The Dordogne Region

Town Centre

Sarlat, known for Fois Gras

It’s amazing what you can learn from a book. I like Michael Crichton as an author, a Dr. by training he turned to writing and generally wrote technical sci-fi type fictional books, the best known were the Jurassic Park series. He would extend the realm of possibility by making a technical advancement available, like in Jurassic Park that we could extract DNA from the age of dinosaurs and clone it and remake them adding the missing chromosomes.

So what has that got to do with France you ask?
Well one of his later novels was called Timeline, an account of a company that was restoring ruins in the Dordogne region, only it had an inside edge, it was able to travel back in time and see the ruins when they were still in use during the 100 years war. The book was so interesting that I was able to picture the area. Later when Rick Steve’s ‘discovered it’ as he claims, I recognized the regions just by the word pictures from the book. Crichton was quite the author!!

Ancient Dwellings

So we targeted the Dordogne area, specifically Sarlat le Caneda since it was central to the area. When we arrived we just got off the bike and went WOW to each other. The last 50 kms in from Brive, France was so beautiful we couldn’t believe it. Then we walked the town of Sarlat, known for it’s Fois Gras or force fed Duck and Geese livers that are turned into a delicacy. They are an acquired taste and we tasted some of the best stuff at the Wednesday market and it is nice but.....

La Roque Gageac

Our hotel here is Les Remparts  a good hotel very centrally located to everything and reasonably priced. After orienting ourselves we set out to see the sites and enjoy a nice meal. We found L’Instant Delice, a gourmet restaurant with a Menu that included a duck green salad, roast duck leg with potatoes, and a chocolate cake dessert. Sandra had the same salad but a duck casserole and creme brule. What a mel, pure gourmet French cooking and at $20.00/ person it was fantastic!!
Today we set out to see the sights, including La Roque Gageac, Beynac and Castlenaud ( the centre of the Timeline novel) and La Roque de Christophe (LRC), a 50,000 BC prehistoric settlement.
This site (LRC) coupled with Goreme and Mesa Verde in Colorado form the trio of man’s prehistoric cliff dwelling sites in the world, and now we have seen them all!
And touring this area with the HD helmet cam on has yielded some incredible footage that we will turn into a great capsule of France.

Beynac from the Road

Beynac from the Viewpoint

La Roque Christophe Overview

Ancient 50000 yr old steps

A bit about Neanderthal Man, No not me!

Activities at the Cave, I remember when!

Le Chateaus

What we saw from our Bicycles - Chambord

Fougere

Leonardo's Double Helix Staircase

The Loire valley is well known for a plentiful selection of chateaus built by various royalty through the middle ages as hunting retreats. Some were only attended a few times by their original owners and others became the spoils of wars.

Bicycling in the Loire

Fougere is located close to Mont St Michel and St Malo and isn’t in the heart of the Loire but it is a grand old castle fortified with a moat and drawbridge in classical style. One of the best to just walk around.
Blois’ chateau has become part of the downtown core of the city and our hotel was about 75 metres from it.
Sandra and I have wanted to bicycle some of the paths here ever since we took the kids over in 1991 and this time with Heiko we took 1 day and cycled from Blois to Chambord and back approx. 36 kms. It was a breeze going, literally, but we sure paid for it coming back with winds near 45 kph.
Chambord’s staircase, a double helix style, allows a person to enter the staircase from either side of the floor and not walk with another person who would climb the other staircase wound with  it. Leonardo Da Vinci is said to have designed it! Chambord’s other claim to fame is it’s fireplaces, over 250 we’re told! This is one huge drafty castle when the wind is blowing. All the steeples you see on the roof are actually flues for the various fireplaces.

Spires

Cheverny is another of the classic chateaus as is Tournessy, Villeregard, and Chenonceau. It was great to travel through the countryside to see them but we decided that after seeing Versailles and Chambord completely the remainder would just be more of the same so we didn't pay for entrance to them all. It would have added another 2 days of touring time as well.

