Lunch, on the other hand, was a terrific find. We decided to drive out of town since Les Eyzies is a total tourist trap, and pulled in to a completely non-descript-looking place. Well it turned out to be one of those places where locals in the know go. Just a bar and six tables. One proprietor who did everything, cooking, waiting tables, clearing, tending bar and probably washing dishes too. Here was no menu, just a four-course meal of whatever he was serving that day. Today it was a vegetable soup with croutons, followed with a chopped salad and home made pâté de campagne, then to my great delight a main course of Boudin Noir (pork in sauce as an alternative) and then desserts of profiteroles, brownie with vanilla sauce, Creme Brûlée, and the cheese plate of three delicious cheeses. Of course we had to order one of each! All of this for 12 Euros!!! The name of the restaurant was "La Marmite," it was in the town of Manaurie. It was excellent and we we quite pleased with ourselves to have found it.
So we were well fortified for our walk through the amazing, awe-inspiring cave of Font De Gaume. Font de Gaume is the only cave open to the public today with prehistoric cave paintings, since Lascaux and Altamira are closed because of the damage from breathing etc. Our guide was terrific, he had such love and respect for his subject matter. He explained to us why it was so hard to get a reservation for a visit to the caves. All of the guidebooks said that advance reservations were absolutely necessary but we could not find out on the Internet or by telephone how to get a reservation. And we were told earlier this week when we went and inquired, that reservations were not possible. Very aggravating! Turns out that it is because the cave art is so fragile as is the environment, that they take only 96 people per day in the cave, down from 200 just a while ago, and so they do not really want to encourage people to come because they will only have to turn them away. So they just make it hard and elusive to get information about how to get entry tickets. Being in this cave and being shown the 14,000 year old cave paintings of bison, reindeer, and horses was almost a religious experience. What would those artists have thought to know that
14,000 years later people would come into that cave and see and admire their drawings? What is clear is that they weren't doing this art just casually, there was something very special in the meaning of this art for them.
On the way back to La Roque Gageac we followed a sign for Chateau Milandes. It is a lovely smallish chateau (for a chateau) originally built in 1489 and where the American singer Josephine Baker lived from the 1940's to 1969 (when she went bankrupt.) We toured it and it was quite lovely. Her story was interesting and ultimately rather sad.
We had a fabulous very French dinner at an excellent restaurant practically next door to our house. (La Belle Etoile) Really haute cuisine, outstanding food and service, gorgeous presentation. I was thrilled that the waiter spoke French to us the whole time and understood our French. I am enjoying listening to French spoken and understanding most of it.
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