From 23rd September, sorry a bit out of sink

Monday 23^rd September

I’m sitting in the sun under a cloudless blue sky having just cycled into the nearest village with Viv for bread for breakfast on a Snail Farm in the Dordogne. The weather for the last few days has been what we hoped it would in the south of France, it was 25 degrees in the shade of the van late yesterday afternoon when we arrived.

After we had showered we stopped off at a little picnic site and after lunch fed the carp in the small pond by the side of the site and watched the frogs swimming and jumping about. There must have been about a dozen carp around 18 inches long and a good few pounds in weight in the pond sunning them selves at the shallow end.

We arrived at Vaunac late afternoon and set up camp on the Snail Farm, they have four large tented enclosures where they grow the snails and then supply the surrounding area. I looked in the restaurant in Vaunac and they were selling at 8 euros for six snails, I reckon the Song Thrushes back home in the garden must be eating us out of a fortune.

As I was cycling into Vaunac there were hunters on the side of the fields and I stopped to talk to them and found out they were hunting wild boar but hadn’t had any luck. It seems to be a local past time as they were hunting around the beer makers place the day before as well.

The field we are camped in must be about a mile or so from the nearest main road and is reached down a little track that winds thought the fields and woods and is full of butterflies and just us. We counted at least 12 different sorts yesterday afternoon in the space of 15 minutes plus Hummingbird Hawk moths, great big black bees and some huge wasps about 4-5 times the length of those at home, not the sort you try and swat, better to just move away.

There are lots of Black Redstarts around the villages and orchards here, funny to see them as the last time I saw one was in Wollacombe in March as unusually they move north to winter.

We plan to stay around here for a few days as it is close to the Lascaux caves, some famous wine makes, a chance to maybe canoe on the Dardogne and some nice cycle paths. We are also in the heart of Truffle country so you never know might get lucky on one of our walks.

We have done around 750 miles so far since leaving home and reckon it’s about 320 to Bilbao where we have to be two weeks today.

Tuesday 24^th September

We had stopped off in Perigueux as there was a nice cycle track over 5 miles long in each direction along the river that we had a wander along then back into the town to explore the old quarter and the cathedral. The river was beautiful, quiet slow moving but full of quiet large chub and the odd pike. Once back in the town,  the roads were tiny little windy ones just big enough for a car to get down and very quaint with walls that seemed to come together as they got higher. It reminded me of a wonky pub where all the walls leaned in and out in Bristol called the “House that Jack Built”

We were late arriving in Montignac as it was our second choice having been unable to find the France Passion site in woods just outside Perigueux but no problem as prawns for tea again as on promotion in the supermarket. The campsite was right in the middle of the village next to the river and we had a little ditch by the side of the van and when the frogs started up as it got dark I thought we were going to be in for a noisey night but fortunately they stopped after a while.

Wednesday 25^th September

Woke up to mist in the valley that quickly cleared to leave another beautiful sunny day, clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid thirties again. We cycled up to Lascaux to visit the famous cave paintings. I was a bit apprehensive as the original cave has been closed to the public as the effect of so many visitors was degrading the paintings. So they have built Lascaux II a new show cave that is a replica to within 5mm of the old one and spent nearly 10 years making it a perfect match. It was fantastic to see the paintings on walls and in the right light it brought a lump to my throat thinking about what had taken place and the original artists. Well worth the visit. It seems funny that Viv and I visited the Ice Age exhibition in London in March and this was a perfect compliment to that.

After leaving Lascaux we cycled the 2.5 miles back in Montignac for lunch then cycled 5.5 miles to Le Thot to see another exhibition about Lascaux. They showed how the paintings had been created, the techniques used and how they used the contours of the rocks and effects. Outside they had a selection of live animals near descendants of the ones used in the cave paintings like cattle bison and deer. We cycled back on the other side of the river valley on a small side road that wound along the edge of the river Vesere alongside walnut groves and fields of maize.

I have always wanted to see the Lascaux Cave Paintings since first reading about them in the National Geographic magazine when I was little and they have lived up to my expectations, nice when that happens.

Tonight we are camped in a Foie Gras farm about 4 miles outside of Montignac, a smashing isolated location on the top of the hills, just us the crickets and owls for company.