We spent Friday exploring the Dordogne river valley around Sarlat. It is beautiful place dotted with medieval villages and castles.
After a wonderful breakfast at the B&B, we started at Chateaunaud, a medieval castle built on the side of a cliff.
As castles are, it is surrounded by a small village which has a few restaurants and the usual shops selling tourist items. From the top of the castle, you got a wonderful view
of the valley . Alas, it was a bit of a hazy day so the pictures are not as real sharp as one would have liked.
For those of you who know Jeannie well, you will be interested to know that she did go up
halfway to the top and I got her to stand approaching the edge.
The castle had artifacts from the time that were quite
interesting (weapons, armor, chain mail, etc).
Jon and Chuck were most interested in the WMD of the time, trebuchets. We spent some time (actually in retrospect way too long) in trying to figure out how they worked.
Then we calculated their effectiveness and how vulnerable they were to x rays and gamma rays. (Note--that is very much an inside joke that a few of you might get). Needless to say, the ladies went shopping during this time.
Our next stop was Domme, another village on the cliff side above the river.
We had a nice lunch there with a great view over the valley. Lunch for Jon and Chuck was sauteed duck breast which was quite good. Caroline and Jeanne had Croque Monsieur (grilled ham and cheese sandwich). After lunch we explored the town for a while. Actually, Caroline and Jeannie shopped while Chuck and Jon
did their best to not look like tourists. We didn't succeed very well since a British couple stopped where we sitting on the steps and proceeded to tell us their entire life story, travels, hobbies, and why they didn't like England.
Our final stop of the day was Beynac, a small village on the river itself. We didn't have time to explore it very much. This is a typical walkway or alleyway in all of these villages.
Caroline ended the
day by taking a swim. (By the way, including this picture with that text was her idea. And before anyone jumps to conclusions, she took the picture as well.)
We had a nice dinner in a small square near our B&B and called it a night.