And more

The countryside around this area is so neat with many villages house fronts actually built into the cliffsides as if they lived in a cave but they added a front door and window to it. Of course there are many caves used for storing wines and cheeses here as well.

Our last day with Heiko we had all gone to the morning market and bought something for the afternoon happy hour. Heiko bought a couple of different local wines, we bought rustic baguette breads, a really flavorful cheese and Fois Gras. It was a very traditional Loire valley meal.
Finally we moved on to Angers at the west end of the Loire valley. Our day ride out here wasn’t the best and our record has been dashed and splashed with a rainstorm that got us pretty wet. But then sun eventually did pop out again and we toured the Angers Chateau here as well as the Cathedral. The pipe organ here is way bigger than anything else we have seen and the Chateau houses the tapestry of the apocalypse from the Book of Revelations.

Tapestry from the Book of Revelations

This tapestry is 100 metres long and displayed in very dark conditions to ensure the colors do not fade any more.

Anger's Chateau Walls

Anger, the Chateau

Gardens

LeMans

Everywhere there is memorabilia for the 24 hrs.

Race Track Entrance

Le Mans cathedral

Start Time for Race

Stats over the years

We visited LeMans between the time trials weekend and the actual race. Our B&B here was incredible, “Clos D’Hautville”, very central in old LeMans with our hostess providing us with great rooms, sheltered parking and a wonderful breakfast the next morning in a grand dining room fit for a king! We arrived after a drive through Fougere ( covered in Chateaus) and on our way to Blois and the Loire valley.
Each of these cities has a Cathedral and this one competes very well with the one in Chartre which we visited with our kids back in 1991. It is incredibly huge with arches in overabundance.
Dinner that evening was a La Stromboli’s pizzeria after Sandra saw the wood burning oven in use. Our pizzas were just simply superb and the chef would work each dough with loving kneading hands.
The next morning we headed out to the track and museum. With the track closed since crews are beginning to work in the garages on vehicles for the race next week,  we toured the museum, which provided the historical background and major competitors for LeMans. As well there are many vehicles there that can’t be seen anywhere else.    

Audi TDI's rule here

R8 Safety Car Just Right for Chandos!

Sandra's Travel Suitcase

Of course Porsche, Ferrari and Audi are well represented, but so is Jaguar, Bentley, Renault, Peugeot and Ford. Ford made a big push in the 70’s with their GT40 and won LeMans more than once with it. Porsche is the winningest car manufacturer and now Audi with their TDI based race cars have been very successful winning 10 times since 2000. Diesel will be the racing engine of the future until they can hot swap battery packs in electric vehicles.  
Artifacts of the bygone eras are everywhere there and Sandra just loved the travel suitcase, wishing she could have it on our motorcycle. From here we head to Blois and the Chateaus of the Loire Valley.

St Malo

St Malo, largest marina in France

Jacque Cartier, Canada's Columbus

Tomb

Cruise Ships and Cat Ferries call this home

We are testing the resolve of our riding without rain. Today when we awoke it was pouring very heavy but by breakfast it had reduced to a drizzle and finally stopped. We headed out to St Malo in some very cool conditions, overcast but no rain, so the record is still intact.

St Malo has apparently the largest marina in France, and we are staying right in the centre of the old city. Buried here is Jacque Cartier, who sailed to Canadian shores first in 1535 from St. Malo. Born a year before Columbus discovered America, he is responsible for discovering the St Lawrence river and seaway to the Great Lakes.

St Malo is also a cruise destination, each day the cruise ships come in and drop off day passengers, then collect them in the evening and set sail again. They wander the old city ‘tourist’ areas but aren’t able to venture further. Fougere is just 60 kms away, with it’s wonderful chateau but unless there is a bus tour to there they stay pretty close.

The tides come in and out quite quickly here and we watched as the National fort became accessible only 1 hr after it had ½ mile of water between it and the main city.

