(Colin: “Oh No! Not another Bastide town to walk round”).
We parked at La Perpetuum, a campsite on the banks of the Dordogne about 2km from Domme, in the sunshine. Domme is an old fortified medieval town, or Bastide, up on a hill overlooking the river. After parking Mavis, we walked along the river and then up a gentle track through the trees to Domme.
Ivy covered ruins along path to Domme.
The Dordogne, looking back from the walk.
We paused at the Porte de Tours, the old fortified village entrance, famous for having had the Knights Templars imprisoned here in the early 1300’s. There is graffiti on the inside of the towers, said to have been inscribed by the Knights.
Domme was pretty deserted; this is the main square at lunchtime.
View over the Dordogne valley from the North facing parapet of the village.
Hot Dogs
French Windows
Cottage by the Botanic Garden.
Botanic Garden
There were several artists at work in the Botanic Garden. Note Colin on a sandwich hunt.
This is Gibson, retired, from New Jersey, I asked how long he had been working on his water colour; “Oh, 2 hours. And 35 years.”
On the last afternoon we walked through the amazing 400 m of stalactite and stalacmite filled caves below Domme, to emerge on the cliff face 20m below the top. We were the only two visitors on the guided tour and so had a free French lesson from Florence, the guide. We have little French, she had little English, so it was fun. We struggled with the translation of deer….there is a deers backbone in the cave….eventually worked it out when she said, “Conaissez vous Bambi?…C’est Papa of Bambi”
I took Max for a game of catch after the walk.
Travels with Mavis 