Ordour-Sul-Glane * Dordogne River Trip
Ordour is a town in central France where on June 10, 1944 the Nazis massacred over 600 men, women, and children and then burned most of the town - Historians don't know what provoked such an act of evil. After the war it was declared that this town would remain exactly how the Nazis left it to remember the tragedy. It's hard to really visual what WWII did to France when we see lovely villages, beaches, and towns - but this little village made things real. It was a very somber experience to walk through the town and see the burned out homes with bed frames, sewing machine, children's bikes, cars, etc scattered about. In the church the Woman and Children tried to escape as the Germans gassed them to death - the inside is riddled with bullets. At the entrance to the town is one word - Remember. The experience was eye opening for everyone.
We arrived in Sarlat about an hour late and we could not find the home. I had called the owner of the home twice for her to help me figure it out. Finally she had to drive down from her home and find us on the "main" highway. I don't think we would have ever found it as when approaching the home you actually drive through the yard and around the home to the parking area. The "home" is actually a cluster of old homes that any cabin owner would love. I'm thinking of the Pinnock Bear Lake cabin compound but in a fraction of the space. And, the home if filled with everything you would expect in a cabin - EVERYTHING you've collected over your 60 years of life, games, books, trinkets, every drinking glass possible, 2 small fridges. Every nook and cranny has something in it. The washing machine is in a separate structure with the wine. The stove in yet another structure hooked up to a propane tank. The home has hand written notes and instructions all over the place (Jackie Doyle on steroids).
We had to dump our stuff in the living room (which did not help the stuff all over the place), change into our swim suits and dash because now we were really late for our canoe appointment on the Dordogne River. (It's like those days when one thing is behind the rest of the day follows the same way). We got on the river in our canoes and because we were one of the last groups we actually enjoyed a quiet 3 1/2 canoe trip. We swam in the river, we had water fights, we pulled our boat out at a little village and looked at the 12th century "cave dwelling" where people would hide to escape the invading Vikings (oh - and we got an ice cream cone). We canoed past 2 very impressive castles from the same era and returned just in time to catch the last shuttle (BUT, apparently someone else was behind us, and we had to wait for them - which when we got home gave us literally 2 minutes inside the grocery store before it closed, it was like a scene from minute to win it and we grabbed whatever looked edible).
When we returned later than expected our landlady wanted to show us around the compound - then she started to show us things like the fuse box and how to clean the pool and then Eric and I accidentally pulled the rock into the pool that was securing the pool cover (no worries - I still had my suit on and jumped in to get the rock). Eric and I couldn't help laughing and looking at each other as we got the GRAND tour of what to do in every type of emergency. Then she said we should all have a drink and relax in 10 minutes (I'm still dripping wet).
Good think we had grabbed a Fanta at the store so we could bring our own drink to this evening social. This is where our day redeemed itself. Jacqueline is the French grandma that everyone needs. Her 2 grandchildren are here with her right now and they came to our social. Jacqueline had made gazpacho, a cheese and ham bread, tomato and cucumber cocktail, and cut up fresh cantaloupe and tomatoes. We enjoyed an hour of socializing and getting to know her better (and afterwards she spent 30 minutes just with Lara outlining everything we should do over the weekend. And when I told her we'd be going to church on Sunday (she knew we were Mormon), she quickly told me when and where Mass started). We have met the best people in Europe - we make it a point to talk to everyone, about where they live, what they're doing, have they ever been to Utah?, etc, etc. It fills a void of not seeing our friends and extended family.
We were exhausted at the end of the day - but I threw in a load of laundry anyway (in the wine cellar) and made sure to pull down the PVC pipe/washer drain into the driveway so that I wouldn't flood the wine cellar.
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| Ordour-Sul-Glane |
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| Dordogne River Tour |
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