Fort Nationale

Mont St Michel

Mont St Michel

Lower Drawbridge with the last of the tourists

Our next stop is Mont St Michel, an Abbey built out on the water on a rock outcropping(very small island). It was in remembrance of St Michael the Archangel who fought the dragons of the devil in a pitched battle. The original monastery was constructed in the 10th century and very modest in nature, with iterations in the 14th and 18th centuries.The location, once completely surrounded by water, was to symbolize purity of purpose and prayer. As we drove from Normandie we crested a hill some 25 kms away to see a village spire close by and then off in the distance (25 kms) Mont St Michel sitting alone out in the water. It is a very eerie feeling and a shiver ran down my spine. knowing about such a place now can create that feeling. Imagine the awe that would have been felt back 2-300 years ago. The causeway is a new addition for tourism access.

Cathedral

We checked into our B&B Les Vieilles Diegues. Wow what a great place, beautiful room, within walking distance of the Rock, and a super friendly host, immediately kidding us and Heiko about travelling together. Once settled in we headed out for the Rock.
As Rick Steve’s video had warned, the lower part is now very commercialized, as well as the immediate countryside, but the Abbey itself is still as it was when it was a functioning Abbey/monastery, which it isn’t now. This was a disappointment because we had so much enjoyed the Greek monasteries that were still so, after the tours went home.
In any event the place is very impressive and we definitely understand why it is the 2nd most visited tourist site in France after the Louvre.

Stairs Up

Columns

Garden was a vegetable garden

Stained Glass

Huge Abbey

D Day beaches

The Caption Reads
To all of those that made the ultimate sacrifice
 to give us our freedom today
We are indebted to you forever,
signed: The Love trip 2012

Pegasus Bridge

When we planned the trip we realized we would be at the beaches just a few days before the 68th anniversary of D day (June 6, 1944). We left our hotel early, headed to Pegasus bridge a famous place where British aviators in gliders released 80 parachutists on the eve of D Day so they could destroy the bridge here to prevent the Nazi’s from bringing in reinforcements to the D Day attacks.
From there it was on to Caen for a new museum about World conflict, with a main focus on WWII however it does cover off others as well, including the Cold War, destroying the Berlin Wall and having pieces of the World Trade Centre on hand there. It was a well balanced approach that was well worth 

Part of the Berlin Wall

the entry fee.

Caen Memorial

A Frenchman in Bene Ser Mer shows us around (Heiko center)

A house on the beach on D Day (picture)

Today the house sports a Canadian flag of
gratitude

From there onto Juno beach, the place where Canada became much appreciated for its efforts in freeing it. Because Sandra and I wear small Canadian flags on our jackets an old Frenchman who is 78 and was alive and remembered D Day came up to us, embraced us and started talking. He still lives there, his livelihood was as a fisherman, but he was forced into hauling drinking water during WWII for the German officers who were stationed there. He spent a good ½ hour talking with us, showing us places in town and also a glimpse into his contact book which had the home address of 1 recent prime minister of Canada from Quebec.(Jean Chretien) Also, some very distant relatives sailed from Honfleur to Canada to settle there in the early days. The residents of this part of France made us feel like we were heroes for freeing them. It is the fallen in the cemeteries that are truly those Heroes. We ended this day with a re-visitation to the Arromanche 360 degree theatre, where a 360 degree view of films of the war is used to replicate the horrors of war. It was very well done.

US Memorial

Inside the Chapel

22000 + buried here

2nd Lt. Niland and Sgt Niland buried
Story behind "Saving Private Ryan" movie

We picked up the tour again the next morning at the US cemetery, a large plot of land with its own visitor centre. Since this is the middle of D Day celebrations here and the only weekend associated there were many US re-enactment types wandering around, marching the sides of roads and driving vintage Jeeps and HD motorcycles. 

Entrance to German Memorial

A very sombre place 

Our last stop in the stretch was the German cemetery, a reserved area, some 20 kms away. As the pictures will show it was a somber memorial for fallen soldiers who for some found themselves forced to take up arms or be persecuted themselves.

Looking out from a Pillbox over Pointe Du Hoc