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How many pretty villages are there in France!!

Our home exchange is another Wow! A lovely ex farmhouse with a pool and walnut trees by fields of maize and sunflowers, located north east of Bordeaux and on the border of the lower Dordogne Valley.

Guaranteed to make you smile... hectares of fields full of blooming sunflowers!

We are in a very rural area with cereal harvest mostly finished, straw baling and carting underway and lots of sunflowers that are in early to full bloom. We have seen some beef cattle outside, small mobs still with the most we have seen is our neighbours here with a mob of maybe 30-40.

The area is dotted with terracotta tiled villages, most at least 16^th century or older. Our closest small village is Bonnes which has a boulangerie (bakery) and a restaurant. 

After arriving and unpacking, we went to the next village of Aubeterre-Sur-Dronne which is to become our ‘go to’ village during our week long stay. The village is full of UK accents (our home exchanger's are Welsh owners, although absent at the time of our stay) and UK registered, right hand drive, cars etc. Lots of rustic cheap (relatively) houses and reliable summer we guess is appealing for the Brits.

The village is built on a hill overlooking the river Dronne with 2 churches dating back to the 12^th century, one carved into a cave. Narrow winding streets and some rickety 2-3 storied buildings. Very pretty, and it is classified (along with many others!) as one of the prettiest villages in France. The village has a busy market on Sunday morning, is reasonably popular but certainly not overcrowded, and we have a few meals there during our week. Our final night dining in the village square there was a British band playing cover hits to a nearly all British audience.

Some of our week was spent on mundane chores, things like laundry, blog and trip planning but we fitted in a few day trips further afield.

Sunday 14^th July was Bastille day, our hosts had left a note recommending seeing fireworks at a nearby village .. so of course we did! This was beside the "Beach", adjoining the river in another lovely setting. Arriving at 9:45 pm there was a big crowd and excitement building with music and dancing until 11 pm when the fireworks lit up the sky. A very professional display, a bonus for us.

Some of our day trips included visits to;

Brantome-en-Perigord, a chateaux and abbey built along and into limestone cliff beside the Dronne River. The Benedictine abbey of Brantome was founded in 769 AD.

Montignac, a 2 hour drive away, the town near Lascaux Caves where there are replica Neolithic Caves. The original caves are in that area but have been closed off to public entry for many years due to the risk of damage (human, light, moisture etc).

Sarlat-la-Caneda, the biggest town visited with Tudor buildings and winding streets and said to be prosperous from the 8^th century and it still looks so today. However in the late 1800’s it stagnated and it wasn’t until 1968 it was re-discovered with better road access also triggering restoration. This is why the old buildings and cobbled streets remain largely intact.

  

Foie Gras anyone?... these seem unaware of the force feeding controversy and looking forward to their next meal!

Domme, a hilltop stronghold dating back to 1281 AD.

La Raoue-Gageac, a village built in and under a limestone cliff

Beynac, which included an impressive walled chateaux on above the cute riverside village

All these villages are in gorgeous settings, beside the Dronne River in the scenic Dordogne region. If you felt so inclined you could cycle in this region for miles, or even canoe/kayak the river as far as you wished. Many people were doing just that with canoe rental outfits very visible and providing a shuttle service with trailers full of canoes.

A sombre day...

Our hosts warned a visit to this village could be harrowing, an apt description.

Oradour-su-Glane, is a village of ruins that has been preserved (decreed by Charles de Gaulle at the end of WWII) in order to be a “witness to the future of mankind as a testament to the barbarity of war”

This had been an ordinary, wartime, French country village until on the 10^th of June 1944 the 2^nd SS Panzer division were ordered to destroy the village and all it’s inhabitants. There were mass executions of all the men whilst the women and children were locked in the church. The Church was set on fire and any attempting escape were shot. 642 civilians were killed, with 1 escapee, over a 3 hour period and the town set alight and bombed by tank. A senseless act. The Nazi's gave no reason, but it is thought it was done as a reprisal to the French resistance.

On to exchange #3...

We left Bonnes and had a 4 hour drive to Vannes, our next home exchange for 3 nights. A lovely family of 4 who had stayed with us in January. On our arrival they cooked a meal for us featuring the specialties of the region, Gallettes and crepes along with feeding us homemade cider!! YUM.

As this was their own home, they actually moved out for the duration of our stay. Not too big a hardship as Thierry's parents live over the fence, as well as it being summer holidays so they spend a lot of time at Anne-Julie's family beach house not far away.  Thierry is a sailor and has been on America's Cup campaigns (including Auckland 2000) and is currently preparing for the Sydney-Hobart race. Anne-Julie is a sports psychologist.... explaining she is currently working with an Opera singer!! Along with their 2 charming kids, they are a fun family to interact with for the evening.

The international Foosball champs begin....

Vannes is a walled town in the Brittany region of France founded over 2000 years ago by the Celtic people then the Romans, who named the region. Although the name has no connection to 'Britain' from the 5^th to 7^th century Briton’s did arrive here as they fled the Saxon invasions of Britain.

A bit of too'ing and fro'ing of armies and political powers over the years saw the region end up as part of France.

Vannes is located on the gulf of Morbihan, a lovely sheltered huge bay and a big holiday destination. On the advice of our hosts we went into the Vannes Saturday market, being there early enough to be rubbing shoulders with the locals. Lots of fruit, veg, fish of all sorts, cheeses etc.

Although a bit of light rain about first thing the weather cleared as we took a boat tour around the Gulf. A slight problem was that the commentary was in French but we saw some of the Celtic monuments and rings of stone (les rochers) etc. Also some big waterside chateaux, castles and lots of boats. A very pleasant cruise. The outer gulf is mostly accessible by road so housing all around, quite expensive real estate according to our hosts.

We spent the afternoon on the largest island in the gulf, Ile-aux-Moines, and hired bikes to bike the width and length of the island over a 3 hour period. It has Celtic rings of stone and crucifixes, along with beautiful stone houses. Mainly shingle roofed but some thatched. Lots of them obviously holiday/weekend homes.

Sunday saw us at the small local St Ave's market for a look before driving north along the coast. Stopped at Le Bono, a small fishing village with its claim to fame being a suspension bridge from 1840. Lunched and walked around the peninsula of La Trinite-sur-Mer which is a lovely rocky peninsula, small sandy beaches between. There were a couple of German WWII bunkers/observation posts, one of which was being reused as a garage.

Then onto Carnac, where our home exchange hosts were weekending, so met up and walked the coastline a little before saying our good-byes. Carnac has a huge and very safe beach area as it is protected on nearly all sides. It was a popular place the day of our visit being Sunday, holidays and low to mid 30’s. It also has a lovely old town centre with church, square. 

Nearby are the stone alignments of de Carnac, an architectural Megolithic monument .. the largest of its kind in Europe. Thousands of standing stones in lines, from around 5000 BC and onwards, extend over nearly 4 km. Erected by pre Celtic people, no one really knows why or more importantly how! A spectacular landscape. Very interesting to see and amazing that they are still there, although they are amazingly large in most cases (once again the how question!).

As protection of this site became important most of the area was purchased by the state in the early 20^th century. Interestingly whilst we were there large speakers, and lights, were being erected among the stones. Caro suggested perhaps a "rock" concert, but Noel said that was ridiculous unless it was Simon and Garfunkel as all he could hear was the Sounds of Silence.

Then back to 'our' house and a home cooked meal for a pleasant change…