Just back now, at 5:30 p.m.; left at 8:30 this morning…but first, last night’s dinner!
Went again to the Hotel Royal Vezere (it’s the least we can do, for letting us use their WiFi free of charge!) for dinner. Robert started with a composed salad – different than mine of the other night, as it also included white asparagus and melon! His main course was a fillet of sandre (also known locally as pikeperch, whatever that is!) in a cream sauce with cauliflower. For desert he had a poached pear with strawberries and a fruit coulis. It looked wonderful, and he said it was delicious! I started with the chef’s special garlic soup. It was wonderful, and believe me, there were NO vampires anywhere NEAR Le Bugue last night! From there I had the entrecote in a bordelaise wine sauce with shallots, as well as sautéed potatoes, haricots vert and a grilled tomato; excellent! I again had the chocolate cake with cream sauce…no calories there, believe me! Got back to the house around 10:30 p.m.
Up about 7 a.m. and while I showered and cleaned up, R walked back into town for the morning email check as well as to get croissants for breakfast. The wonderful croissants with raspberry jam and orange juice made an ideal breakfast, yet again! We were out the door by 8:30, as I knew it would take some time to get to Pech-Merle cave, and I didn’t want to run into their two-hour lunch break. Emmy guided us on a very interesting and scenic route, and we reach the cave about 10:15. We had been to Pech-Merle before, but it is a very interesting painted cave and we wanted to see it again. The only problem was that their group size – 25 people – was WAY too large to work at all! The people straggling at the end of the group were totally left out of seeing the paintings. Not sure if it was the fault of the guide – who truthfully, wasn’t very good – or just the way they always work things; don’t seem to have this recollection at all from our prior visit. They have a small museum as well as an interesting movie to watch before the tour, which does help you get your eye tuned in to what you’ll be seeing. Pech-Merle cave does have some unique drawings. They have a representation of a man with arrows in him, as well as some totally random symbols that have yet to be explained. They also have red and black spots on their animals, which also hasn’t been explained, but does help to make the figures a bit more interesting. In one panel, in different places, there are five different hand prints – mostly right hands, but one left hand – that the artist(s) included quite randomly. Some of the work has been carbon dated to 25,000 years old, some of the very oldest in Europe.
The road to Figeac -
After leaving Pech-Merle, we headed to Figeac, about 30 km away. We were desperately seeking gas for the car, but of course most places were closed for lunch! Finally Emmy guided us to a Total gas station in town that was open – whew! Cutting it a bit too close for me! We particularly wanted to see Figeac, as it is the hometown of Jean-Francois Champollion, the man who deciphered the Rosetta Stone, and they have a museum there that we wanted to see. We parked near the oldest part of town and went in to a local café for lunch. Robert had the vegetarian salad, which he said was good, and I had a GREAT Salade Paysanne – lettuce, tomato, warm boiled potatoes and warm ham cut up and all dressed in a mustard vinaigrette – it was fabulous and I ate every bite!
Wandered through some VERY old streets to the Musee Champollion. It is WONDERFUL! The first floor is dedicated to his life and work, and gives some explanations on how he was able to decipher the Rosetta Stone. The second floor had to do with Champollion’s work as the first Curator of the Egyptian Collection at the Louvre in Paris, as well as showcase pieces of his own personal collection of artifacts; very impressive. The top two floors of the museum had to do with the history of writing – showed examples from all over the world from the earliest cuneiform through to printing presses, and talked about how the spoken language was gradually written down and managed to work its way around the world. Special emphasis was put on Mayan writing which is currently undergoing analysis right now. The courtyard outside of the museum had a very LARGE copy of the Rosetta Stone in the middle – just looking at it, it’s truly a wonder that anybody figured out what it said!
From the museum we decided to head back, as we had a fairly lengthy 2+ hour drive in front of us. This time we stayed more on the main roads, which has its pluses and minuses, but did manage to make it back here and collapse about 5:15! I’m blogging now, and then we’ll think about what we’re doing for dinner tonight, as neither of us feels like cooking!
We do have one change in the itinerary – we are leaving Le Bugue tomorrow, rather than very early on Friday morning. We do have a 9-something a.m. flight from Bordeaux to Luton, England to catch, and R was rightly concerned that we’d have to really move it to get there on time. So, I’ve booked us in to the Hotel Majestic (lovely place in the centre of Bordeaux, where we stayed last year) for the night! That means 1) TV (so I’ll be able to watch a few minutes of the French Open, and 2) Internet access in our ROOM! What a concept!!
So – more later!
m
x
No comments:
Post a Comment