Wednesday market in SarlatAn early morning departure to Sarlat's market left us chilly and autumn-shocked. This was the first morning we had experienced cold, and as we walked around amongst scarf and fluffy-coat French people we felt a little foolish in our sandals and skirts. Nonetheless, we braved the 40 degree weather and were able to make the rounds of the market stalls, picking up some Dordogne specialties: herb goat cheese, a big loaf of Toarte de Dordogne (big round peasant bread), rose wine & fois gras (for Bubbe). We giggled at Sarlat's central square main scultpure: three geese. Leave it to the French to honor their food. They definitely know where their food comes from! (ALL the photos above feature the honored goose of France).
LascauxToo cold to handle any more, we headed off to the most famous of the caves: Lascaux, which is so famous that it is closed to the public, as the thousands of people who went through the cave in the 60s brought corrosive diseases into the cave and turned the paintings green and then white. What the public sees (Lascaux II) is actually a re-creation of the main part of the cave. We started out with Le Thot, an interpretive center for children complete with animal park, then went to Lascaux II.
We didn't expect to be very impressed going into a 'fake' cave, but we were pleasantly surprised by being able to visualize these famous paintings in their natural context.
In fact, it was amazing! Bulls, horses, deer, even a bear and a strange unicorn-life animal (life size!) almost completely cover the walls (the real cave has over 2000 paintings). I think we all pictured walking into a low cave with dull paintings on the wall but it was like walking into a cathedral with icons and artwork decorating almost every surface. The animals were definitely not in isolation- a series of horses rotated throughout the room, bulls galloped across the 20 foot high chamber, all in shocking detail.
The story of the 4 teenagers rescuing their dog who fell in the cave and discovering this perfectly preserved 17000 year-old cave enchanted Eilidh and the rest of us.
Aurochs, large-sized bovines, bred from various stock to resemble pre-historic cows. BIG!
Unicorn with people legs? Person dressed in animal fur???
Prehistoric Asiatic horses- large bellies and small heads.
think 5 meters long!
After a busy day, we headed home for dinner, then ran out for a quick glass of ice cream and a crepe.
Impersonating a weird spider the kids found in the grass.
Eilidh the mad scientist flying her kite she invented (plastic bag, napkin, stick & string).
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