Sunday 9 June 2013

Le Sud de France... Part Two... Ree POV

North my friends!... But first a long and winding road for a breathtaking view and a surprising demonstration.

 

After a week in the South of France at "le mansion", we had to pack up (no easy task after spreading out for a few days and as you can imagine there were quite a few paper planes lying about) and journey north towards Paris. It's a long way to the capital so we had a night booked at a gorgeous looking chateau about half way along - so it only remained to decide whether we could take in a few sights on the way there.

 

Mum had circled a few lovely places to see on a map before we left Perth and although we didn't get to all, there was still one I was keen to take a look at. Unfortunately my map skills took us the "less" quick way and we ended up on a collection of small, very windy, nausea-causing, often hard to locate, little roads which made us all quite sick of being in a car. By the time we got to the breathtaking and amazingly located town of Rocamadour (pronounced a bit like "knock-on-ma-door" and for some reason that is what I think of everytime I hear the name - go figure) some of us were a bit green.

We'd been warned about the numbers. Rocamadour has over a million visitors a year as its a popular pilgrimage destination (and way back used to be an important stop off point for pilgrims on the route to Santiago de Compostela). Its also breathtaking and amazingly located of course. But somehow we got lucky and there were only a few folk poking about and we almost had the place to ourselves. It was a warm day - wonderful clouds and scenery around and our "lets pull in for a look around and some lunch" turned into a half day visit.

The town is built onto a steep hillside providing it with reasonable fortification when those things had to be considered and the town was once surrounded (like seemingly lots of french towns) with a big stone wall. Now a lot of that has gone as the town grew but there are two main "gates" by which you can enter at either end of the town. We took the walk from the carpark below up the hill and along a trail and in through the western gate. Cobbled streets, little shops, restaurants and a general "villagey" feel - albeit catering for about 700 actual residents and the million touristos mentioned earlier. There is also a massive and steep staircase in the centre of town known as the Grand Escalier (214 steps in all) which leads up the mountain to a miracle performing Black Virgin statue housed in a chapel. In the past, the overtly devout would attempt to climb these stairs on their knees. Not being overtly devout, we skipped the steps all together and after a lovely lunch looking down into the stunning valley below had a meander through the wee shops and made our way up to the very top of the mountain... by car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Somewhere Lorry had seen a pamphlet about a bird show near Rocamadour - and it was this or a walk through a "monkey forest" to round out our day. Neither of these activities were what you might expect to find outside the ancient walls of a medieval town, but both rated quite well on Tripadvisor! The birds won out because of the timing in the end, and the show was amazing!

We looked on in awe as a bunch of french speaking fellows brought out kites (the birds not the toys), falcons, different types of eagles and vultures as well as a bunch of macaws, cockatoos and tropical birds (after the birds of prey were safely put away). I have never seen a vulture or a bald eagle and they were just extraordinary to see up close and more amazing to see taking off and landing and especially diving for food. The falcon was at least 100 metres away when it began its extraordinary descent for a dead mouse on the ground. Photos never really do the reality justice -but you always end up taking heaps anyway - and I have put in some shots to give you an idea. It was a humid day and the clouds were gathering so we had this incredible backdrop to the birds as they circled above waiting for their food to be presented.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After feeding, ogling and providing perches we hit the road to our rather fancy accommodation in Chateauroux.

 

 

 

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