From 4-20-10 extended

In my short café/cellphone version, I neglected to mention a number of important details.

First of all, to all my foodies out there – the menus.

When I arrived at the farm I’m staying at – yup farm, I’m playing rustic – it was practically time for dinner. You see, there is the demi-pension option at my farm, where breakfast and lunch are included and I figured I’d try that out. Well, dinner the first night was a bit overwhelming to say that least. As I mentioned, it was duck-themed – duck pate for appetizer, duck confit for the main course served with mashed potatoes made with duck fat, followed by a cheese plate (3 different cheeses), then a pineapple tart. After this first meal, I really wasn’t sure if I could do this demi-pension thing. At this rate, these meals will kill me. It’s ok though, there was a vegetarian theme today. I will live. For lunch today, I had a salad with gizzards, lardons, and foie gras – a more perfect salad one cannot find – complete with my own little duck (see picture). For dinner at the farm, we had tomato soup, white asparagus quiche with salad, a plate of 5 cheeses, and a chocolate mousse (divine!). I’m feeling a bit more comfortable with the country living today. Plus after dinner I did not want to pass out from fatigue after a long day spent flying and driving like yesterday.

Speaking of driving – I really need some help. I just don’t get it. I would totally be fine if it weren’t for all these stupid hills getting in my way. Stupid gravity, making it much more difficult to drive standard.

So, let’s see, what more can I tell you about what I did today. I started out my day by going to Grotte de Font de Gaume – one of the few remaining authentique prehistoric caves. It was an amazing experience. You walk in following the dim flashlight of your tour guide and pass through narrow and low-hanging cave passages, being careful not to touch the walls of course. Then as your eyes adjust, you tried to make something out but you see nothing. Then the guide traced outlines with his little laser pointer and you get it. All of a sudden, you see all these animals running across the walls. Some of the painting are really realistic and have a great deal of details. I was impressed. Oh by the way, these painting were painted between 18,000 and 10,000 ACE (new term for BC).

My second stop was La Roque St-Christophe – a 1km chunk of rock that has been carved by a river and thus has a little inset region. Apparently, people made their homes in this little inset from 25,000 ACE until the middle ages. It was cool to see what they could do with a little carved out piece of rock.

My final stop of the day was Lascaux II – the recreation of Lascaux – the original prehistoric painting cave that has been closed due to tourism-induced destruction of the paintings. A quick 40min tour of some massive cave paintings. My favorite was big bull #3 but apparently he’s just not very popular because there is neither a postcard of him nor is he included in the pictoral Lascaux II souvenir book :(