Le soliel reste sur la touche.

While summer may have arrived with a vengeance in New England, we remain less summer like than I would like --the sun remains on the sidelines for those of you who may not have caught the title! This has not stopped our visitors from savoring Paris nor did it stop us from a sojourn to the Dordogne and Bourdeaux area last week with our friends Jacqueline and Philippe. There is some symmetry to our travels with them and our visitors here --they show us around like we show our guests around (I cannot help but say it, what goes around comes around! although I often used it in the malevolent, Italian sense of mal'occhia!). But --we have the longest days! It is light here until 10pm --I simply love it (although can you imagine if we had days this long at home? Think of all the gardening that could be done --and with the prices of food, everyone should contemplate at least some tomatoes!)
The Dordogne area is in the southwest of France, inland from Bordeaux on the coast. As the gulf stream is close by (at least for now....) the climate is a more temperate and for example, there are some palms and other more tropical plants that grow in the area. The area where the Dordogne is located is in the Perigord --and along with the surrounding areas of Lot, Quercy and Gascony-- and this is the home of foie gras, truffles, and great wines. (We were actually close to Toulouse for those of you following along with my travels!) This is also to region of Lascaux and Les Eyzies --the pre-historic cave paintings of France (even Pre-Historic French knew that it was about the food!).


These little hill towns including Sarlat, Bergerac, St. Emilion have those wonderful winding pedestrian streets (although cars somehow manage, albeit no SUV's) and old stone buildings. There are also a number of half-timbered buildings in these towns as well and they date back to the 16th century.


Of course, Bergerac is famous for Cyrano --de Bergerac!
The town of Rocamadour was built around the abbey that was founded here in 1166. It said that the intact body of St.Amadour was found here which sparked the building of the shrine. Rocamadour was part of the pilgrimage network going to Santiago de Compostela. (Remember the coquilles St. Jacques in an earlier post?)
Following all the wars of religion (this is the area of the 100 Years War for those European history buffs!), the abbey was abandoned and in the 18th century it was restored --it remains however very sympathetic to its earlier roots (I guess considering that it is literally carved out of the hillside and the "ancenseur" is new, making major changes may not have been feasible. Of course, that begs the question of building there in the first place!) To access the town, there is long winding stair along the side of the hill --the stations of the cross have been placed every few turns-- I imagine on the way UP these make handy places to contemplate the Passion of Christ --as well as catch your breath (and the penitent did the stairs on their knees...). In the interest of time (okay you can laugh!), we opted to spring for the 4 Euro ride back up in the ancenseur....



This area of the southwest of France is not well traveled by Americans --but it is well known by the British; many have bought and restored houses here to either relocate or for holiday homes (the French have feelings about this --I bought some prunes from Agen at a little provincial fair in Paris and told the elderly merchant that I would be going to the Dordogne, and he proceeded to tell me about all the British!) The Brits also have been importing these red wines for centuries --no wonder they love Bordeaux--it's genetic! (By the way, it was not called Bordeaux in Britain --it was claret), and this term --from the word "claire" meaning light (as in Claire de la Lune)-- was used to distinguish the "lighter" Bordeaux from the dark red wines of the Cahors region (roughly inland from Bordeaux), which had been preferred in Britain as far back as the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine in the 12th century. (Shows you all I know, I thought claret was a thick, fortified wine --I would never think that anyone would re-name French wines so that their terrior was not showing!) The Bordelais realized that they had a stranglehold on shipping from this area as all of the major rivers of this region flow to the port of Bordeaux. The taxes levied on wine from "upcountry" and the restrictions on shipping gave the Bordeaux wines an advantage. The wines from the interior of the region like the Cahors are becoming popular and recognized --Cahors was given an AOC designation in 1971 (note: Georges Pompidou, local, just happened to be Le President--sort of like Le President Bush giving an AOC to Saudi oil...)
David and I had visited this area when Andrew was 20 months old (he's now married with two dogs) and visited the caves of Peche Merle and Cougnac as well as another whose name escapes me; I still remember what a magical and spiritual experience it was seeing those paintings from up to 25,000 years ago... (and I remember vividly the utter disappointment when reaching Les Eyzies to see that the entrance to the cave closed with a sign "greve" --strike-- posted! So we have yet to see that cave!), and we love it now --speaking of Cro-Magnon ideas, if John McCain manages to win the election, you can look for us there...we will be eating very well!