...or in places, not really presented at all!
These two days were mostly about travelling. The weather in the Loire had been a bit cold and blustery, so the logical thing to do was to head South, towards my next major target - the Dordogne and the Lascaux caves.
One more thing to see before heading out of the Loire - the 'troglo'
dwellings built into the cliff sides. These aren't prehistoric, they are
18th and 19th century. Presented either in a themepark way
...or in places, not really presented at all!
Mostly a regional centre rather than a tourist town, but like most
towns in France, Poitiers has a pleasant old town, with cobbled streets
and no traffic. I only took a quick look around, but in the middle of one square
(close to the internet cafe) was this lovely church.
If you are on broadband, here is a full-size version
of that last one.
That end wall is a real story-telling tool, and has some lovely details
I love baby Jesus taking a bath, here. He looks a bit worried, maybe they should
be paying more attention to what they are doing...
...and I wonder if this very Gallic guy was the sculptor?
The real surprise comes on the inside, though.
...all the original paint, done up like a circus tent!
I understand all the big churches were like this at one time, and it
was mostly stripped out during the Reformation. I don't know how this
one escaped the bonfire.
I needed to be online at various times today (May 27) for work reasons, so the Quest for Internet was front and centre. Having made it to Limoges, and established that the local MacDonalds had no Wifi (booh!) it was in to the town centre to find a CyberCafe. Strategy was, find the tourist information centre, and ask them. I guess Limoges is not a tourist town - there is a centre, but it is small, and its sign is completely obscured by large trees. I found it by a process of triangulation, from street maps placed on a few squares. Once there, the one cafe was at the station, and all was well. Limoges has a pretty old town, but I wasn't in a very photographic mood by that time, and it was time to find somewhere to stay.
I have been fairly strict about not driving more than 200km in a day - it is tiring with a van, and I don't want to rush through things anyway. The first campsite I tried hadn't opened for the season, I hadn't looked at the small print in the guide. Heading off to the next one which showed as open, I spotted a sign for one which wasn't in the guide, followed a trail of signs through little country lanes to a village municipal campsite. The sign said 'park anywhere, we will come to collect later.' So, I did, and they collected my 10e later. Fairly basic, but it seems every village has a decent site.
By now I was close to the Dordogne, and ready to explore in the morning...
