Thursday 10 May 2018 - Day 67
Nido’s parked up in a lovely little aire in the village of Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère, another ‘Beau Village’, with many honey-coloured cottages and narrow cobbled streets, with the river running alongside. Once a rich inland port, changes in transportation gradually pushed this village into the background. It’s been resurrected by tourism and, as today is another public holiday, it’s been quite busy. Several pétanque courts are in front of us and they’ve been well used all afternoon by people of all ages. The aire is in a small copse of open walnut trees, each with a large signed attached to the trunk saying ‘Defence de remasser les noix’, or in other words, don’t scrump the nuts! I’ve just wandered into the village and ordered takeaway pizza; our victuals are low and the supermarkets are closed on the is public holiday. But we’re overdue an ‘eating out’ treat.
We left Beau Rivage this morning and drove the few minutes to La Roque Gageac, parking in the aire by the Dordogne. This is (yet!) another beautiful village, built along the bank of the river and climbing up and into the steep cliff-face. Since our last visit in 2013 it’s naturally become more commercialised, with lots of tourist shops and a few more restaurants. We walked up the narrow lanes, past the botanic gardens with its palms and bananas. It was busy so we took a footpath that climbed steeply through the forest and were soon away from the crowds. It was another lovely walk through forest and past meadows and beautiful homes. The circular route brought us back into the village opposite the aire.
Our drive to Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère was on small roads through yet more deciduous forest - there are literally hundreds of square miles of oaks, walnuts, sweet chestnut, hazel and beech. We took a walk around the village, which has a number of well documented noticeboards detailing the history of the village and its buildings. So we’ve not done much today, apart from enjoy the peace and greenery of this lovely part of France.
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| Some houses are built into the cliff |
