Still on the road with Joyce and Robin

Day 10, September 8, 2008– Today was a great day! After a quick tour of Limoges, we headed off the beaten path along country roads in the hills of France. Our destination was the Lascaux Cave area, a prehistoric site where people lived over 25,000 years ago. This route took us through more little villages, each with a church and stone shops, houses, and other structures. At one point we ended up at a chateau with a swing set in the yard—it looked like a small castle.


We passed a farm with acres of geese--the biggest gaggle of geese we ever saw—they do a lot of pate de foie gras here (goose liver paste)!

We were wanting a drink and a lunch snack when we encountered what looked like a Mexican restaurant and the name sounded Spanish. (We were only about 150 miles from Spain at the time—now we're much closer.) We are really tiring of this French food—Mexican sounded like a treat! Once we got inside, we discovered that this little restaurant was so very French—a buffet of appetizers that I didn't recognize except hard-boiled eggs and then we would have had to choose a “plat” (main dish) all for 11 euros (roughly $18 each)--we just didn't want that much to eat. We sat down to have a Coke and Robin saw a sign that said “sandwiches,” so he asked for a “jambon” sandwich. He got a narrow baguette (about 18 inches long) stuffed with ham—nothing else on it--for only 2.8 euros (under $5).


Another thing is that all over France, it is almost impossible to get ice. Even if you order a drink at McDonald's, it comes with little or no ice. If you ask for water in a restaurant, you get cold water but first they try to upgrade to sparkling water or Evian.

When we reached the area of the caves, we discovered huge limestone cliffs with overhangings into which the French have built houses so that the rock serves as the roof of the house or, in many cases, the back wall. They probably inherited the property from their caveman ancestors.

As we drive all over France, I find myself comparing the terrain to that of the Shenandoah Valley, West Virginia (the mountains aren't that high here), western Maryland, and southwestern PA. Today we even saw a tobacco farm and in some of the villages there were crape myrtles and mimosa trees. One thing I've learned since arriving here is that the landowners often enclose their property with hedgerows. They are tall and very dense. Robin tells me that the Americans had a hard time chasing the Germans out of France because they had trouble getting through the hedgerows during WWII.

We reluctantly left our meandering and hit the toll road for Toulouse. The French have wonderful roads, as I've said before; however, they should for what they charge. To go 150 km (about 90 miles), we paid over $18. Every ten miles or so they have rest areas. Some have restaurants and playgrounds and picnic areas; others just have facilities and a parking area. We have learned that when you go to the latter—just the facilities—you must have your own tissues.

Of course, we arrived in Toulouse after dark and could not find a train station or our hotel. It was very frustrating. We called the hotel and the clerk patiently directed us—he in very basic English, we in less basic French! The highlight of Toulouse so far has been the pizza we shared sitting at a sidewalk cafe across from the hotel. Another discovery here—I used the computer in the lobby to check e-mail messages. I had never thought about French keyboards or any other keyboards for that matter. I sat down and typed in my name and password and hit enter without thinking, and I got a message in French saying my password was wrong. You bet it was! The keys were not in the same place. How enlightening—we take so much of the way we do things for granted!

Robin and I have begun talking “pidgin French” to each other now. We'll find a McDonald's tomorrow and post this blog. We do not have access on our computer tonight. Tomorrow we're on our way to the Mediterranean and Montpellier!