France Part 3: Rocamador and the Dordogne Valley

We interrupt the regularly scheduled baby blog to try and wrap up the rest of our amazing France trip.  Mandy turned the reins over for this post, so hold on to your butts.

Rocamadour

Is it worth driving an hour or so out of your way to go visit what is essentially a vertical city cut into the rock cliffs?  Yes, yes it is.  And  the cloudy, drizzly weather seemed like a perfect atmosphere:

We arrived at the top of the city and parked the car near L'Hospitalet.  This building serves as a place of refuge for pilgrims who come to the city.

Pilgrims, you say?  Yep.  Rocamadour has been a pilgrimage destination for Catholics since the 12th century. The walkway that leads up to L'Hospital has several chapels and stations of the cross.

At the bottom of that pathway is the main sanctuary of Rocamadour, built solidly into the cliffs.

But why have people made a pilgrimage to a random place in rural France for hundreds of years?  The miracles, of course.  In the place, the body of the Biblical character Zaccahaeus was alleged to have been found miraculously preserved.  He is said to have brought a statue of the virgin Mary that had miraculous healing powers.  The statue is still there!  We saw it!  And that day we felt perfectly healthy.  Coincidence?  You decide.

And if that weren't enough, Charlemagne's indestructible sword was thrown from forever away and embedded in the cliff side.  So, it's a pretty special place.

Descending into the one-road village at the bottom:

From Rocamadour, we weaved our way (literally, these roads were nuts-- and Mandy doesn't trust my driving) through charming village after village on the way to our next destination.

Check out this awesome bridge we had to go over!  One car at a time, folks--

Finally, we reached the town of Sarlat, which would serve as our base for the next few days.  We had us some belgian pancakes at a place down the street from the b&b, and rested up.

Sarlat 

Sarlat is a great walkable town dating back to the middle ages.  Now it's known as the world headquarters for foie gras.  Do not, I repeat DO NOT, try foie gras.  I had it here, where it's supposed to be the best, and ughhhhhhhh.  Anyway, back to the city.  We enjoyed exploring; here's Mandy strutting her prego stuff (Hi in there, Graham!):

Birthplace of Etienne de la Boetie.  Yeah, I didn't know who it was either, go look it up:

Shootin' the breeze:

No way, man, that ain't your baby!

One of our reasons for heading this way was that we wanted to see the prehistoric cave paintings that are in the area.  We weren't able to reserve tickets for the one we wanted to go to most, Grotte de font de Gaume, so we got up super-early and waited in line to be sure we could get in (they only let like 50 people in a day).  While we waited, I wandered down to the nearest little town and picked up some chocolate croissants and a raisin cinnamon roll fro the local bakery.  What a perfectly delicious way to start the day. 

Disclaimer:  These pictures are not ours.  They do not let us take pictures in there.  Hello, it's only like the first ever known tri-color paintings, dating back 15,000 years!  But Mandy got these from somewhere.

Cool symbol found in this and several other caves in the area.  Lost fans, what does it mean?

At first, these animals were thought to be in battle, but when you look closely, there's licking going on:

While we were in the area, we also visited a replica of the cave called Lascaux, which is the biggest, most famous of these caves with the most paintings.  They don't let anyone in the real one anymore due to all the damage.  But it was a great learning experience!  (For us, at least.  Everyone else at these places was like 60 years old- aren't we hip?- and couldn't understand the guides' french accents.  Hilarious.)

The next morning, we got up with an adventure we'd had planned for a long time.  Once upon a time, Rick Steves told us of a place in France where you can canoe from town to town, and then drag it ashore and explore.  This is that place.  First, though, we visited the town of Domme to get some lunch supplies.  Lucky us, it was their market day!  It all looked so delicious, but we stuck with some bread, cheese and apples (also delicious).

Looking down onto the river we were about to ride: 

Love the surrounding valley:

Now, the thing about canoeing is this:  Mandy and I both love to do it.  But.  Invariably, for at least the first half an hour, we fight about who's supposed to be doing what and when.  Every time.  And this time, we were on a river getting pulled in different directions by the current, so you can double that.  But it was all in good fun:

See?

The town of Laroque-Gageac 

The town of Castelnaud (quite a hike to get up there)

This was us coming up on the town:

And that's our little canoe:

Castelnaud, and a city on the other side of the river (Beynac), were both built around castles that were held  the English and French, respectively, during the Hundred Years war, which made for lots of fun battles.

Take that, Beynac!  We only had the energy to hike up Castelnaud.  By the time we got to Beynac, we were pooped.  But touring the castle was great.

Before leaving the Sarlat area, we dined at our first and only Michelin starred restaurant on the trip.  Fancy? Yes.  Expensive?  Yes.  Delicious?  Yes.  Then, on the morning we left town, we woke up super early and headed north to drop off our rental car and catch a train into Paris.  The sky was just becoming rosy and orange as we made our way through more charming villages, with "Let it Be" playing on the radio.  How peaceful and relaxing can it get?  Ah, the countryside.