Motorbikes and the Dordogne

The Dordogne area - in pictures

The first picture shows the modern and the old. This was taken of the bikes in Domme. The whole of Domme looks like this and still has the town walls intact. Most tourists that visit this area will visit this pretty little town.
This picture shows the church in our town, Rouffignac-st-Cernin. The church is the only building to survive the war. On the 31st March 1944, the German army decided that there was too much resistance activity in the area and destroyed the whole town apart from the church. The poeple were forced to donate all of their bedding and linen and label it up as a gift from Rouffignac to the German people, before it went on trucks. They were then given an hour to leave their houses before the German army stole the rest of their belongings and flattened the buildings.
This was taken in the main square in a little town called Villefranche-du-Perigord. It was taken on a visit when we went to see a friend, Brian Milton, who was the first man to fly a microlight around the world.
This is Rocamadour, not strictly in the Dordogne, but slightly to the East. The town hangs on a cliff and has only one marrow road going through it.
Th famous town of Sarlat. Typical view of a street cafe set within the historical town. A fantastic place to wander around, with small shops and the most famous saturday market in the area. Be warned though, being very old there are constant traffic jams here in the summer, the best way to visit is by motorbike.
This was taken of Beynac chatau over the Dordogne river. This view is almost in the back garden of the gite/B&B described in an earlier post. As can be seen from the date on this picture it was taken in early Arpil and the rivver was very high. During the summer months there are loads of canoes and swimmer here.
A view from the Bastide town of Domme overlooking the Dordogne river.
Both of these pictures were taken in La Roque-Gargeac. The town is another one that hangs on a cliff, squeezed between the Dordogne river and a sheer rockface.
To anyone who has not been here these pictures may seem to be of just the best bits around here, but that would not be true. The villages of Beynac, Domme, Sarlat and La Roc-Gargeac are all with 8 miles of the Gite/B&B, run by Tom and Andrew. I could have loaded thousands of pictures like this and they would all have been of different places.
For me one of the nice things about this area is the preserved history. Not only is everything kept how it used to be, but as you look up onto rock faces the caves are still there where man lived 20,000 years ago, and quite oftern they have been excavated and are open to the public.
In this rambling I have shown some of the places around the Dordogne river, but more local to me is the river Vezere, which has pre-historic sites all the way along it. One of the most famous is the world heritage site known as Lascaux. Here there are preserved colour cave paintings dating back 17,000 years.
I just wonder how much more there is to be discovered.

posted by madman @ 10:03 am