May 11 - Sarlat, Souillac, Lacave, and Rocamadour

 It's 8:30pm and still 86.   A beautiful but very warm day.   This time last year, the French say that they were way too wet, this year, very dry and unseasonably warm.   I think we'll see 80's for a week or so.

After breakfast we ventured back into Sarlat's medieval town center to visit their Wed. morning market.   They've been a very important market town for the region since the middle ages.

What a beautiful historic setting for this market.

olives, olives, olives

Matt/Marty .. here we are 5200 miles from Yakima, and we find a craft beer from there.

Alas, it was time to leave our beautiful base accommodation in Sarlat and drive to Souillac.  Here's the 12th century Abbey Sainte Marie.

During the 100 Years War they were occupied by the English.    We walked around the old town and enjoyed a few more sites.

This old cathedrale was undergoing renovations.

On the way to Lacave we saw this interesting sight.

This is the Chateau de Belcastel.   This is just a small portion of this village.  It has a 15th century church and remains of a ruined fort, Fort du Lourdou, occupied during the 11th and 13th centuries.

We didn't stop for a cave tour in Lacave because it was closed.    We continued on through the beautiful countryside to Rocamadour.  A startling sight greeted us!

Rocamadour was once one of Europe's top pilgrimage sights.   All because of a crude little thousand-year-old black statue of the Virgin Mary.   In 1166 a body was found in a cave.  People assumed he could only be a saintly hermit and was given the name Amadour (servant of Mary).   Rocamadour is 'the rock of the servant of Mary'.  During the 14th century up to 8,000 people lived in Rocamadour who earned their living off of up to 20,000 pilgrims who came through daily!

We started the long walk down to the old town.  Down, down, down.

We passed through quite a few gates.

Joe found another interesting sign in the old village.

We stopped at the tourism office and asked about the best way to get up to the Sanctuaries and possibly back to the top of the hill.   We found the special elevator and paid for the 2-level ride.   At the first level are many chapels.    Here's some pics.

Very interesting religious history.   It became a symbol of faith and hope.    We sat and thought of the many who came before us.    After awhile we left and looked for the 2nd lift to get us to the top.   It turned out to be a funicular.

We got back to the top and walked along a nice path to get back and check-in to our hotel.   Afterwards we came downstairs and asked the clerk about good ice cream stores.   He suggested one about 2.8 kilometers out in the country, 'Les Gouts et Les Couleurs Farmer'. This is an organic certified quality ice cream producer making ice creams on site from their own production of cow's or goat's milk.     It was yummy!

Good stuff! .. to help cool you down in 86-deg heat!    Back to town to eat dinner and wait for darkness ... cause ...  remember the view of Rocamadour in the daytime?   Look at how dramatic it looks at nighttime.

Another fantastic travel vacation day!   We're filled with brilliant interesting images!   So nice to have bright blue skies to see everything.   On to Aurillac tomorrow, Thursday.

See you there!