Festy-day!

Trebuchet at Castelnaud (DPM at left)

Montignac, Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, and Carcassonne (week 3)

Close to Limoges is the Vézère Valley, site of a series of caves containing some of the most complex and oldest paleolithic cave paintings known.  Thus, we set off for Montignac and the Lascaux Cave.  The real site is closed to preserve it, so the tourist attraction is Lascaux II, a faithful reproduction (also in a real cave).  As we drove into Montignac, we learned that they were having a festival.  Because of its international diversity theme, we watched a veritable parade of people passing by of various ethnicities in traditional dress.  By the time we crawled to the tourist office (where the tickets to the site are sold), the next available English tour was 4.5 hours later (you have to take a tour).  So we ate lunch and chose not to wait for the tour but instead to head south to Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, site of Château de Castelnaud and its Museum of Medieval Weaponry.

By the time we worked our way there, Andrew had fallen asleep (the Monédières' hospitality of the night before kept the boys up very late... and their parents too!), so David and Craig made their way up to the Castle.  It was a steep climb up to the cliff-hugging fortifications in 30+ Celsius heat, but it was worth it.  As advertised, the rooms of the Castle are full of paraphernalia, and we also saw a trebuchet demonstration.

Cité de Carcassonne from our hotel room

After the whistlestop at Castelnaud, we carried on to Carcassonne, a Roman and then Crusader fortress city on the route between Italy and Spain.  It is one of the most extensively restored medieval fortress complexes in Europe.  As we approached our hotel, we ran into yet another festival, this time the Festival de Carcassonne, a multi-week event (this year's featured headliners included Elton John, Franz Ferdinand, and the Jacksons).  The free concert we saw outside our hotel (in the Square André Chénier) was reggae by The Wailers, fronted by Bob Marley's former guitarist.

So, another late night but the boys were game the next day to run the ramparts and explore the keep in the old Cité de Carcassonne.  They shot arrows and threw grenades at whatever enemy was attacking the city.  We had lunch at one of the many cafés (the interior of the Cité is quite ample) and then headed towards Montpellier.