Hiking through the Perigord Noir region is a communion with the country's history, art and natural beauty.
By MICHELLE STENCEL
Published May 2, 2004
[Photo: AP]
A bison, left, and a horse are seen in this undated photo taken in the Cussac cave in France’s Dordogne region. The cave’s prehistoric engravings are believed to date as early as 28,000 B.C.
[Times art]
As do many Americans, my husband, Jon Lowe, and I vacationed in France last year. But unlike most of our countrymen, we walked through the landscape for six days.
It turned out to be a remarkable trek through the Perigord Noir, a region in southwest France celebrated for its beauty and for its historical significance. We walked 9 to 12 miles per day, using hiking maps to follow trails through forests and along swift rivers.
We sauntered through pastoral hamlets, past medieval bastides (country houses) and feudal castles. We marveled at painting and relief sculptures crafted by hunters more than 15,000 years ago.
We carried only daypacks. By arrangement, each night the rest of our luggage was waiting for us in lodgings that ranged from a simple two-star hotel to an elegant chateau next to a golf course.
The people we encountered on our cross country hike charmed us:
* A sophisticated expatriate artist, living in a renovated, 16th-century stone farmhouse, served us a proper English tea - complete with a blue china pot - in his garden.
* We talked with a farmer who was patrolling his fields watching for "Reynard" - the fox.
* We shared a laugh with an entourage of boar hunters, and the rest of that day my husband and I sang songs and talked loudly as we walked because we did not want to sound like an animal thrashing through the thickets.
Other than the occasional climb to get close to some medieval stronghold, our hiking was easy and the countryside enchanting.
We started by following a path next to the Dordogne River. Lined by massive trees, the luminescent green river was so wide that only the snagged limb here or there revealed the speed of the current.
We continued on one-lane country roads past scattered farms and their grazing horses. We walked through tiny villages, their old stone churches. Our route led us along narrow footpaths through meadows where butterflies, in groups of all white or all blue, congregated on wild flowers.
In the forests the tree branches often met overhead, creating the interplay of light and shadow on the trail that artists know as chiaroscuro. Other times, our path was just a dirt road that led underneath mossy cliffs hung with ivy creepers and roots from the trees on top of the cliffs.
Yet each day we seemed to visit tourist sites, too. For instance, on our first day we saw morning fog slide around the massive walls of Chateau Beynac, which dates from the 12th century. This defensive complex, complete with ramps, towers, keep, dungeons and courtyard, was one boundary of battle between the English and the French during the 100 Years War.
At one point, Richard I of England - the Lion Hearted - controlled this fortress, with its walls spiked by tree trunks sharpened into points projecting over the edges.
That same day we slogged up a steep paved road to Domme, one of France's best-preserved fortified villages. It is located like an eagle's nest on a rocky promontory overlooking the Dordogne Valley. We enjoyed a quick visit to the Museum of Traditional and Popular Art, which featured items of ordinary farm and village life from the 19th century.
Other sites were appealingly off-beat. Meyrals is a tiny hamlet with striking medieval stone houses and cobbled lanes. Most memorable for us was its collections of scarecrows, such as a 15-foot-tall, welded-aluminum spider. These were left from the village's yearly scarecrow festival at the end of July.
La Madeleine, which was inhabited from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, has homes constructed onto, and extended into, caves. Les Cabanes du Breul, now a historical area, is a series of conical stone huts constructed without cement. They appear somewhat like stone-layered tepees: The lower walls are almost 10 feet wide, then get narrower higher up. The roofs are a lauze style, which requires stacking slabs of stone that come together at the top but without a keystone. Flocks of geese and flocks of tourists wandered along the circular path at this site.
We spent a day in and around Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, a hamlet of 850 that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In a bucolic setting at the juncture of the rivers Vezere and Beune, where nearby cliffs are riddled with caves, this area is sometimes called the "cradle of mankind." Humans have lived in these surroundings for about 100,000 years. The apogee of these early people's art and craftsmanship came about 15,000 years ago, as is evidenced in some 175 prehistoric sites.
Access to these sites is restricted. We were able to enter Font de Gaume, the last cave in the Aquitaine basin still open to the public. Admission is limited to 200 per day, so reservations must be made months in advance.
The cave has Paleolithic art of multicolored paintings; historians have decided the paint was applied by blowing the color through hollow bone.
This cave is more than 390 feet long and contains more than 200 painted and engraved figures: geometric shapes, faces, female figures, sexual symbols and representation of a hand. The animals, mostly bison but also mammoths, reindeer and horses, are stunningly realistic.
