Limoges to Vezac

Another 8am start and I had to set an alarm since the windows have large wind down barriers to keep noise and light out. We packed up reasonably quickly having only unpacked the essentials and left straight after breakfast. To our disappointment it was raining and 12 degree, such a contrast to yesterday! We drove the half an hour drive back towards Oradour-sur-Glane routing in a petrol station on the way. We had the same issue back outside of Paris as the automatic fuel machines won't seem to take any of our cards. By that I mean we tried all 5 last time! We decided we had enough fuel to last a bit longer and carried on.

We arrived at Oradour-sur-Glane rather quickly on the motorways and luckily the rain had eased. There was a brief introduction into what happened before your walked towards the village. The weather was very fitting and set the mood as it was drizzling and cold. For those of you who don't know anything about this place ill give you a bit of an overview. Towards the end of the Second World War on June 10th 1944 the village was entered by a group of German soldiers (NAZI's) from the Der Führer regiment of the 2nd SS-Panzer Division Das Reich. One story I read said they believed that an unnamed captured German Officer was being held at Oradour-sur-Glane and they were going to rescue him, others state there was no apparent reason for them to be there. On arrival the soldiers rounded up all the villages in the fairground claiming they were conducting an identity and weapons check. From there they separated the women and children into the church and the men into 6 groups into multiple barns. They made the children sing as they went to the church.

They then gas bombed the church which wasn't as effective as planned and they had to use machine guns and hand grenades to disable and kill the women and children. Wood was piled on top of the bodies and set alight despite many still being alive underneath. Only one women Madame Rouffanche escaped by throwing herself out the window behind the altar using the ladder for lighting candles. It was a 3m drop out the window and others tried to follow but were noticed and shot. She buried herself in the ground between rows of peas and hid till the next day. I can't even begin to understand the fear these people must have felt. The men were also shot in the barn but the soldiers aimed low to disable them and then covered them with wood which they set alight also. 6 men did managed to escape a particular barn but one was seen and shot on the way out. In total there were 642 men, women and children who were killed in this city, 193 of them being children. Once the Germans completed the massacre they looted the houses and set the entire village on fire. They guarded the village overnight and continued to defile the bodies. 

What we walked around was the ruins of the entire village everything from the local Dentist, Hairdresser's, multiple cafes and the a school to name a few signs we translated. Despite the brickwork that was in varying amounts of neglect you could imagine the types of houses they used to be. The thing that struck us the most was the fact that every single abode had a Singer sewing machine and that every piece of metal - mainly bed frames and children's prams had survived and was left in a warped position where they once lay. It took us around two hours to walk the entire village and we were so thankful for Google Translate as we were able to just hold our phones up to memorial plaques to translate them. They had put these plaques on each of the 6 barns stating "This is where men were tortured and burned alive by the German Nazis June 10th 1944" which was quite a surreal thing to envisage. The most saddening place was in-fact the town church where all the women and children were killed. It like the others had a large memorial plaque followed by a prayer remembering the dead. The roof had caved in which had now been cleared so you could enter and the singed stone was still visible where the flames had escaped. Everything else in the church looked original and I was studying the plaque from World War 1 which listed all the villages who died when Lew said I was missing the most important thing. In that moment he pointed out the bullet holes clearly created by the machine guns used to kill the women and children. Now everywhere we looked at the stone walls and altar you could see more bullet holes. It just give you a chill down your spine imagining what horrors happened between these walls. From there we walked up to the cemetery which was used by the village before the  massacre but mainly had large vaults for entire families that were killed. Some graves had photographs and it was sickening to see Grandparent, parents and children with their ages next to them. We worked out roughly how old these children would be now and were sobered by the life that was taken from them. We visited the underground memorial which had items collected from the village such as watches, scissors, wallets etc. After all of that it was about 1pm and we had enough reflection on the past for one day. At least the sun had come out by this stage to brighten the mood. 

We ate some snacks I packed in our makeshift lunch bag which is actually just a medium sized packing cell given to us by Pat and Joe in Colorado. Works a treat as you can put it though the wash and use it for clothes etc when needed also. I decided I better do my share of driving even though I was keen to get everything I had just witnessed down on paper (or in these days some sort of gadget as my Aunty and Uncle call them i.e. my iPhone). Most of the driving was on the highways which to our surprise had a 130km/hr speed limit in good weather and 110km/hr in rain. Mentally it was tough getting our little Citroen up to 130km/hr as that is just not the kind of speeds we are used to back home. If you were caught driving that fast there is no doubt you would have your car impounded and your licence confiscated. I needed to put some lead plates in my shoe on the accelerator to go a bit faster. I had noticed that it was only that speed when the motorway was completely straight, as soon as you started having even minimal turns it would make you drop back down to 110km/hr. Despite us working out how to put cruise control on to sit at about 120km/hr (the car was almost redlining if we went any faster!) the locals were zooming past us clearly not obeying the speed limit. Typically I was having images in my head of the carnage on the roads when there is an accident at such a speed. 

Once we got a bit closer to Sarlat we came off the highway and started venturing through some rural towns again. The roads narrowed and the speed limits became more confusing. There were some points in the road where we thought it was supposed to be 90km/hr since I had a local right up behind me when I was sitting around 70km/hr but I couldn't possibly think of going any faster it would just be suicide. I though that 70km/hr was a stretch as it was! So if you want an idea of what these roads are like we compared it to any of the rural roads in NZ that are really only made for a car and a half. Once we were 20 minutes out of Sarlat we drove through some villages that were very different from the ones we had seen in the Loire valley. Clearly the soil in this region is a lot darker as the outside of the houses were more of a warm yellow/orange colour instead of the more bland colour in the other regions (although still beautiful!). Since the area was more mountainous these small villages were perched on the hill tops which made them look exactly like a post card. We didn't stop since we were close to Sarlat and figured the building there would likely be of a similar style. 

