Toussaint, Day 4...

Day 4 – mardi 27 octobre
Sarlat

The morning of day 4 was spent in the grottes of Font de Gaume. Basically, they’re the only grottes in France of pre-historic art still open to the public. We learn in the French major about the grottes of Lescaux, but they’ve been closed at this point. Their copy, Lascaux II, has also been closed. Even if humans don’t touch the paintings (obviously bad for prehistoric art) their breath can damage it just as easily. This was news to me. So we went to another grotte, which has what they said was polychromatic art (more than one color). Even at this one, the safety measures are crazy strict. It felt like I was about to board an airplane. We had to leave any bags behind, wipe our feet on special mats outside to prevent bacteria getting in, and absolutely not touch anything once inside. However, the paintings are definitely cool. They’re mainly of bison, but what else would you draw in prehistoric times? Obviously, I don’t have any pictures, but I bet you can google one of the grottes to get an idea of what we saw.

Lunch was in Sarlat, a small town nearby (and it’s absolutely charming). This was seriously one of the best lunches we have had. Our appetizer (the entrée) was a kind of foie gras, which is evidently a specialty of southern France, judging by how many times we’ve had it in the past week. The plat principal was a steak and potatoes dish, but it was not boring by any stretch. The potatoes were au gratin, I think, which is another specialty. The steak was soooo good. In France, they like them more rare than in the U.S., so this thing was practically still mooing, but it didn’t matter – it was incredible. Of course there was a cheese course, and dessert was some kind of pecan/hazelnut tart. It was like pecan pie, French style. Easily everyone’s favorite meal thus far.

Our afternoon was spent working off the incredible meal. We walked all over Sarlat with a guide who insisted on wearing her tour microphone, even though there were ten of us. Completely unnecessary, but it was funny. We also got to see one of the great French traditions once again – the latching onto other tours. I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to us. Someone will notice we’re with a tour guide, and start following our group. This wouldn’t be so annoying except for two things – they haven’t actually paid for the tour they are following, and they’re never subtle about it. This particular time was a little old lady and her husband. The husband was at least a little classy about it, but the woman? She would pretend that she was reading a restaurant menu, and then the guide would say “okay, look to the left,” and whoop! Up would go her head at that exact moment. We spent most of the tour just laughing at her pretending to be reading menus at 3 in the afternoon, when nothing is actually serving food.

We finished our tour and hadn’t gotten into trouble yet, so naturally we tried to correct that by walking right into a funeral service. Several of us wanted to see the cathedral, so we traipsed up the stairs only to realize the doors were closed. We figured it was a mass (it usually is) when we noticed a guy on the stairs giving us the stink-eye. We then noticed the hearse at the bottom of the stairs. Oops. So we left, pronto.

We finished off our afternoon by moving on to a new hotel in Carcassonne. It was relatively nice, but had the distinct problem of each room being the size of a North Village room. Which is the perfect size for one person, but three is a little cramped. And there was a distinct lack of outlets. France really does not seem to believe in outlets. It’s a pest when you’re traveling with a phone, a camera, and a computer, all of which need to be charged separately.

For dinner, we were still pretty full, so instead of a real meal, we got kebabs from a nearby street corner. In France, these are more like sandwiches than food that is skewered, but it’s delicious all the same. When we finished clogging our arteries, we were almost as full as the lunch earlier had made us. Yikes.