Only when our guide outlined the various objects with her laser flashlight was I able to distinguish features and groupings. Now I could see the tongue of one reindeer licking the face of another reindeer. When the guide moved the flashlight to mimic the effect of an open fire or torchlight, the irregularities in the stone dramatically became part of the frieze; the shape of the rock suggested the volume and shape of the animals.
Another early site we visited is Castel Mer, a series of prehistoric shelters in a wooded setting. We had a private guide and by luck we met Randy White, a professor at New York University who had worked at this site for 26 years.
He told us that where we were standing, beneath an overhanging cliff, had room for as many as 300 people. Still visible were the hooks in the rock ceiling from which these early humans suspended animal skins, apparently to protect themselves against the weather. White enthusiastically pointed to the signs of a 14,000-year-old fireplace.
Famous for its realistic depiction of a human being is the cave Grotte de Saint-Cirq. The caretaker seemed as ancient as the site and spoke in such a heavy dialect that I could not understand a word. But with the help of his flashlight beam, I could make out a group of animal engravings. And when he angled a mirror to the ceiling at the back of the cave, the ghostly outline of three human figures appeared.
The most famous of these is the now called the sorcerer. It is a human shape, in profile with flexed knees and extended arms. He is looking over his left shoulder, eyes open and mouth agape, as if awed by the tourist standing here looking at him, 15,000 years after he was created.
- Michelle Stencel lives in Tampa.
If you go:
Overview: Our trip started in Sarlat-la-Caneda, the capital of Perigord Noir, and proceeded in a rough triangle: first, south to Chateau Beynac, then along the Dordogne River; northwest to Les Eyzies, where we explored sections of the valley of Vezere; westerly, with much crisscrossing of the Beaune River valley; west, and then north through the Bois de Puymartin back to Sarlat.
Finding your way: We were given two hiking maps on which each day's tour was highlighted in a different color, as well as an accompanying booklet. Several times the booklet proved to be confusing. Sometimes the color of the trail did not correspond with the description. Often the clarity of the description was inept. Once, the entrance to a trail was overgrown by blackberry bushes.
When to go: We hiked in late September, after the summer rains and before the winter cold, during harvest season when the landscape becomes remarkably "edible." I was continually munching on purple figs, smooth-skinned plums, glistening ripe blackberries, walnuts and juicy peaches - all in easy reach from the path.
Staying there: In Sarlat we stayed at the three-star Hotel De Selves. It is a modern, pleasant hotel with a courtyard and pool, within easy walking distance of the historic old town, and with a car park. www.selves-sarlat.com e-mail: hotel@selves-sarlat.com International phone:+ 33 553 315 000
In Vitrac, the Hotel Domaine de Rochebois, a member of the Chateaux & Hotel de France, is an elegant four-star hotel/golf resort with a gourmet restaurant. With its terraced rooms, decadent bathrooms and pool, it was the most beautiful hotel of our visit. On the Web: www.rochebois.comwww.lodgingfrance.com/Sarlat/DomainedeRochebois phone: 33 0 53 31 52 52.
In Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, the three-star Hotel Le Centenaire, a member of Relais & Chateaux, has well-furnished rooms and a swimming pool surrounded by flowers and is convenient for visiting the prehistoric sites. The kitchen is outstanding. 24620 Les Eyzies-de-Tayac; www.hotelducentenaire.fr e-mail: hotelducentenaire@wanadoo.fr phone 33 0 5 53 06 68 68.
In Tamnies, the two-star Hotel LaBorderie, located on the peak of a hill, has simple rooms but stunning views. There is a large heated swimming pool on expansive grounds. The restaurant is family-oriented and agreeable. 24620 Tamnies-en-Perigord; e-mail: hotel.laborderie@worldonline.fr phone: 05 53 29 68 59.
To book: The entire tour was arranged by Perigord Insolite, La Riviere, 24200 Vitrac; phone: 05 53 29 05 07. Our contact person was Gilles Ourdi, who arranged the transfers of our luggage, of ourselves and, in general, was there in case we needed him. E-mail: gilles.ourdi@wanadoo.fr
The booking of this tour was done through the U.S. company DiscoverFrance.com, 8630 E Via de Ventura, Suite 220, Scottsdale, Ariz. 85258; www.discoverfrance.come-mail:infor@discoverfrance.com phone: 480 905-1235 or call toll-free 1-800-960-2221.
