Day Six – The Vézère Valley

Our walk today led along the Vallée de l’Homme – the Vézère river valley where the oldest artistic communities in the world left their mark. This is where the people of the Magdelenian culture created their cave paintings 20,000 years ago. We began from a marvellous viewpoint over the valley and continued through the lovely village of Saint Léon (pictures attached) to our lunch site at Peyzac. In the afternoon we continued past the great shelter of Le Roc Saint Christophe and the World Heritage site of Le Moustier, today just an archaeological site but home to one of our most famous ancestors of the paleolithic period. We finished in the village of l’Espinasse before driving on to Les Eyzies. 10 miles of hiking for those who completed the course and they were in the majority.
Tomorrow it is the Hundred Years’ War and there may be a little anti-French bias but we will just have to wait and see……

From Jim’s journal:
Another hearty breakfast and a drive to St.Leon sur Vezere where we begin our walk along the Vezere River. We visit the Church of St. Leon sur Vezere and then continue our walk to our picnic site overlooking the river valley in what Peter describes as the “cradle of human civilization.” We continue our walk with the Vezere River on our right and the glorious cliffs of limestone on our left—a most spectacular hike and a highlight of the trip. We continue on past the famous shelter of La Roque St. Christopher to the village of Tursac where we end our hike. We learn during this hike that trails marked with red and white stripes are part of the national trail system while trails marked with yellow stripes are local trails. We board the vans to our next hotel—the Du Centenaire in Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac on the banks of the Dordogne River. This hotel will close in a few days and the entire operation is apparently run by two managers who act as receptionist, concierge, waiters, busboys and housekeepers. Total hike this day – 9 miles.