Spectacular Villages, Castles and Caves in the Dordogne

Domme is a hilltop village with views of the surrounding countryside in pretty much every direction. We started our day with a stroll round this village enjoying the panoramic views. These villages certainly know how to get the most out of the tourist as we were only there for one hour but had to pay a minimum of three hours parking and this is common. It is a good time to visit though as sites are not crowded
La Roque Gageac is very different. The houses are crowded between the Dordogne river and a cliff and are built on the side of the cliff as the ground rises steeply away from the river. As you near the village you can see openings in the cliff above the houses and what appears to be stairs or a ladder up to the opening.
We took a boat trip in a gabarre from here which was an opportunity to hear more about the history of this village and the fort in the cliff above as well as castles, wildlife and geology about how the land, valley and caves were formed by changes in global climates and water levels. The caves above the village were used to create a medieval fort that was impregable during the 100 years war. This meant lots of noble people took refuge there. An interesting fact from later history is that the village had been exempted from taxes by the bishops for seven hundred years due to it's value as an impegnable fort, however Loius XIV decided to collect on the taxes which meant the bishop had to sell the village to pay. The river used to be the main thoroughfare and, although very peaceful today, was originally a bustling and crowded place on the 150 or so days a year it was navigable. It gets busy in summer months nowadays as well with boat trips and canoes. So busy the gabarre are no longer able to go under the bridge as the volume of canoes makes it unsafe. I really enjoyed relaxing in the sun on the gabarre, made a nice change from walking.
A delicious icecream provided fuel for us the climb up into the village for a wander around the picturesque streets. We didn't visit the fort as we had plans to visit a different inhabited cave later in the day.
A short drive away Castle Beynac was well worth a visit. At a strategic point in the river this castle was inhabited by Eleanor or Aquittaine and Richard the Lionheart at times. I found the then and now pictures showing how the castle had been authentically restored to period really fascinating. So much work and expense to preserve history. What dark conditions the guards would have lived in and how it must have smelled when animals had to be brought in when under attack. As usual there were lots of stairs to climb but the views from the turrets were fantastic. If you look closely you will see the original wall paintings in the chapel which clearly depict the last supper up behind the altar. We couldn't go into this chapel which was a tiny room off the large hall but I managed to get quite a clear photo by sticking my hand through the bars.
Our last visit of the day was to Roque Saint Christophe which is beautiful and historically significant because of the length of time it was occupied by humans, since prehistoric times. During Paleolithic times the lower caves were inhabited. In later times people built a fort to keep safe from vikings coming up the river. The kilometre long cavities then developed into a village with ladders and stairs hewn into the limestone between levels. Walls were erected to close in parts of the cavity. We learned more about how these caverns were formed during times when water reached those heights and the expansion of water during freezing and melting cycles wore away at the rock. This was also used as a safe fort and a system of warning was developed along the river for 80 kms with stations around every 6 km. Warnings were passed by blowing horns so a message could be passed up river in minutes instead of the days it would take a messenger to carry a message. There were also replicas of medieval machines that would have been used to lift large weights up the cliffs. All very fascinating although I had seen a youtube clip of these in action to show people how they worked but apparently that only happens in summer when there are more tourists. However we got the benefit of unobstructed access and no waiting in line.
The trees are really started to get spring leaves showing us how different thr forest is from the NZ bush.

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