On Monday, we picked up our rental car and departed from Nantes to drive to the Dordogne Region, an area known for caves full of fascinating rock formations and pre-historic drawings dating back as much as 20,000 years. This is also the area where the bones of 'Cro-Magnan' man were first discovered. It is a region of stunning natural beauty and home to many foie-gras farms that produce the goose liver pate for which France is well known. Thus, as we were headed to goose country, it seemed fitting to dub our journey here...a wild goose chase.
It started out well enough, as we carefully followed the MapQuest directions Jack generated (having converted the miles to kilometers first (bien sur). It took a while to figure out how the roads here are identified...and just about every intersection is a round-about, with other roads shooting out of the center like the spokes of a wheel.
And we learned, on this wild goose chase of ours, that nothing is open in France on Monday. With the baguette and peanut butter we brought long gone, we began looking for a cafe in one of the many towns we drove through. "Ferme" (closed) was the word of the day. Finally we stopped, believing that if we got out and walked through the side streets of a village, surely we'd find something. After more chasing of wild geese, we got back in the car and drove on, still hungry and thirsty. Relief came in a surprising form: an Irish pub, dropped in the midst of the French countryside, and the sign said, "Ouvert" (open). Entering, we were greeted in English and served a hot and hearty meal of Irish stew and fish & chips...fortification to forge on.
About half-way through the 8 hour drive, we discovered a problem with our directions...they stopped far short of our destination. It turns out there are two towns named Beynac in France. The one where we wanted to go has the fuller name Beynac et Cazenac...the one to which our directions led is simply Beynac. Fortunately, we had picked up a map from the rental car dealer and with the exception of a couple of moments when we were clueless enough that we had to stop and ask for help with directions, we figured it out.
Our wild goose chase brought us to the good that laid the golden egg as we drove, finally, into Beynac. The scenery all the way along the Dordogne River was spectacular and as we drew nearer our destination, we started spying the castles tucked into the hillsides. We knew that our hotel was called, "Hotel du Chateau," so we'd wonder, Is that our castle? and then, rounding a bend we saw it: the silhouette against a twilight sky of a magnificent medieval castle towering over the river valley. A monument to the day when fear of invading Norsemen led to the construction of fortresses designed to be impenetrable. Our hotel and the little town of Beynac, are nestled between the swiftly flowing and mud-swollen Dordogne and the castle cliffs. All of the buildings here are made of yellow sandstone with tile roofs, making for villages that are quaint and picturesque. After a day of chasing wild geese, we celebrated our safe arrival with dessert at the hotel cafe and a deep exhale of gratitude.
Our day of travel had its challenges, but also pleasant surprises....moments of difficulty and also moments of sheer delight. The Dordogne Region, we are discovering, is full of treasures just waiting to be discovered....for those who don't mind chasing wild geese, that is.
Blessings,
Cheryl
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