Carcassonne to Roussillon

 

The cave of Lascaux was closed to the public in 1963, and now there's a terrific

museum focused on the art and, more generally, the research being done on the great painted caves of the Dordogne.  There is even a fantastic replica of the cave that takes about an hour to walk through.

The entire apparatus is spectacular, it's as good as it gets, but it's a simulacrum. 

Well, it turns out there are still two painted caves open to the public and we visited the one called Pech Merle, which happens to have one of the largest and most perfect compositions in all of cavedom.

On an expanse of white calcite there are two symmetrical horses with swooping bellies and tiny heads.

Understandably no photos were allowed, so I pulled this image with a Google search.  It gives a blurry idea of the work, but from 4 inches away, the painting is extraordinarily fresh.  The lines are so fast and sure.   You can count each stroke and the work was obviously done by a single person in one go.  Shading along the backs was spray-painted by blowing pigment through hollow bones and the impression of volume is flawless.  The whole thing is so accurate, so confident, so... beautiful.  

  These people lived in caves, but the work is the opposite of primitive.  It appears sophisticated, startlingly modern.  The person who did this was gifted and experienced and you come away with the astonishing understanding that, as much as the ability of science, say, to explain our world has grown, our art has never gotten better.  This painting accomplished 25,000 years ago in a stygian cave is as swift and light and illuminated by a profound human response to the observed world as anything that has ever been or ever will be done.  The impression it had on me was inexpressible..

Inner Norbonne Gate of Le Cité, the fortified city of Carcassonne.   It's been a strategic site since the time of Roman Gaul around 100 BC.

Ttwo concentric walls and 53 towers

Probably a tough place to get into

It's also a pigeon cote.

The 13th cent. church of Saint-Michel has some of the oldest and most beautifully preserved stained glass in the world.

This gal decided to get some selfies next to the front door

Nobody paid her any attention

We thought she was amazing

We stopped in Cadenet to visit our friend Vicky

Her house is old and comfortable

And she has a sharp view of Mont Sainte-Victoire.

Cezanne painted it 80 times.

Meet Babette

She's a miniature English Bull Terrier

Vicky has a great kitchen

She made us a mushroom stew with at least 6 ounces of butter and the biggest chanterelles I've ever seen 

We took a walk after lunch to the site of a ruined chateau

It took 30 minutes to get to our hotel in Roussillon

The whole town is the color of the ochre cliffs it sits on

This is our hotel

The white top of Mt Ventoux is just showing in the distance.

This is 30 miles from Roussillon,

a testament to the famously clear light of Provence.

It's the first sunny day in two weeks.

Room with a view

This is what we saw when we poked our heads out in the morning.

Apparently a dawn ride with a gallant balloonist is a thing to do in this area.

Amazingly... an Adirondack pack basket in a display case in the lobby of our hotel.

The receptionist Hugo said his mother bought it in Japan.

Wr drove to Mt Ventoux.

6300' and deforested by the 19th century.  The top 2000' vertical feet are white limestone rocks.

It's one of the great climbs of the Tour de France and hundreds of cyclists come to make the trip.

The summit was a thick crowd of jubilant riders clacking around in their weird shoes.

I would have liked to be among them.

We had lunch instead.

Croque-Monsieur and fries

 Susan held my cone so I could take her picture.

 and I reciprocated

Foie gras again for dinner

The red cliffs of Roussillon have been a source of pigment for a thousand years

On to Villefranche