Few facts but many photos: beautiful southwest France

Now that I understand enough about wine to want to drop some egg whites into Ron’s Costco Merlot, I’ve moved my keen attention skills to caves and charming villages.

We have now seen a total of three caves, all featuring art from between 17,000 and 25,000 years ago. Recall that we started at Rouffignac, where we got to enter the actual cave. We then moved on to a cave called Lascaux, which has over 600 bright and colorful wall paintings.

I’m actually happy to report that we didn’t get in the Lascaux caves – we got into something called Lascaux IV – the most recent replica, built in 2016 in an effort to protect the original cave from total decimation due to human visitors dragging in heat, humidity and microbes. Our breath blows enough carbon dioxide into the cave to irreparably damage the art. Lascaux IV is the most ingenious replica – it’s identical to Lascaux, right down to an exhibit showing the calcium carbonate damage in white:

The Lascaux caves were discovered in 1940 by a French teenager, Marcel Ravidat, when his dog fell into a hole nearby. Marcel returned with some friends and they entered through a 50 foot shaft and found walls covered with colorful animal drawings. It’s hard to imagine four boys discovering such a treasure and I kept picturing the boys from The Goonies. Here’s the four boys, looking around later with some experts and then one of the drawings:

It’s a little bit hard to get you excited about caves since all pictures are banned. But these pictures of a picture are from the third cave, Peche Merle. In a theme that should not surprise any parents of teenage boys, Peche Merle was also discovered – this time in 1922 – by some teenagers, all boys, plus one younger sister. The art is called Spotted Horses and dates back 29,000 years. The cave itself was formed 2 million years ago from an underground river. Here’s Spotted Horses and just a general look at the inside:

While we drove around between caves, we spent some fun time on the bus and Tom, our Road Scholar guide, took us around to a few gorgeous places we’d never find on our own. Below is a shot from the bathroom at our lunch stop restaurant:

Below is another pic from that same village, where someone was determined to build a mansion partway into that cliff face:

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From lunch, we were supposed to head to a tapestry museum, but Tom discovered it had closed for the season a few days ago and so he routed us instead to St. Cirq Lapopie – a village on the Lot River. He arranged a boat ride for us and a stop in the village itself. I don’t know what the tapestry museum really held but it’s hard to imagine topping St. Cirq Lapopie. Here’s a few of shots from the boat ride. The bottom one is a tiny lock our boat went through.

Here’s our approach to the village and then the main street

We’re in the village of Rocamdour now. It’s another cliff top village with some religious significance that I don’t understand yet but will investigate for you in my typical shoddy fashion. Tom was talking about it as we approached but I didn’t realize he was giving us crucial info until he was too far into the story for me to latch onto it. But there’s something about a Black Madonna and a pilgrimage.

We’re having an awesome time with this Road Scholar group. This trip is irrefutable evidence that travel keeps you young and keeps you engaged. I’m wowed by the energy and enthusiasm of this group and Tom is a super fun guide: he doesn’t overwhelm with information but just transits us around, using his superior knowledge to make sure we see as much as possible. It’s so unbelievably great to be out on the road again. If you’re on the fence about France right now – come on over! I’ll leave you with Sam and Kris, who have co-opted Tom right into their shopping, dining and touring world. The picture is from…I don’t know…but southwest France is worth the trek!