April 28, 2010 - Cabanes du Breuil and cave at Rouffignac

Another excellent night of sleep. We love French pharmacists! The two little calves were near our door to start the morning. They are cute. We decided to visit the Cabanes du Breuil in the morning while it was still cool and the cave at Rouffignac this afternoon when it gets warm . . . to take advantage of a cool cave.

Decided to let Garmin direct us. Big mistake! We got easily through Sarlat and for some mysterious reason our slightly daffy GPS unit told us to turn right onto D6 and kept routing us onto smaller and smaller roads, finally directing us into someone’s very short driveway. We drove the circle to the driveway twice and turned off the GPS. We headed back toward Sarlat until we found D47 and headed west where we quickly spotted a sign to Les Cabanes du Breuil. We turned and followed signs, passing Château Puymartin and arriving at free parking for Les Cabanes.

It is a designated historic monument but is still privately owned and occupied. You have free run of everything except the actual farm house so we wandered all over marveling at the dry stone bories once inhabited by monks. It is now a charming family farm with rabbits, geese, a dog and several breeds of both chickens and ducks. It’s spring so there were lots of baby bunnies, chicks and goslings as well as two farm children. They have exhibits of old farm machinery, old building methods and a video (in the sheep fold) explaining all of it. At one place they have a very small borie with lots of flat stones where you can try building your own borie . . . not as easy as it looks! It was all great fun. [Les Cabanes du Breuil, 1790 Route des cabanes, 24200 Saint-André-d'Allas; tel: +33 (0)6 8072-3859; Click here for the Cabanes du Breuil web site

Driving to Les Cabanes du Breuil you get off the highway . . .

Entrance to Les Cabanes du Breuil in the Dordogne

Family dog at Les Cabanes du Breuil

Mom and chicks at Les Cabanes du Breuil - I love springtime.

Entrance to Les Cabanes du Breuil

Les Cabanes du Breuil

An unfriendly goose at Les Cabanes du Breuil

Interior of one of the cabanes at Les Cabanes du Breuil

Dry stone roof at Les Cabanes du Breuil

Ed at Les Cabanes du Breuil

Les Cabanes du Breuil

Me at Les Cabanes du Breuil

Rooster at Les Cabanes du Breuil

Les Cabanes du Breuil

My favorite chicken at Les Cabanes du Breuil - fluffy

Mom and ducklings at Les Cabanes du Breuil

The Farm House at Les Cabanes du Breuil

Goose at Les Cabanes du Breuil

We left Les Cabanes for Les Eyzies and lunch. After driving through a very busy little village twice, we parked and entered our restaurant du jour. It was full of the local tradesmen having lunch so bustling, and the waitresses bantered with them and brought their meals without taking orders. This obviously happens every day. We got the 13 euro special marked down to 12 euros and it was delicious.

Ed got ham and salad to start and I got a terrific vegetable soup. He got magret de canard mi-cuit and I got confit de canard . . . all served with a little mountain of sarladaises potatoes that neither of us could finish although we did try! We got ice cream for dessert because it was starting to get quite warm out. [Crêperie Mentalo, 1 ave. de la Forge, 24620 Les Eyzies De Tayac, Tel. +33 (0)5 5335-1561; Click here for the Crêperie Mentalo web site]

Deserted troglodyte dwellings in the bluffs near Les Eyzies-de-Tayac

Les Eyzies-de-Tayac - Lunch at Crêperie Mentalo

War Monument at Fleurac, a pretty village

We drove back through Les Eyzies and on to the cave at Rouffignac arriving just before the afternoon opening. Everyone was pulling jackets out of cars and we were prepared. They opened; we all paid and I sadly noted a ban on photography. Sigh . . . no photos. We all walked into the cave and clambered on an electric train. We started through the cave with our engineer narrating in French. I understood very little but the cave itself is commanding. It was absolutely amazing. Not only is it huge but there were prehistoric engravings and marvelous paintings of horses, ibex, bison, mammoth and goats. There were also generations of bear scratchings and a few sleeping bats hanging from the ceiling.

At the end chamber we got off the train and he explained the paintings on the walls and ceiling. There was a family from New Zealand so he gave a brief explanation in English too. We appreciated it. We reversed our seat backs and returned to the entrance and bought cards with pictures of the cave paintings. I can’t imagine living in a place so devoid of light, but it was dry and safe . . . probably very important 13,000 years ago. [Grotte de Rouffignac, 24580 Fleurac, France; tel: +33 (0)5 5305-4171; Click here for the Rouffignac Cave web site

Grotte de Rouffignac - look carefully to see the sculptures

Grotte de Rouffignac - Ed waiting for our tour to begin

Grotte de Rouffignac - outside waiting area for tours of the cave

We drove back to Les Eyzies and took D48 down to St. Cyprien where we turned on the D703 along the Dordogne toward home. It was late so we stopped at Shopi for bread and are in for the night. Ed is doing whites tonight and darks in the morning in hopes of a day of sunshine to dry the laundry.

Chateau Beynac at Beynac-et-Cazenac

Chateau Castelnaud-la-Chapelle

A gabare on the Dordogne River with La Roque Gageac in the background - almost home