Vezere and Dordogne Valleys

Hi Everyone, I uploaded the pics below a couple of days ago and was timed out on my connection before I could finish writing. Anyway, to back track a little, after Stonehenge we picked up Jim (Sama’s dad) from the airport and took him to Cardiff. The next days were spent catching up with relatives. I slipped off to Cornwall for a couple of days, where it rained continuously, and off to Berkshire for a barn dance with my cousins, the McGees (great fun), then back to Cardiff to stay with Len and Mary (Sama’s grandparents) for a couple more days, meeting some of the extended family members. We also did some nice cycling around Cardiff, which is a small enough city that you can be in the countryside in 15 minutes.


From Cardiff we headed for Ramsgate along with Jim and Moya, and took the ferry crossing to Oostende in Belgium, retracing the route Jim took as a baby when escaping from the Nazi invasion with his family. The following day we went down to Thiepval in northern France, to the war memorial bearing the names of the soldiers who were killed in the battle of the Somme in World War I, including Jim’s grandfather, who died on the first day along with thousands of others.

We are now in a very beautiful region of southern France and have been cyling throuhout the Vezere and Dordogne river valleys. Yesterday we took a day off cycling to do some sightseeing, as this entire area is full of prehistoric and medieval sites: cave paintings, castles, beautiful villages, as well as the natural beauty of the area. We will be doing some more cycling over the coming days.

A BIENTOT

Sean 

Hi Everyone

Here's a few pics from the last 4 days of cycling around the Vezere and Dordogne valleys in southern France. The whole area is just magnificent, with beautiful scenery, medieval buildings and prehistoric art and caves.

Vezere River at Montignac

Same river a bit further down 

When we got to Montignac they were having a festival celebrating traditional Aquitaine language that only happens once in a blue moon in any given village (the last one here was 1954) and the entire town, every building, tree, street and post, were decorated with these flowers made from plastic bags.

After a few days camping, we went for a hotel and a room with a balcony.

The medieval city of Sarlat la Caneda.

There seems to be a castle everywhere you look.
People go to great lengths to get a good view.

Sama stopping to collect some bush tucker to
put on our breakfast (blackberries, yum!).