SUNDAY 20TH MAY 2012

With today being both strawberry festival (and you have never had strawberries like the ones in the Dordogne) for the region and market day in Rouffignac St Cernin we thought that getting to the boulangerie for the essentials and getting out of town would be the best bet. Besides we wanted to see Neanderthals other than the ones back home. So off to La Roc Saint-Christophe we went in the rented Chevy Spark. We arrived at that enchanting place 40 minutes later after stopping at Le Moustier a delighful village neaby to photograph the 12th century church of Saint Robert and to drive up the hill to see the outskirts of the buddhist festival.

La Roc Saint Christophe is a marvellous place where mankind lived from 20,000 years ago until the 16th century taking advantage of the huge limestone cliffs for protection. Modern man fared better being able to build a substantial vertical village using ingenious techniques some of which have been replicated in various models and presentations. More ancient ancestors had to battle cave bears and many more fearsome creatures in the valley.

After a nice lunch we drove over to La Maison Forte de Reignac near the town of Lespinasse, an incredibly perfectly preserved fortress built into a high cliff. It was renovated by a local resident archaelogist at his own expense and now open to the public. We spent 2 hours there walking inside the structures and admiring the artifacts and furnished rooms and dungeons including that of Peter the Goat, an evil barbarian who preyed on young women and unsuspecting travellers in the valley. Some truffle chocolates helped to smooth away the factual displays of various forms of torture widely used in medieval times - just horrifying.

A quick drive along tiny lane way roads to the Troglodytes village yielded nothing of interest due to the time ravaged nature of the place but the forest was almost unchanged in time with masses of moss everywhere. We stopped at Tursac hamlet for a breather and then continued to Les Eyzies de Tayac Sieul, another village built around a river and cliffs but more modern (only several hundred years old).

Some quick pics and then back home to gather up the new chickens before the fox had KFC for dinner. The drive took us through some delightful forest with a green hue that just sent you to sleep. Passing through Fleurac all was quiet and the Auberge du Coq was closed also. We got home at 6:15 to find the chickens having a party. Three had got through a hole in the wire fence and were foraging nearby. We quickly gathered them and locked them safely away in their dry pen, much to the chagrin of Scooby who just wanted to play with them. Scooby then spent the next 3 hours trying to do our heads in with his wining for something to eat ( off our plates of course ) because our hosts had gone to Bordeaux to see an English movie. We had spotted his food bowl earlier and it was not empty or unappetising.  It must have been the fried Basse Cotte and Raclette potatoes that got him going. He was also wet from the drizzly climate today and looking for his basket warm in front of a fire. Our nightly walk to the village yielded nothing but quiet and we were accompanied home to our laneway by one of the local German Shepherd from the outskirts of the village.