The fields are golden brown with throw-rugs of red-orange poppies thrown down here and there. Stone houses crowd the road, then it opens back up to green farmland. Cornfields give way to very precise wood lots, more low hills, rolls of hay, then a forest belonging to this village or that.
Doing 90KM per hour, then 110, then dropping to 50 when we hit another village.
We did spend a little time on the A10, rocketing along at 130KMH, filling up on 95 Sans Plomb gas.
It is about a four or five hour drive to Beynac et Cazenac, our next stop.
Along the way, we made three stops.
MORTEMART: Place Of Beauty.
We were about ten kilometers north of our destination of Oradour-sur-Glane, and as always we slowed as we came into town. There was a sort of monastery on the left, and as I was looking at it the town square opened up and I got a quick glimpse of some unusual raised-roof structure and a round stone something. A cute intersection of crowded, close in stone buildings, then we were out the other side.
So we circled around and went back to have a look.
We parked and walked around the town. There is a modest chateau with pond, several clean and impressive, yet stark stone buildings fronting a clean square, and a covered market place. The market was like a roof, supported by large columns, with no walls. Timber construction, it provides shelter, but is open. I have seen these before, but it has been a while. Many of the houses have well tended flowers; the red stands in stark contrast to the grey rock.
The bar/café near the chateau was open, so we stopped in. What a charming place for a coffee and glass of white wine. We sat out in the sun and admired the stone, wondering why we have not heard of this little village.
The owner is from the United Kingdom, and he came here with his wife several years ago to get out of the noise and hassle of the city. We got quite a lot of information from him in a short period of time.
He is 51, and wants to sell out and retire in a couple years. His wife was with the police, and got hurt on the job, so they used her pay to start this bar.
Houses in this area, in ready to move in condition, go for about €40,000. Fixers are a lot less. It is important that you get your garden (yard) attached with your house. Some people buy in the village, and their deeded property is outside somewhere else.
There are many British, Aussie, and other expats in this particular region. It is a lesser-known place, between better known areas (Loire north, Dordogne south, Bordeaux over a little…) and the main industry is farming (good beef!) so the property prices are lower.
It takes five years to nationalize.
The Brexit may get them all kicked out. They are waiting to see. The retirees are worried, as they produce “nothing” for France, just consume by being there. The business owners are a little less worried, since they pay taxes, but still…
The immediate drop in the pound hurts. Some people working in France, who are UK citizens, wonder how this will affect their pension status. Overall, the feeling is that it is a poor decision made by angry people. “This is what we elect the government for, to make these rational decisions, not throw it back on the people.”
“But you Americans are dealing with the same issue right now, with Trump running for president, eh? That will be another disaster."
They make all their money in nine weeks, Bastille Day to first week of September. The rest of the year it is slow, and they close down completely for two months during the winter.
They do not get to travel around France much, since they are working the tourist season. “Everything is closed” the rest of the year.
The local patisserie is actually in the next village over.
At that, another couple walked in and he left to serve them up, and talk their ear off.
The glass of wine, coffee (espresso), and information cost me €2,50 total.
ORADOUR-SUR-GLANE: Place of Destruction
Oradour-sur-Glane was a peaceful village, totally unremarkable until one day.
June 10, 1944
Four days after D-Day, the Nazis came into town and rounded everyone up. The men were taken out as a group and shot, the women and children locked in the local church. The church was machine gunned, then tear gassed, then set on fire. They all died as the ceiling crashed in on them.
Then the town was destroyed.
This was supposedly in retaliation for a German officer who was killed by the French Resistance.
Everyone had survived the entire war and occupation, it was just weeks before liberation by the Allies, and they are wiped out.
The French never rebuilt or cleaned up the village. It stands as is, cars here and there, sewing machines and beds and stairways to nowhere. There are bullet holes in the walls of the church, and signs on each building tell you who and what business used to be there. There is a huge martyrs’ memorial in the cemetery.
There is a new town built over next to the original, but this part is walled off, locked behind gates with only one way in. French school kids all come see it, and it is a memorial; a lesson to not forget the true cost of war.
It is a very somber place to walk.
The photos speak for themselves.
I wonder if the US would be so eager to start wars if we had been invaded like so many countries in Europe; if we had places like this in our country?
COLLONGES-LA-ROUGE: Back to Beauty
This is a real tourist spot, and when we got to the town it was very crowded with a fresh tour-bus load of people. As they cleared out, however, you could start to see the beauty of the village.
We spent an hour and fifteen minutes here, and that was enough for us to walk the entire village, take in the church, listen to some medieval sing-along in the town marketplace, and snap photos.
I suppose if we were forced to overnight here, we could walk into a few stores, and linger at one of the tree-shaded corners or courtyards, sipping wine and coffee.
Walnuts seem to be very big here, and there is a famous knife-maker in town.
From here it was only another hour to our destination of Beynac.
We have been to Beynac before, and I’ll do a blog post about the area soon.