Even though we’re only here for one week and we have work to do, we still try to see as much as possible of the surrounding sites. Today, we visit the Cave of Pech Merle. Christophe made reservations for a visit at 14:45 hours today. So after a morning’s work on Ananda, we leave the house in the sweltering heat to visit the cool cave of Pech Merle. You can only visit if you make a reservation, because they only allow guided tours, and can accept only a limited number (700) of visitors per day.
After a short introduction by our guide, we are shown a video with a bit of explanation about some of the paintings we are going to see. This way, we can take full advantage of the limited time we will have underground, to really look at the paintings.
Once underground, we are dumbfounded by the beauty of the cave. The paintings are impressive because of their history, but the cave itself is of an unearthly beauty that is hard to capture in words. There are enormous halls with magnificent pillars of stone, with stalactites hanging from the ceiling and stalagmites growing out of the ground. With round formations that resulted from underground rivers and fantastic plains of forms and imprints you can’t even begin to imagine. Unfortunately, it’s forbidden to take pictures, so you’ll just have to take our word for it and/or go visit yourself. It’s absolutely worth the € 13 p.p.
Drinks chez Louise
In search of somewhere nice to have a drink, we stumble upon Chez Louise in Cabrerets. It’s an establishment held by a 89 years old woman. Louise was her mum. She received a certificate from the French president after the war, because not only did she operate a restaurant/café, she also raised 8 children. Her daughter is now the sole proprietor and continues to serve food and drinks to her customers.
We enjoy a drink on the shaded terrace where we meet another couple with whom we exchange some small talk. As we walk back to the car, we discover an artists work Laure Gaudebert that pleases us enormously. Look at these pictures (she invites people to participate in her artistic work by emailing her pictures taken with her figurines, so we sent her the last picture in the below gallery):
Saint Cirq Lapopie
Since we are now quite near, we decide to also visit Saint Cirq Lapopie. It’s supposed to be one of the most beautiful villages of France, and we aren’t disappointed. It really is lovely. Just like Rocamadour, it’s built against a mountain side. It has many tourist shops but isn’t as big as Rocamadour. We meet an inhabitant of the village. Another 89 years old lady. She’s lived here all her life and tells us that the village actually only has 12 inhabitants.
During the summer months, people take up shop in the village in an attempt to sell their wares. Tourists visit and the village comes to life, but during the winter months, there’s hardly a soul here. There isn’t much going on right now either, but that’s probably because it’s already late afternoon, and it’s over 30 degrees Celsius. We walk around, visit some of the shops, enjoy the view from the highest point, and return home. If we had had the money, we could have bought lots of things, but then again: what are we going to do with all that? It’s actually quite alright just to look at stuff without buying anything.
