Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - Canoeing the Dordogne

The weather today is going to be sunny and warm, so we're going to canoe down the Dordogne. Geri and Paul have given us the name of a canoe rental company in Cénac about 12 km from here. You canoe with the current (basically, you float), and they pick you up with a van and bring you back to your car. Brilliant!  We used Cénac Périgord Loisirs

We wait for the morning fog to lift and arrive at Cénac about 11. Janis and Judy in one canoe, Dave and I in another and Clark in a kayak - each one a plastic bathtub.

Clark in his bathtub

Janis and Judy in their bathtub, at the bend before La Roque-Gageac

What a glorious way to experience the Dordogne. We float past La Roque-Gageac

La Roque-Gageac

But not without some foolishness...

It's such an easy ride, Clark can just take a nap.

Janis and Judy, on the other hand, wanted to get their money's worth.
So they spent lots of time rowing in circles. Here they are pointed upstream.

On to Castelnaud

Castlenaud, a gabarre, and us. Could it get any cooler?

where we stop for lunch

Lunch by the river beneath Castelnaud

Putting back in after lunch

Then Chateau Fayrac

Fayrac

and finally Beynac

We don't have a photo with reflections yet.

Oh, wait, here's a view with us in it.

Oh, wait, here's a better one with us where you can see how far up the castle is.
We don't have that view yet.

Oh, wait, here's one with a close up of Jan and Judy with the castle in the background.

Here's our first view of the castle and a photo of all of us with Beynac in the background.
How many photos of that castle does one need?  Clearly, thousands.

Along the way, we saw a heron

and swans

All too soon, we see our railroad bridge where we must pull out. A van meets us here and drives us back to our car in Cénac.  This pull off, is not more than 3 miles from our house. We could almost see it from here.

Once back in Cénac, we stop to see a medieval church.This 12th century church was pillaged and partly ruined in the 14th century and again in the 16th century. The altar area and its side chapels remain from the 12th century and the nave was rebuilt in the 17th-18th centuries in the same Romanesque style as the original, using original materials and other antiques. The column capitals are Perigordian Romanesque and according to the information in the church, the best examples of bestial carvings in all of Perigord. So there you are.

L'église de Cénac from the East (apse and side chapels)

Looking down nave to the apse (altar area)

Example of bestial carvings.