Bachwig travellers: More pre- history and the Cele valley

Figeac, Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, Cele Valley

Sunday, 7 October 2012
Today was forecast to rain so when I enquired with Pech Merle about a booking I made it for today. And yes..it rained! Not hard but enough to justify bringing out the raincoats.
Pech Merle is a cave with Pre historic paintings in it which is why we wanted to go. Unlike Font de Gaume which let in 200 people day, they let 700 in so we figured our chances were higher. Our e mail to the caves worked and we got a booking. The day started with a slight disaster as our Depot du PAin was closed ( maybe it opened later - we don't know) so we got going to the village of Cabrelets in search of Petit dejeuner. We ended up at the Hotel de Grotte sitting outside (under shelter from the rain) beside the river and watching the ducks. As we chatted the the waiter as we paid we discovered he had spent a lot of time in New Zealand as he grew up in Tahiti and New Zealand was the closest place to come and ski! He moved back to Framce to study when he was 20. He told us he was the great grandson of one of the young men who discovered the cave. Pretty cool!
Here is some interesting stuff for the website.
Why is it called "Pech Merle" ?
In the lower third of France is a southern Latin culture called langue d'oc or occitan.
Pech is the French writing of the occitan word puèg which means : a hill. We pronounce as in "fresh". It appears in the name of many localities, written pech, puech, pioch, pey, and you can read it on the signs of the regionals roads. In old French, the good word is puy. For Merle, we know nothing. It could be an ancient Gaelic word or from an older language, which could mean : hill, high area.
Within ten kilometres around Pech Merle can be found a dozen other caves with wall paintings. They are not open to the public.
The upper network of the cave of Pech Merle has no signs of prehistoric use and has been known since the turn of the century.
The prehistoric galleries, in the lower network, were discovered in 1922 by André David and Henri Dutertre, when they were 16 and 15 years old respectively. The examination of the paintings and engravings was immediately begun by Father Amédée Lemozi, the priest of Cabrerets.
We had a tour at 12.00 but had to be there at 11.30 or they would give our tickets away. We had a look through the museum and then saw a really good film on the caves and the paintings. It was subtitled in English and explained all the research they have done on the paintings.
Nothing prepared us for the tour itself. This was great! We thought we would see lots of cave, and a few paintings. There were heaps of paintings in all kinds of places - some simple and some complex. Of course we can't take photos and sometimes that is nice 'cause you just focus on letting what you are seeing sink in. The tour was all in French and we had a booklet in English explaining simply what we were seeing at each guide point. However our guide took real care to ensure that each person in the tour had time to see each drawing he was pointing out but using torches and pointers and we knew enough of what he was saying to enjoy it. I certainly recommend this and for me it has been one of the highlights of the trip. It's such a pity that Colette and Stuart missed out when they were camping in the area earlier. The trick is not to believe the website why it tried to force you to book a week ahead - and to politely e mail then anyway.
We then took a Sunday drive up the Cele valley which is gorgeous and lush. There are numerous lovely little villages, camp grounds, walks and canoeing spots. One challenge tough was that we were all hungry and especially Michael and there was just nowhere open to eat! Apt of cafe's/ restaurants only serve between 12.00 and 2.00 - or- they are closed because it is off season, Sunday, or they are just closed! So Michael was pretty grumpy as we dragged him through various photos spots
Finally we found a family run place in some village I can't remember the name of. Michael had an omelette, Bruce a salad and me a galette. It was fantastic home cooked food. I'm starting to develop a taste for the French ciders which are quite dark in colour and strong flavoured. The rain had pretty well stopped and it was becoming warm and humid like.
Lots more pottering and photos stops. We had a browse through Figeac and then returned to enjoy our last night in this gorgeous village. We returned to le gourmet Quercynois where we had eaten on our first night and it was excellent again. We met some lovely retired Americans who were staying at the connected Hotel Saint Cirq who run a shuttle bus up to this restaurant. A nice end to a lovely time!

	The mist at the start of the day in Saint Cirq [Map]		from our window [Map]
	Internet download of one of the paintings [Map]		Cute houses [Map]
	Bridges [Map]		Ruined abbey [Map]
	Behind the abbey [Map]		In the centre of the abbey [Map]
	The town with the abbey [Map]		Michael...hungry! [Map]
	Gorgeous town from the road [Map]		Saint Cirq -our last night [Map]