Sarlat and Surrounds (Pt 2)

We've had a few action packed days with Chris and El and their daughter Victoria, who came across from London for the weekend. Currently pooped and reclining! The weather picked up from earlier in the week - some pics........

Goffre de Padirac is an extraordinary cave system with an underground river that you boat along, as well as massive calcite formations. It starts by going down this massive sink hole.

‘Pancake’ formations from water dropping over 10m and splattering. There are various lakes and water was dripping and running everywhere due to the last weeks rain.

Video showing scale of formations – you can also see the boat quay (underground) at the end.

Rocamador is nearby, being a medieval town overlooked by a complex of medieval chapels hanging from the hillsides.

Martel is a beautiful town with several Nobleman’s towers (you had to be a Nobleman to have a tower on your house in the medieval period). It has a picturesque town square with an original market hall and grain measuring scales.

A particularly fetching Nobleman’s front door in Martel.

The town of Saint-Genies is nearby Sarlat and whilst small, has a fantastic ensemble of roofscapes. The roofs are ‘louze’ – which are stacked stones (about 1 tonne/1sqm) – which explains the steep slopes to put weight on the walls (not for snow).

Above the town is a 14^th Century church with intact frescos inside – you collect the key from the local shop to have a look.

Pre-dinner drinks on the main square in Sarlat.

St Amand de Coly is a small town nearby Lascaux caves with a very well preserved 12^th Century church. It was part of a monastery and fortified.

Chateau Losse has a very pleasant position looming over the Vezere River – they do a fine lunch in the garden. The fortified gatehouse on the left is one of the largest in France.

The gardens were nice too – they sensibly had goats in the moat to keep the grass down

After visiting Reignac Manor House we dropped into the town of Campagne, where the council own a fab chateau and have made a beautiful park of the grounds.

The Sarlat market was on Saturday morning (no photos) so we bought picnic fare and took it on our canoe trip down the Dordogne. What fun – took a few hours with various stops along the way. Great weather.

We finished the day with a visit to Chateau Milandes, built late 1400’s but occupied by the American/French artist Josephine Baker for 40 years. There’s a museum about her in the chateau, as well as (oddly) a very good bird show.

Last night in Sarlat with Chris and El – out for dinner. The gas lights around town really show off the sandstone buildings nicely.

Sarlat and Surrounds (Pt 1)

The drive (about 5 hrs) was pretty wet, but very pleasant and not too busy, as we chose a route down the centre of the country. We settled in and the next day our friends Chris and El flew in (to visit over the next week and a bit). It turned out Marian got Covid from somewhere (the plane?) so didn't get around with us for the first days. We've had pretty dodgy weather, but have been really enjoying the French pace and lifestyle over the past week. I've been playing tour guide and we've visited quite a few of the major sites, with more still to come. Here's some pics.......

The Sarlat market on Saturday was less busy than usual, as a storm was predicted the night before. It was wet - still fun though....

La Roque Saint-Christophe is a great site to visit - a 1km long natural rock ledge where people lived for 1,000's of years- most notably the hanging troglodyte village in the medieval period (to repel Vikings).....

Beynac Castle is now fully restored and very impressive - the kitchen was used in a scene from the film The Last Duel........

Chateau de Fenelon shows its evolution from a 13th century castle to 16th century renaissance chateau. Some of the rooms still have 1540 wood panelling and are very intact......

Bought a new rug for the house........

There balloons.......

La Roque-Gageac - we climbed to the very top to an old fort above the town.........

Marqueyssac garden is fab even in the rain!.....

Where did I park that bike?.......

The cycle rail trail south of Sarlat is always awesome.....

Paris to Sarlat

We arrived early and drove straight out of Paris - south for about 1 hour. The plan was to visit Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte, then end up in Fontainebleau for the night. That would accommodate our tired state having just arrived from a long trip from Brisbane via Taipei, and set us up for a long drive the next day down to Sarlat. It worked very well, but the weather was a little dodgy. The Chateau isn't in the Loire Valley, but east of there. It is the precursor to the Versailles gardens and historically very significant. The French finance minister built this spectacular garden in 1661, very innovative for the time, including lavish hydraulics and fountains. When King Louis VIX (Sun King) came to visit he was so annoyed (that someone had such a lavish garden and wealth) he had him arrested three weeks later (by no less than a Musketeer called D'Artangan). He was never free again. The King then took his landscape architect to Versailles and said 'I want a bigger one', and took statues and trees from the chateau garden. Here's some pics......

Here's the Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte. Very nice. The 'house' was designed at the same time as the gardens. Because he was arrested after his first big party, the house had some elements that weren't yet finished......

The house was designed to maximise views. Various perspective tricks were employed by the designers.....

We climbed to the bell tower - this view is back to the entry and the compound of stables.......

Bell tower access - very Victor Hugo.......

Noice.....

About 30 minutes south is Fontainebleau, one of the Sun Kings royal palaces. The palace complex and gardens are integrated with the town.....

Taipei Stopover

On the way to Paris we stopped over in Taipei for a long day of sightseeing. We did a tour organised by the airport in the morning, then a separate walking tour in the afternoon. In between we went up the Taipei 101 Tower and walked/metro'd around. It's not a very different, spectacular or attractive place but nonetheless had a workmanlike quality to it that was appealing. Everyone was very friendly with the older district visited in the afternoon tour most interesting (Dihua Street district). Here's some pics....

First stop was Lunshan Temple. A lot of worshipping going on - Buddhist. In Taipei they ask the gods questions which require 'yes' or 'no' answers. Then they throw two small banana shaped red wooden blocks to the ground. Depending on how they land the answer is given, or the blocks say they haven't asked the right question! There's lots of food offered as well - I hope the gods like biscuits and fruit! Some lovely orchids though......

We then went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. It's a complex of buildings and gardens which is reasonably impressive. Not impressive was the tour guide's request to jump for a photo - I tried....

Afterwards we went to a 'famous' street that was pretty lame, as it was late morning and it wasn't very active. But we had very nice beef noodles and awesome mango shaved ice - wow......

We went up Taipei 101....

Interesting views from the top......

But most interesting was the damper on the 89nth floor to counterbalance wind and earthquakes......

The afternoon tour was very interesting. They took down a freeway over one of the old city gates which was clearly an improvement (second image is a photo the guide had with her) ......

We saw some other interesting temples, including the one with a Love God, otherwise known as the Old Man Under the Moon.....

The old streets (Dihua Street in particular) were interesting - with old townhouses, many still standing, and many spice shops.....