Since there was no football game this weekend, Rick took off Friday evening from coaching so we could take a trip to France. We had never made this trip from Lugano to Lalinde, France, in the Dordogne region (a little east of Bordeaux) because we knew it would be very long. Even though we are already in Europe, the route is mountainous or hilly and took us 2 full days of driving.
So I tell the story with my pictures. Enjoy!
We had packed sandwiches and stopped in this town called Weidlisbach, Switzerland. No particular reason - we just needed to stop and picked this town. We sat at an outside table of a closed restaurant on the pedestrian street. At lunchtime stores close, and especially in April, it looked deserted. I took this picture because the pink narrow building has a date of 1560! How often do you see that??
We had stopped for the night just after Lyon, France, and on Friday's trip, we pulled off the highway to find lunch. The closest was Egletons and headed to the heart of the old center. Again, everything was closed because it was lunchtime, but fortunately found a little restaurant that was popular with the locals, and of course - this is France, and we had a wonderful lunch! The menu of the day was fish - I don't know what kind, but it sure was good!
Here is another town called Corrèze. We made a side trip off the road to check it out. There are just so many old, medieval towns in all of Europe! Here is one of the doors of the town.
As often happens when driving through European countrysides, you suddenly happen upon a magnificent sight! We found ourselves in the town of Terrasson-Lavilledieu, another medieval town highlighted by a huge church and monastery. It is situated on the Vezere River in the Dordogne.
We crossed this bridge in Terrasson-Lavilledieu and learned that it was built in the middle of the 12th century by the monks in the monastery.
A great bridge like this was incredible for this town 800 years ago! And it's still sturdy as ever!
Some of the old town of Terrasson-Lavilledieu
Terrasson-Lavilledieu
As we followed the Vezère River, we came upon Montignac.
Montignac
Now, we're just driving along in the Dordogne region and we drove past this historic, I mean PRE-HISTORIC site - I made Rick turn around! this sites called La Roque Saint-Christophe. It's called a Troglodyte city. If you don't know anything about the Dordogne region, I will tell you, it is really the heart of pre-historic man. There are so many cave dwellings, and also cave paintings. If you ever come here, plan enough time. The roads are narrow and winding, and although on a map places seems close, they are quite a drive. Our GPS helped, but for some reason took us on the smallest roads to our destination! Oh well...
It's hard to show you the expanse of this rock dwelling! Here is one part - I panned up to get it from top to bottom. Now, it was first inhabited by prehistoric man, but also was used as defense during the Middle Ages, thus the medieval "machines".
Now, here is another sight. Really, we're just coming along and whoa! Totally awesome! It's called the Maison Fort de Reignac. Man inhabited this rock for 20,000 years and for the last 700 it has had this castle. It is the last example of a cliff castle.
A close up of the Maison Fort de Reignac
We finally arrive in Lalinde. We had dinner at this little restaurant in town. In the one square room there is a huge fireplace (with a fire going!) stone walls, huge beams on the ceiling and tons of atmosphere. It oozed charm out of every corner.
Lalinde, France is on the Dordogne River. This is in the town, a little castle, but it is privately owned.
The morning fog left water droplets on all the spiderwebs along the bridges.
Here is our hotel in Lalinde, Le Forêt. A charming, simple hotel with a nice breakfast. Here is the funny story about this hotel - 12 years ago I took my mom to France and we came to Lalinde. We stayed at this hotel, which had different owners and a different name.
When we were showed our room, it was the exact same room that my mom and I had! It brought back great memories!
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