Saturday July 19

We got up to rain on Saturday morning. The first we have seen on the trip. We would now be driving due north to The Loire Valley, with lots of photo stops, of course. But before we leave Albi, it's market day and we need food!

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Our first stop is Najac. It has a really cool castle and medieval village. Great place to stop for lunch.

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DJI_0275 After lunch we continued north into the Dordogne River Valley. This area is another candidate for my "Really cool places in France I've never heard of" award. It is very reminiscent of the rivers in the Ozarks except that the high bluffs above the rivers are lined with castles and chateaux. Our next stop is the town of Rocamadour, which clings to the side of a river gorge just upstream of the Dordogne River. It is located where it is because in the Middle Ages the abbey on the top of the cliff had built a shrine to the Blessed Mother and soon miracles were reported. So it became a very popular site of pilgrimage. And pilgrims, like tourists, need accommodations. The town then grew up around this steady influx of cash. After the French Revolution the tourists took over from the pilgrims. It is just the strangest sight to see this opulent architecture clinging to the side of the gorge. 

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Our B&B was west of here on a stretch of the river called "The Five Chateaux". They are perched on top of the bluffs above the river but we didn't have time to see them all. Below is a sample.

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Rachel -3

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Our B&B at Castlenaud-la-Chapelle offered us this view. 

IMG_5909 This little pony joined us for dinner.

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And the tourists like to ride in hot air balloons. There were sometimes a dozen in sight at one time.

_8503628   We were soon back on the road, continuing our travels, and passed a squad of French Boy Scouts heading out on theirs.

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