Italy Lakes and Southwest France

  October 26, 2021 Carcassonne and the Cathars   Our last day in France was a field trip to Carcassonne.  We’ve now traveled about 2/3 of the way across southern France, from the Atlantic almost to the Mediterranean (green line):   On the ride to Carcassonne we had a talk about the Cathars with lots more information about their origin, the conflict with the Pope (Innocent III), the crusade to rid the area of the heretics, and the building of the fortress at Carcassonne.   Lots more information here: https://www.cathar.info/ and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne .   The structure is imposing from a distance: We took a group photo at the entrance:   There is a complete double ring of walls which make it almost impenetrable: This photo is of the space between the walls:   The interior is not nearly as interesting, just room after room, but the view from the ramparts is impressive:   After touring the fortr...

  October 25, 2021 A Walking Tour and Saucisse de Toulouse   Toulouse is the fourth largest city of France (after Paris, Lyon, and Marseille) and this morning we had a lecture on the history of the city and then a walking tour of the major sights.  A couple of things define the city, one, it is on the pilgrimage route towards Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain, and as such many religious pilgrims have come through and stayed here during their journeys.  Next, the region, Languedoc, has its own language, and is part of French Catalonia which was ceded to France by Spain in 1659.  It’s a long story, and part of the victory of France and the Catholic Church over the Cathars.  Toulouse is a major center of learning, with 80,000 university students here.  It is also an aerospace center, with Airbus centered here and the Ariane rockets being built here. The feel here is distinctly different from the areas further west from where we’ve come....

 October 24, 2021 Toulouse-Lautrec and Albi   We departed Rocamadour this morning and drove about three hours to Albi, the birthplace of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the site of a museum with the largest collection of his works in the world.  We entered Albi alongside the Tarn River and the 11 th century bridge:   We had lunch at a local restaurant and then began our visit to the Toulouse Lautrec Museum.  Our guide, Reuben, had prepared us on the ride to Aldi with a short biography of T-L’s life, with special attention to the fractured legs he had as an adolescent and the probability that he had a genetic bone disease, as there was much inbreeding in his family.  The three doctors on our trip concur that it was probably osteogenesis imperfecta.  In any case, his legs never grew properly, and he was misshapen, which probably was responsible for much of his life path.  We had a wonderful docent at the museum who spent about 90 minutes with...

  October23, 2021 Lunch, Gouffre de Padirac, and Goats Today is a good day to write at length about our food and drink.  It has been generally very good, with an occasional ordinary meal, and some extraordinary ones.  We are eating too much and eating too much rich food.  It’s not sustainable, and if it were not temporary because we are on vacation, we would balloon up beyond recognition.  We are drinking wine twice a day, at lunch and dinner, usually good local wines.  We tell ourselves we will begin eating normally when we get home.  Today’s lunch is an example.   We had the morning free to sleep in, wander the town and catch up on laundry, etc.  We met at 11:30 and drove to a local restaurant for lunch.  Awaiting us at the table was an aperitif of kirsch and white wine, and the first course was served promptly, a salad with two large portions of duck liver foie gras along with fresh walnuts (which are being harvested here now): ...

  October 22, 2021 Another Cave and Beautiful Villages   We began today checking out of our hotel in Sarlat, and drove to a cave with prehistoric art in which we are allowed to see the actual cave paintings.   Pech Merle cave is long, deep and wet, and has art which has some unique features.   Photos are not allowed; the next two are from the internet.   There are spotted horses: And, very interesting, negative paintings of hands.   Our guide said that the proposed mechanism is the placing of the hand on the wall and the spraying of the wall and hand with paint from the mouth.   It is suspected that these are the hands of women, making unsure the gender of the artists:   Following our visit to the cave, we drove to another incredibly beautiful mountainside village, St. Cirq Lapopie, where we wandered for a while.   It is incredibly photogenic: Finally we drove to Rocamadour where we’ll stay two nights.   This is yet another b...

  October 21, 2021 Lascaux Cave and the Museum of Prehistory We headed out this morning to the Vezere Valley to visit the Lascaux Cave and the Museum of Prehistory in Les Eyzies.   I had a concern. The extremely famous Lascaux Cave, with world-famous cave art, is not open to the public.   There have been three creations of reproductions, called Lascaux II, III and IV, the most recent, IV, being opened just five years ago.   It took many years to accomplish, as the physical structure of the cave was reproduced, and the wall art was reproduced using the same methods and materials as the original.   I was prepared to be disappointed, thinking it might be a Disney-ized version of the cave.   I was wrong, and I was hugely impressed.   A unique building houses the reproduction, immediately adjacent to the real thing. The Lascaux Cave art was created by homo sapiens some 18,000 years ago during the ice age, and remains quite mysterious. The cave is 250 ...