Living in a rock cliff

We packed two sites into the morning.  The first--La Roque Saint Christophe--was exceptional.  The naturally carved out rock face along the Vezere is a kilometer long and first housed prehistoric man (55,000 years ago) was later a fortress built in 976  for protection against the Norman and Viking raiders, and finally a medieval town with houses, workshops and defensive machines, all built into three levels of the cliff face. The town and fortress existed until 1588 when they were destroyed during the Wars of Religion. 

La Roque Saint Christophe

Our second morning activity was to a Renaissance House, also built into a limestone cliff face.  Maison Forte de Reignac was built in the 14th century with windows added in the 16th.  The rooms are filled with Renaissance furnishings and have either a stone wall or stone ceiling.  There is also an exhibition of over 60 medieval torture instruments.  An underground rock chamber displays prehistoric objects discovered on the site.

Maison Forte de Reignac

The town of St-Leon-sur-Vezere provided a lunch stop along the river.  Again we ordered more food than needed and took home some of the large cheese selections.  We walked the river path and watched a school group in their rented canoes.

During the past year we have read the Martin Walker series on Police Chief Bruno of the fictional Dordogne town of St. Denis (from hints in the books we think this is Le Bugue, where we are staying).  The novels are full of local color, wine, food, and a bit of politics and history.  Walker often mentions other towns of the area and in addition provides a postscript to each book with suggestions of areas of interest.  So this afternoon we tried to include some of these in our ride:  St-Albere, Tremolat, La Linde, Audric , St-Chamassy, Limeuil.  All were charming and deserved a look or a stop.  I wish we'd had a bit more time for some of them.  Guess we will have to return another year.  Tomorrow we head north to Tours, so mostly a day of riding as the heat rises.