el-granada.com - The Ketchums in France - Monday July 9, 2007 Day 13

France 2007

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Sunday July 8,2007
Day 12 - Beynac-et-Cazenac

Monday July 9, 2007
Day 13 - Beynac-et-Cazenac

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Tuesday July 10, 2007
Day 14 - Beynac-et-Cazenac to Carcassonne

Monday morning we awoke to more overcast skies. At least it wasn’t raining. CJ and I decided to see the Beynac castle above us – it was quite a steep hike up the cobblestone streets to the castle, 500’ over the town and river. Beynac is the classic mediaeval castle – huge walls, huge dark rooms, swords, armor, crossbows, drawbridges, parapets, and towers. Parts of the 1999 movie The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc were filmed here, though, as we've already learned, Joan of Arc went to Chinon, not Beynac. During the Hundred Years War the French had Beynac, and the English had Castlenaud about 2 miles away on the hill across the river. Richard the Lionheart lived in this castle for a while.

Click here for a panoramic picture of the Dordogne River Valley and Beynac.

The Castle at Beynac

The bedroom of Richard the Lionheart at Beynac

Oil lamps on the stairway in the castle at Beynac
They didn't photograph very well, but the effect was very cool.

kitchen in the casle in beynac

Beynac

There's a pit with spikes below the drawbridge at Beynac.

We shopped briefly in the market set up in the Beynac parking lot, then the whole family then drove to Les Eyzies – we had a 3:30 reservation to see an English language tour of Grotte de Font-de-Gaume. We went to the National Museum of Prehistory, where they have thousands of bones and other relics found in the surrounding caves. The displays were pretty good, and they had English handouts for nearly every display… but we couldn’t find any for the fascinating Neanderthal skeletons. They also had several videos demonstrating how to make different kinds of blades and tools from stones, which were more interesting than you might think. The museum tour ends leaving you on the top of the museum, which is under a massive overhanging cliff, looking our over the entire town and river valley… where it started raining again. We waited out the rain back inside the museum, then grabbed a snack in town before driving out to the cave.

While waiting at the cave entrance Dusty noticed a teenager with a ‘San Mateo’ shirt on. He asked ‘Are you from San Mateo?’ ‘Yes’ ‘California?’ ‘Yes’ I pointed at our family and said ‘Half Moon Bay’. They had stayed for several days in Normandy, and were staying for a week in a small town in Perigord I wasn’t familiar with. The tour of the cave was fascinating. Without a guide you can barely see much of the art. In the 1800s many people graffittied over the cave art since they did not even realize it was there, and limestone deposits over the 15,000 years have hidden more of the art. Many of the paintings were of red buffalos. The most famous painting in this cave was of a black reindeer licking the face of a red reindeer. The guide obviously loved his job and the paintings.

We drove back to Beynac, then Dusty drove around to take pictures since the sun was peeking through the clouds on rare occasions. Eventually another storm moved in, sending Dusty back to Beynac. We had dinner at Auberge des Platanes in La Roque-Gageac – it was fairly forgettable; we should have gone back to our hotel for dinner again.

Prev
Sunday July 8,2007
Day 12 - Beynac-et-Cazenac

Monday July 9, 2007
Day 13 - Beynac-et-Cazenac

Next
Tuesday July 10, 2007
Day 14 - Beynac-et-Cazenac to Carcassonne