Rocamadour

Hello all
 Our little car race around France is fast coming to an end and as happens every time, I’m starting to feel a little melancholy. Although Joani starts missing family and has symptoms of withdrawal, I, as I have stated before could just be a nomad. Wandering from city to city, country to country. Checking in via email to let everyone know I’m alive and continually seeing new things, but alas it is not to be. Joani needs family and we both need money, so I’ll be seeing most of you a week from today. I’ll probably be depressed and grouchy but unless I win the lottery it’s back to work for me.
 Yesterday we visited Rocamadour on our way to our hotel here in Bordeaux. I know that I have been writing about how great everything is that we have seen and now I wish that I had of shown a little less enthusiasm. I’m really not sure how to describe how awesome our visit to this town was. The first thing you need to know about, is the drive to the town. Again we were on these small little mountain roads, and the best way I could describe them is something Joani said. We have a running path that goes along the lake all the way from Pickering through to Whitby, and it is wider than the roads we drove on to get to this town. What’s truly remarkable about that, is that the entire way the road is considered a two lane highway with a 90 kilometer speed limit. I have attached a photo of Joani with her arms swung out wide to show you how narrow these roads actually are.

 The next thing you need to know is that this entire town is built into or chiseled out of the side of a mountain. When you come driving along the highway and first come upon it you wonder how the whole thing doesn’t slide off into the valley below.

 The next amazing thing is also from the first view. It looks two dimensional!! As you are taking your photo from the highway right across from it, it seems to have length and width but then when you climb up the side of the mountain to where you see these buildings a whole town opens up and your left wondering how you didn’t see this when you took your first photo.

The next wonderous thing is that when you are in this unbelievable town hanging off a mountain, you look up and realize that you are only halfway up. There above you is the Cathedral looking over this tiny town, and it really is hanging off the side of the mountain.

 Well of course there was nothing that Joani and I could do but climb up into nosebleed country. It was another hour getting to the top and I would love to say that the views were awesome but that would be a lie. My vertigo was screaming the whole time I was up there. I have attached a shot showing how much higher the Cathedral view was above the town but I will confess that the way I got that photo was holding the camera out at arms-length away from my body over the catwalk I was on.

In other words, I didn’t actually see that view until that evening when we were looking at our shots.
 The whole time I was in this town in a mountain I was thinking, this is it!!! This is why I came to France! As much as I have raved about this trip, so far for me, this half day in Rocamadour has been the highlight. (Sorry Vincent) Anybody planning a trip to France.. this is a must see.
  This morning we drove to the little town of Cognac… yes the town where most of that famous liquor is bottled. It was again really quaint and well worth seeing. This evening we walked around old Bordeaux. It is a nice city but seems to be suffering from the bad economy more than most places we have seen.
 I am sending only photos of Rocamadour as it was a real highlight and Cognac and Bordeaux were to me, just peripheral.
Feeling melancholy,
Garry