Fresh Memories *1*

While I gave you a look at our Paris adventure, and our great time in the South of France, I wasn't able to post while we were in the Dordogne area.

This is a very rural, and beautiful part of France that encompasses a line of land directly east of Bordeaux. We decided that this was absolutely where Belle and the Beast must have lived.

We stayed in an awesome B&B called Ferme (farm) de Tayac in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac. The oldest part of the B&B was built right into the side of a cliff in the 11th century. Things are way old over there. The Tayac is the smallish river that runs thru the village. I chose to stay here because Les Eyzies is home to the Museum of Pre-History, and the famous Font-de-Gaume, a cave where one can view original cave paintings of pre-historic animals created 15,000 to 30,000 years ago.

I've also read that some think this is the area of The Clan of the Cave Bear:
"...it was, for here perfectly preserved on the walls and ceiling were 15,000-year-old polychrome paintings of animals that no longer inhabit our earth. Life-size bison, reindeer, horses, and mammoths, rendered in black, ochre, and red, galloped along the limestone contours. The Magdalenian painters who filled this gallery were inspired emotion-filled artists. Our guide described the succession of friezes and reverentially explained the painstaking process by which these ancient people had captured their world in art. The highlight of the 50-meter-long gallery was a frieze of five bison, both males and females, perfectly preserved with such excellent detail that we imagined Ayla startling them as she emerged from a cavern in "Clan of the Cave Bear." (thank you interwebs, for this summation)

Enjoy these photos, some of which were taken as Z just held her arm out of the moving car window. They turned out surprisingly well.

This is also the heart of foie gras, walnut and truffle country. Yes, we indulged as much as possible.

I'll try and remember some more stuff later.

xox, d.