We drove from Amboise to Beynac today – a drive that Googlemaps claimed would take us about 4 and a quarter hours. We decided to add a stop at Oradour-sur-Glane which still should have made it less than 5 hours driving time. We left at 10:30 and we were scheduled to arrive at Beynac at 6 pm. Pas de probleme, right? Well, let’s just say the day has its lows – but highs as well.

Stopping at Oradour-sur-Glane was similar to visiting Dachau: you can’t say you enjoyed it but you are glad you took the time to experience it. Oradour is a small French village that the Nazis ordered destroyed four days after the D-Day invasion. On June 10, 1944, all 632 inhabitants, including some 200 children, were killed; many were tortured and many were burned alive. De Gaulle ordered the town preserved as a testament to the horrors of war (and the Nazi regime in particular). An emotional experience.

We took the country backroads, passing through numerous small French villages. We couldn’t stop at each one but we were tempted! Truly, there were so very many that were so very beautiful! Here are a few castles that we came across – no signs, no tourists, just these incredibly old, amazing fortresses.

Sometimes Bunny just took photos from the window as we passed through QUAINT little towns:

Traffic took an ugly turn at around 5 pm (rush hour? we were close to a larger town). We tried to call/text our Beynac contact but our cell phone wouldn’t work. Sheesh! Bunny was freaking out a bit because we were going to be at least a half hour late and had no way to let the woman who would be meeting us know. The town of Beynac is small – we were meeting here at the post office. 🙂 So we get there; still no cell service. Bunny walked into the town pharmacy and asked if she could use the phone. The woman spoke a smidge of English – but she knew the woman we were supposed to meet and called her up and she met us and it all turned out fine. Martine (Beynac host) speaks virtually no English so Bunny again got to try her French out. We all survived (I guess that means Bunny speaks “survival French”?).

MUCH more about beautiful Beynac in our next blog!