and we discovered some more new places together. On Monday we went back to Brantome which looked beautiful in the sunshine. We had a mooch around, found a bakers and had a picnic by the river, then couldn't resist a sneaky peep in the Estate Agent's windows!

Then we hired a couple of canoes and spent an idyllic couple of hours drifting down La Dronne river. It was pretty and peaceful. There were three wiers to go through, and Pip and Dave who were both sat in the front got a thorough soaking on the last one. Paul and I stayed dry.

We had a good time with Paul and Pip, including petanque tournaments (Paul was the champ), and table tennis tournaments when I ruled supreme! ( Red wine and Jenlain slowed Paul down a bit!!)

As we waved them off we welcomed Barbara who is here now. Today we went into Perigueux to the market. Like me, she's a fan of French food markets, so we bought several local specialities that we hadn't eaten before. All in the name of research you understand! We couldn't resist the saucisson stall, where Barbara bought a duck saucisson, a camembert one and a donkey sausage!! Yes, really!

The fresh fish stall was amazing, the paella was hard to resist but the raw fish heads weren't. The flower stall looked good too, but they weren't edible so we didn't buy any!

Non-stop visitors!!

We've got into a routine now...... as one lot of visitors arrive on the plane at Bergerac, we greet them at 'arrivals' , then wave off the current visitors in 'departures' !! It works well for us and has provided a constant stream of company.
This week three work- friends from school kick-started their Easter Holidays with a relaxing 4 days with us at l'Abyme. The weather was fantastic and we enjoyed some good outings.
They wanted wild boar... we saw wild boar:

 

Right in the centre of the picture you can see a good set of tusks on one of the boar. To the right in the straw are about five tiny babies, only a few days old. When they are young they are called 'marccasins' , and are stripy.

They wanted gorgeous villages...

                                   they saw lovely villages.

They wanted culture. In the Cathedral in Perigueux ....  'speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil' .

 

 

We had a great time together, saw lots, laughed lots, ate lots and drank lots. Perfect!!

 

 

 

 

Holiday makers!!

We've had quite a succession of visitors in the last few weeks which has been lovely. Almost constant sunshine has made the Dordogne look even more beautiful than before. The garden is changing daily for the better, and we haven't killed or ruined anything... yet!
Those of you who know me well will know that I hate frogs, (unless their back legs are sauteed in garlic butter, and served with a cold, crisp white wine!), but even I have come to love our little tree frogs in the garden. Cute, Kermit green and with a very loud 'croak' !

Today we went off to discover three villages, new to us, all classified among 'Les Plus Beaux Villages de France'.
First we stopped off in Limeuil where the rivers Vezere and Dordogne meet. Quaint, steep & cobbled.

                                                                           Limeuil

Then we went on to Belves for lunch and a wander around. Called the ' town of seven spires' for reasons which became quite obvious, the church here was built in 830 AD and had very well restored frescoes on the walls and today had brilliant sunlight shining through the stained glass windows. There was a vast range of architectural styles throughout the village.

                                                                               Belves

And finally we visited Monpazier which has a stunning arched, stone market square. Each side was lined with quaint, quirky shops. The angles of the buildings had to be seen to be believed. Unique!

I'm going back to England for the week from tomorrow visiting family, and after that, still lots more visitors coming to see us! Still plenty to discover and to show! I'm going to miss this place when we leave at the end of April. It's been wonderful spending spring in the sunny Dordogne.

Atlantic coast.

Thanks to the fabulous weather we've been enjoying for the last week or so, we took a few days off  (from what I'm not sure!!) and went on a trip to the Atlantic coast, south-west of Bordeaux with the campervan.
Our first stop was at St. Emilion, famous of course for wine, but also a really beautiful old town. The sun was hot and the restaurants and their terraces were full of people enjoying lunch outside. I've been here several times before and it remains one of my favourite French towns.

 

All around for as far as the eye can see are immaculately laid out vineyards, dotted with elegant chateaux. 

After lunch we continued towards the coast. I was keen to go back to Arcachon, so this is where we were heading for. I was convinced the famous sand dune (la Grande dune du Pilat) was at the north of the harbour entrance, just outside the town. Despite a few confusing road signs sending us to the south (and the satnav having a funny 5 mins) we stayed heading north, following my gut feeling, until we arrived at Andernos-les-Bains. It was only then that I realised that just maybe the signs, the satnav and the map were all right, and I was wrong!!!

Ooops! Never mind, we found a lovely area on the seafront where we parked up and went on our bikes all around the town and along the prom. When we returned to the van we set ourselves up for the night. This turned out to be free as it was out of season... perfect. We like 'free' .

The next morning we cooked bacon and made butties with a fresh baguette. Yum! Then we set off (again!) for Arcachon.

The town and the beaches were busy with it being Sunday, so we continued along the coast a bit further and decided to go back to the dune the next morning when it would be quieter. We found a pretty area in the pine woods with beach access, so we spent the afternoon on the beach, and stayed there with some other campervans overnight. (Another freebie!)

 

 

In the morning we went back to the famous sand dune and climbed to the top where the views were amazing. The trees beneath us looked tiny, and the dune stretched south as far as the eye could see.

 

 

 

The sheer size doesn't come across in the photos, but it's quite impressive. Almost 3km long, 500m wide from the forest to the beach and about 115m high. Although it does move about 1m per year further inland due to the wind, it would appear to have always been to the south of the harbour entrance, and never to the north!! 

From here we drove south along the coast to Biscarosse Plage. Vast, empty surfing beaches all the way down to Biarritz and Bayonne, before turning inland and back 'home' .