What's A Few Millennia Among Friends?

 Leaving the Prehistoric Behind

So we leave the Cro-Magnons happily hunting, eating and breeding according to Wikipedia from about 40,000 to 25,000 years ago.  What happens then?  The next mentions in my very cursory trip through history is that the Celts and Gauls cavort through the area for many millennia.  There doesn't seem to be much forward motion towards civilization.  Ah!  But then the Romans arrive and just love it in the Dordogne.  It's got it all.  Great climate, located on trade routes with its numerous rivers and lots of room to spread out and subjugate whoever has had the nerve to settle there before them.  In Perigeux (the capital of the Perigord --AKA Dordogne-- they establish a sophisticated city and thrive until the decline of the Roman Empire around 500 AD.  We went to an excellent museum in Perigeux which featured the remnants of the Roman period.  Michael's photos will give you an idea.

The Tower of Vesunna is a fanum (temple) dedicated to Vesunna, a tutelary goddess of the Petrococorii (a Gallic tribe that lived in the Perigord region). This was located outside of the Vesunna Gallo Roman Museum in Perigeux.

 

A floor mosaic recovered from the ruins of a Roman house discovered at Tour de Vésone during the construction of large public housing complex.

The next three photos show portions of columns recovered from the ruins.

This column dated from 50 AD reflects the beginning of mass winemaking in the Périgord..

This column shows Neptune the Roman god of the freshwater and the sea.

The funeral monument of Bassiania Viblina.

Part of a Roman votive altar to Mercury.

Another Roman altar with a bull, sword, pitcher and spoon depicted on one side. On the opposite side is a long inscription dedicated to Magna Mater (Cybelle - an Anatolian mother goddess adopted by the Romans around 204 BC). 

This head of the statue of Jupiter is dated from the 2nd century AD.

A model of the domus (large Roman urban house) discovered during the excavation for a large public housing complex mentioned above. The domus was a unique monument to Vesunna and it was decided to move it and create a museum around the remains of the original domus.

The inner courtyard of the domus shown in the model above.

The next three photos show how advanced Roman plumbing was in the domus. Water for the Roman bath as well as separate channels for human waste was directed through tiled channels under the floor.

This shows an exposed hypocaust, which the Romans used to heat the house as well as water for the baths. These tiles were used to elevate the floor. A fire was built with the heat traveling under the floors to heat the house.

The remnants of a fresco recovered and moved to the museum.

But all good things must come to an end.  The Visigoths, not known for their refined manners or scholarly knowledge arrived sometime in the 5th-6th Century and were followed by the Francs about a century later.  All of Europe is a story of conquest and submission and revolution but the Dordogne sort of sets the bar for fighting and chaos. Following the Francs came the Carolingian Reign which began in the 8th Century.  It was run titularly by the Carolingian King but but he seemed to be easily distracted and delegated power to his favorite Bishops to do as they would -- or wouldn't. And then more barbarians! Yes, the Vikings came to town.  Damn those gorgeous rivers that allowed for excellent raiding and pillage.  They came and went and came and went throughout the 9th Century. The Bishops sort of retained a loose control but everybody operated pretty independently for several centuries.  Then things got really chaotic, while also highly productive, as the English and French start to duke it out.  But that is in the next blog.

A Break in the  Historical Recounting

As we warned you, there will not always be  predictable thread weaving the blogs together.  This is one of those left turns.  Michael and I were looking forward to kayaking and planned to do it once a week but the weather intruded and we only got to paddle (well, he paddled and I sat) three times.  As usual the scenery was beautiful even when the weather was a little threatening.  But here is the thing.  Kayaking is not generally regarded as a sport where you might be attacked by wild life.  Well, it happened again.  Readers may remember our encounter in South Carolina while kayaking in an estuary bordered by reeds.  As we relaxed and soaked in the beauty a seriously sized alligator launched out of the reeds and tried to attack our kayak missing it by a couple of feet.  It was unpleasant.  When we talked to our son Alex he was not sympathetic. " God, it was the first week in June.  That's when they nest.  She was just protecting her babies."  Oh, well pardon us.  

So, here we are gliding  placidly down the river and admiring the occasional swan we pass.  Ahead we see two swans mid-river and we approach staying about 30 feet away from them.  With the look of a crazed avian one of the swans launches and, with beady eyes drilling into us, heads directly for the kayak with  what looks like murderous intent.  "No eye contact!" I yell at Michael.  We paddle on while the swan circles us malevolently for about 300 feet and then he breaks off and heads back.  As we passed the other swan Michael saw that there were four or five cygnets next to the Mom.    Aha!  We relax at his departure and continue down river when suddenly there is a huge shadow over the boat and a mighty splash as the irate swan returns for round two of intimidation.  The wing span on this thing was probably 6 feet.    We displayed as much submission as one can display in a kayak and must have appeased him since he gave the swan equivalent of a snort of derision and returned to his brood.

On our first kayak trip, as on all of our trips, Deirdre gave commentary and looked for any dangers while I paddled. On this trip we paddled from Bergerac to the village of  Gardonne, a short 13.5 kilometers.

Our second kayak trip from Montignac-Lascaux to Saint Leon sur Vezere was 12 kilometers and took us past more interesting sites than our first trip. This and the photo below are of the Château de Losse, built in the 16th century.

We always had to count the number of bridges, such as this one, to determine when we would get to our destination.

The châteaus were built on the limestone cliffs above the river to provide protection (however it also came with a view).

Château de Clerans was another we saw as we paddled down the Vezere River.

We could just see the bell tower of this church.

After paddling we returned to Montignac-Lascaux for lunch. We ate at a wonderful restaurant overlooking the river.

Most of the town was well above the banks of the river...

and the house were built on the tops of the limestone cliffs.

Our third fateful paddle of 18 kilometers was from Les Eyzies to Limeuil. There were stretches where the river was covered by these floating white flowers.

Here we passed some very high limestone cliffs...

and saw several swans, including the vicious male swan that attacked us defending his mate and cygnets.

As before we will include a few random photos for your viewing enjoyment.

Traveling when we did allowed us to see a variety of plants and flowers in bloom. Quite a number of then were roses.

These flowers were on a European horse chestnut tree.

These blooms were on Bear's breeches.

These flowers were from the Asian virgins bower (Clematis) plant.

We had the opportunity to have lunch with our friends Corrine (on the right) and Jeroen (on the left) in Peyzac-le-Moustier. We had stayed at their gite on two different occasions.