The process of getting to France was not the smoothest. It was all set off by our flight from Queenstown arriving late into Sydney and we missed our connecting flight to London. From then nothing went majorly wrong, but nothing quite went right. We were rebooked with via Dubai with some waiting about in Sydney and Dubai and ended up in London 9 hours later than expected . That of course was later than our separately booked flight to Toulouse, France. So in transit I booked new flights which had involved an overnight in Paris and an early morning hop down to Toulouse but would get our overall plans back on track.
In London we waited around for a couple of hours and when check-in opened we were told our flights had been cancelled. On the positive side we were rebooked on the last flight into Toulouse that night – which was what our original plan had been. So at 10:30 pm we walked the short distance to the hotel and slept so well. A couple of claims for insurance costs would be a job for the future.
We picked up a car and got on the motorway in heavy rain which didn’t stop for 1.5 hours. And then for the last hour of the drive the skies cleared. And that weather pattern was to be the norm for the 5 days in the Dordogne – very mixed..
This part of our trip was a return to Beynac-et-Cazenac, organised by Chloe and Aidan, on the 10 year anniversary of their wedding there in 2014. And was a return to the original venue, with a number of family returning to “Sarracins”, the large house directly below the Beynac Chateau.

Andrew was very keen to visit the gardens at Marqueysaac.

Located less than 5 km from Beynac we sat on the patio and looked back toward Beynac, bathed in sunshine. The peacocks wandering around became close friends with Andrew as he wanted to share bits from his plate with them. We walked to the far end of the property and had good views over the valley below

I was keen to visit one of the many prehistoric caves in the area. We chose to visit Font de Gaume, about 20 minutes from the house. The main reason for this choice was that this the actual cave, where some others are replicas, to protect the history. There are reports that Font de Gaume will be closed to the public, if the effects of human visitors continue to deteriorate the cave paintings beyond a certain point. Currently there are only a very limited number of tickets each day which get booked out.
Our guide was really interesting and continually surprised us by revealing the cave paintings with his torch. The paintings are estimated to have been made about 17,000 years BC. Most of the paintings were Bison or Horses. It was quite a special experience.
In the nearby town of Le Eyzies we found a bistro Chez Cloe, and had the most delightful set menu lunch.

Other outings included visiting Montpazier – where Andrew found a brewery, near a street with a pleasing name, and a few other French villages.


On the return journey to Toulouse Airport we stopped in the village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie – on the list of the most beautiful towns in France. Unfortunately for us it was raining and the town was surrounded in mist. Although by the time we finished our confit of duck for lunch, the clouds cleared and we had a glimpse of the surroundings.

A varied few days.
