Turns out, the geese don't get plumped up until they're about 5-6 months old, at which time they are moved inside and fed corn 5x a day for 3 weeks before they meet their demise. I didn't think that was too bad. The reason it works is because geese don't have gag reflexes, they can't vomit. No idea if that means they hurt when the food keeps coming. Hope not! They sure looked happy out in the pasture though, and they all came out to greet us.
LA ROQUE-GAGEAC and BEYNAC
We stayed in a little bourg that was so small our hotel didn't even have an address, just name and city. Here she is:
And we giggled a bit with delight every time we drove by these little signs:
Partially because the concept is funny, and partially because it confirmed our fabulous trip itinerary. Our very own La Roque-Gageac made it on the elite list.
SARLAT
Saturday morning we visited the market in Sarlat. It was way nippier than we expected, but we relished our cheese, salami, nougat, and produce taste tests as we walked along.
CARENNAC LOUBRESSAC ROCAMADOUR
After our market picnic we went for a scenic drive to see some towns in the Lot River valley. Our first stop was Carennac which was so quietly charming we couldn't get enough.
There was a bit of a mishap with a bridge being "barée" which we didn't know what meant, and in attempt to detour, our car kind of got stuck at a tight intersection. Some nice man hopped in to take the reins and free us from the predicament. Small town hospitality!
Next stop was Loubressac which was perched atop a little hill, unassuming yet dazzling.
And as we continued our drive, listening to Ingrid Michaelson's "You and I" which sort of became our theme song due to it's mentioning vacation homes in the south of France, we happened upon more picturesqueness.
We ended the night at Rocamadour which used to be (is still sort of) a pilgramage site where everyone stops to see the "Black Virgin", a statue of Mary in black stone. It's basically a church on a cliff, which is gorgeous at night.
GROTTO de FONT-de-GAUME and LASCAUX
So this I thought was pretty cool. Did you know that Cro-Magnon came from the name of the man who discovered the first skeleton of a human in this period? His name was Monsieur Magnon. So we should actually be saying 'cro-magnon' with a French accent, which I will do from now on.
Rita lent me an article in the New Yorker about a year ago when she heard I was going to France, friends :-), that talked about the cro-magnon cave paintings in Lascaux which were unbelievable. So I was excited to add that to our itinerary. Good suggestion, Rita!
We first went to Grotto de Font-de-Gaume which is the last polychrome cave still open to visitors. (Lascaux is a recreation due to the deterioration from humidity and temperature that humans were inflicting on the art).
I wasn't expecting to be so wowed by these. My initial expectation of simplistic stick figures on walls was miles off. There were dozens of cool things about the caves but one I loved was that they used the natural contours of the rock to make their paintings. See how the cave juts out and that becomes the back and chest of the bison? The protuberances and concavity added to the shadows and gave depth to them. And the shading and outlining is amazing, as is the detail and accuracy. The guides said that the proportions are exact to the real animals.
They also said to imagine it like it was back in the day, with flickering flames on torches rather than the static light from a flashlight. That, as well as the angles the artists used is meant to show movement, like a herd of bison, buffalo, horses galloping before your eyes.
I also loved how it incited so many questions. The biggie: What was the meaning behind the paintings? What did art mean to them? And why did they only paint bison, deer, buffalo... There's only one picture of a man in all the miles of cave paintings - and there are miles. Experts also say these weren't any novice painters, and this wasn't daily life or caves they lived in. These were their equivalents of art galleries. Loved it.
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