Domes and Domme

It was a rainy and windy morning and we had heard pine cones and sticks hitting the top of the van the previous night.

We slowly got ourselves together and drove off towards the Cabanes du Breuil. The road was very narrow and windy through farms but picturesque.

The Cabanes were amazingly well built only from stone and no cement. It took a lot of skill to make sure the stones all fitted together in the right place.

It’s not known how old they are. It was only documented that people were moving out of them in the 15th century. They were then used as store houses, workshops and animal shelters from then.

We were welcomed by several geese and many chickens running wild across the fields. They lived in one of the stone houses.

There was a trail we followed including the quarry for the stones and an experimental building site. You could also experiment and start your own building.

Glenn was interested to find out about the building techniques but didn’t have a go himself.

The buildings were compared with Skellig Michael in Ireland - an island completely covered in stone. You might recognize it from the final scenes in the last Star Wars film where there find Luke Skywalker hiding out.

Glenn liked the display of old farm machinery.

By now it was lunchtime on a Sunday and it was hard finding a boulangerie, or anything, open after 12.30. We eventually found one in a busy car park - and bought a small walnut cake with caramel - a Perigord speciality - with crushed walnuts used as flour- very delicious .

We found a very nice picnic spot beside a small stream and had our baguette and cake.

We then moved onto Domme - a fortified village on top of a hill. We found a parking spot at the bottom of the hill for Gus and round the next corner on the way up the hill found a flea market.

There were lots of glasses and china. It’s a shame I didn’t buy any as my best gin glass was accidentally broken in the washing up that night ☹️. Back to plastic!

We then did the big climb up to the top going up narrow staircases and then a road with many terraced fields on either side - obviously very old as some were overgrown by weeds and falling down.

At last we arrived at the top to see the big village gate.

There was a big square when we went through with lots of bars. We were relieved to sit down for a rest and have a well earned drink. We saw there was a train up the hill from the normal car park half way up the hill. But being a Motorhome we weren’t allowed to park there. Anyway the walk did us good.

We then explored the town - full of lots of people - it’s a Sunday. It has many very old buildings - particularly the church.

We then checked out the views from the ramparts looking out into the valley with the Dordogne River - where we had been kayaking yesterday.

We saw many interesting sights through the village and then on the city walls before walking down the hill again - much easier!

We then drove back to the site to watch the end of the British Open - won convincingly by Xander Schauffle. We had a quiet night - no rain or pine cones battering on the top of the van.