Parking in Sarlat took a bit of time since Google Maps was making us go round in circles as it wasn't picking up this temporary road block put up for the market. We could tell this town was a bit more of  tourist destination as they made you pay for parking and there were a lot more people about. We decided just to pay since we had already driven half the back streets (one way and small enough you want to pull your side mirrors in!) looking for the parking we initially came about. By that stage it was 3.30pm anyways and we had to be at the Airbnb by 7.30pm for dinner. We walked through the town admiring the small shops and stopping by at the tourist center to pick up some maps. Annoyingly I had to use the bathroom which cost me 50c ($1NZD) , at the end of everyday we are rather dehydrated since we don't drink water because we have to pee which you have to pay for. Just before 5pm we left the town and continued 20 minutes south to Vezac where we were staying in Villa Mage with hosts Richard and Claudie which we booked via Airbnb. The house is perched on a hill overlooking the valley of the 5 castles with a view of the gardens of Marqueyssac and the castle of Castelnaud. It was a little difficult to find but the very detailed instructions we got given via email meant we only had to turn around once to look for it again. Richard welcomed us and showed us to one of their three rooms, we felt a little terrible since he carried our 30kg suitcase up a flight of stairs for us and struggled to catch his breath at the top. It was a cute wee room with its tiny ensuite and had a view over the gardens and valley outside. Richard shouted out to us to come check out the hot air balloons since there were 8 of them spanning the valley just before sunset. We showered and had a bit of downtime watching Youtube videos before we had to be downstairs for dinner.

The other two rooms were occupied by a father and daughter with her husband who were from Bordeaux. They had just come to the area for the weekend. They did speak a little English and our hosts sat us down with a glass of wine - lovely and sweet I must add, and we were able to have a conversation. A map was brought out and Lew was very good at explaining the best places in NZ to go and why. They seemed fascinated since they haven't made it that far south before. We also had lots of questions to ask them about France. We had noticed since we were booking these Airbnb's with full kitchens whilst it is nice to stay at home and cook we weren't mixing with any locals. This Airbnb was different since you had the option to pay an extra €20 pp not including drinks to get a 5 course meal prepared to you by Richard an ex restauranteur chef. Richard has had multiple restaurants and lived in Brittany for the past 17 years. He also worked and lived in Hong Kong, Japan and Washington DC as well. We opted to try this out as he said he could accomodate me being dairy free. 

Wow what an excellent decision we made! They had lit the fire since the temperature was a little cooler in the mountains and we sat at the table with the three French people listening to the music of them speaking. First up was a small bowl of soup for everyone and I got a bowl of smoked trout, coriander, soy sauce, ginger and this strange but tasty vegetable. Richard later brought the container out of the vegetable to show me but iv forgotten the name! It was from Costa Rica though. There was also beautiful fresh bread with it and we dug in! I didn't realise until I had eaten but Richard came out to sit with us and quizzed me on what I was eating, he also kept joking with us to stop eating the bread telling us we have a lot of food to get through! I thought it was salmon initially as it looked and tasted like it but it was smoked trout. Next we thought this was our main and for both of us it was salad with a savoury crepe for Lew and smoked duck and parma ham. The duck actually tasted like lamb so I wasn't keen but gulped it back as to not look rude. I got quizzed again in the nicest way possible, you could tell he enjoys seeing the amazement in people's faces when they see what they have been eating! The other French people had told me what the smoked duck was since I gave a piece to Lewis to try figure out what it was before I was asked.  Next these huge plates of salad, fried potatoes and confi duck came out, Richard was right about not eating the bread! We still had dessert after this and a cheese board for those who can eat it.

I could see Richard out the back with a blow torch and guessed he was making Creme Brûlée. Despite knowing I wouldn't be able to eat this myself I was excited for Lew as it is something I have always wanted to try and he hasn't had it at all either. I would have to make it with soy milk and Olivani so I doubt it would taste the same anyways. Claudie brought out these beautiful creme brûlées with golden tops and I got give this amazing apple tart with caramelised melon, passionfruit and maple syrup. Richard came out to speak to us and watch us enjoy his desserts. Lew started asking Richard about the origins of certain foods. Is pasta Italian? (technically Chinese with the noodle!) Is the French fry really French? (Yes), Is the Hamburger French (NO!), Is the hot dog actually French?(No), he laughed telling Lew that he was putting all the shitty food on France and that all belongs to the Germans and the USA. The French people at the table were all complementing Richard after the meal and he was disappointed with our "Wow it was the best food we have ever had" so Lew who had obviously been listening at the table to the other speaking says "Tres Bon!" and a hearty chuckle came out of Richard, he looked a lot more satisfied. But it was honestly the best food we have ever tasted and it gave us a bit more of an appreciation for French food since we haven't been impressed by it so far. However, that is probably our own fault since we don't want to pay the exuberant amount to eat this good food and are always looking for cheap eats. After the meal Richard showed us his kitchen and got our orders for breakfast the next morning which they managed to talk us into. I think it would be rude not to! We have to complete the French experience whilst we are here :) Heading upstairs to bed at 10.30pm our stomaches were literally bursting out of our pants but it had been a great night and hopefully we have encouraged more people to come and visit out own beautiful country!