The archaeologist has awoken! Oh and more castles and stuff.

So many of you know that once upon a time I studied archaeology and eventually got an Honours degree, fat lot of good that did me but it is still an interesting party story and I still have a keen interest.
While we were in the Dordogne region surrounded by evidence of prehistory we took some time to see some sights some of which are listed by UNESCO.

So to begin, I threw away my modern ways and returned to the way of the cave man.



Don't ask what happened to the rest of my family! They asked too many questions!
Anyway, moving on!
There is only one site where ancient cave paintings of bison etc can be seen and is still open to the public, this is at Font -De-Guame, however in order to see them you have to manage to get one of the 52 tickets on sale per day and they are like the hottest thing in town.
To attempt this there is a first come, first served sale each morning. No buying tickets for other, you must be there and there are no guarantees!!!!!
The tickets go on sale at 9:30 and sell out in less that 10 minutes so you need to get in line early. 7:30 and no later. We arrived at 7:15 and were about 30th in line. After a long cold wait, ticket secured.



Here is sues" I'm up so early on my holiday so you can look at cave paintings look".
There are no cameras allowed in, groups of 12 only and a guide but what an experience. The paintings were amazing, so detailed, possibly 14000 years old and worth the early start.



Here we are outside before hand, the cave entrance in to our left. Our guide was lovely and we had a nice chat archaeologist to archaeologist, about stone tools, deposition, strata and stuff.........
The following day we went off to a place called La Madelaine which is another troglodyte village with lots more archaeological stuff.
Here are some nice photos.



Where's wally?









The chapel.






They dug rooms out in to the rock and this was an entire village. Included a bakery, spinners rooms, animal barns, the lot and in true French fashion the site later had a Chateau built above which has since crumbled.






Ok I think I'm all archaeologied out now but,here is yet another Medieval castle for you, the castle of Castlenaud. Sue so wanted a wooden sword and a little knights outfit.






Steep roads lead upwards.


Another diorama, cause I can!


So with sadness we said goodby to our caravan, Olivier and his lovely corgi Elliot.






And we headed for Provence in the south west of France.
Here is a photo I took for you Megsie and Mark. This old fella was waiting for his dad outside the bakery. He got a croissant as a treat.



I have a bike hired for this week so I'll probably get lost and come back with stories to tell.

Uke complete me.

Location:Sentier de l'Ecolier,St.-Siffret,France