22 June 2012 – Lembras

No internet access here so will post this when we get connected.

Yesterday was the long trek down from the Loire valley to the Dordogne. We were sorry to leave the Loire, both because we felt we had only touched the surface of the region and the accommodation was superb and we are unlikely to find as good again (Also the wines in the Loire are great).

On the way down we broke the trip twice, the first time at a WWII memorial. The village of Oradour-sur-Glace has been left in ruins as it was in 1945. On 10 June 1944 the Waffen SS rounded up the villagers, divided them into groups and massacred them. The men were killed in various shops around the village and the women in the church. The village was then systematically burned and the next day the remains were “cleansed”. Only 5 men and 1 woman survived the experience and over 400 died. The village has been left as it was with rusting cars and the old tram tracks running down the main street. As things fall apart they are not restored. The exhibition we went though before entering the village expressed a huge amount af frustration at the ineffective justice meted out as the village had been under the jurisdiction of the Vichy government, not directly under the Germans, and many French collaborators were pardoned and the German forces responsible were not effectively prosecuted. There were other massacres around the area at the same time, but this was the worst it seems.

The main street of Oradure-sur-Glane

The second stop was at Chalus, a small town where Richard the Lionheart was killed. He had been trying to take the castle which was only defended by 2 crossbowmen. The local inhabitants had withdrawn into the keep, a high circular tower. After 2 days one of the defenders shot Richard in the shoulder and he died sometime later from gangrene. He then had an interesting time – his entrails were buried in Chalus, his heart in Rouen and his body in Fontevraud Abbey.

As we went south the country became more heavily wooded and the quality of the houses improved. Around the Loire everything is fairly flat, but the Dordogne region appears much more uneven, but without any marked hills.

We are staying in a converted barn about 2 km out of the village of Lembras. This is middle of a wine region (surprise) and we are surrounded by vineyards. The view from our “terrace” (an area on gravel outside our apartment) is over the valley to a hillside of trees. The apartment is spacious and is set up for longstay self-catering. Coming up from village we pass very nice life-style properties that verge on palatial. Some of them have miniature horses and we stopped at one which had small horses, small goats and dozens of guinea pigs running around the field.

 Accommodation at Lembras

Local miniature horses

Today we spent relaxing. A visit to the supermarket in Bergerac, wine tasting, pate buying and lying by the pool. The weather is not yet warm enough to really enjoy swimming.