MARQUAY – France (Fri 23 Oct)

We walked out the door this morning to get a bakery breakfast, to be greeted by a queue of people winding past our hostel and around the corner towards a locked door a couple of blocks away. They looked like they had been there most of the night they way they were settled in with their deck chairs, blankets and hot thermos’. We wondered what the gig was that they were queuing for and the demographic was no giveaway as there was old, young, male, female, large, petite, dressed in suits, roughing it, attractive, and not so much. It wasn’t until we emerged from the bakery that we saw the sign that they were queued behind. They were queued up for the casting for a porn movie! Why would so many ‘want in’, why would they queue all night, and exactly how do you get to know about these things?

We left the queue, and San Sebastian behind us, with many questions unanswered as we headed into France … again. Through South West France and into Bordeaux with its wall to wall vineyards. The vines are browning off now and we can only imagine how it would have looked as their colour started to turn a few weeks back.

From here it was winding through small villages of stone houses seemingly held together with russet coloured vines and ivies. We are now in the Dordogne region and the scenery is spectacular. Unfortunately the rain and drizzle from San Sebastian seems to be following us north, but doesn’t spoil the beauty of the area at all. Driving alongside canals with dark water, lined on both sides with lines of trees in various tones of green, orange and red. A walking path alongside invokes images of heavy horses dragging canal boats behind them.

We are spending the next few nights in a very small village called Marquay. It was approaching dark when we got there, so we can’t say much about it yet, but if what we saw on the way in is anything to go by, this is going to be a very enjoyable stay. We just hope that the weather clears.

Before coming back into France we did a quick read on their history, and it goes something like this:

The Neanderthals were here about 90,000 – 40,000 BC. Cro-Magnons from 35,000 years ago and were responsible for the cave drawings. Neolithic, 7,500 – 4,000 years ago of the menhirs and dolmen fame. Celtic Gauls – 1500 – 500 BC. The Romans in 52 BC. The Franks from the 5th – 10th Century. William the Conqueror brought the English over in 1066. Joan of Arc encouraged the French to kick the English out in 1429 (she was then sold to the English in 1430 and burnt at the stake for her trouble – a witch they said). From then until now it has been an endless procession of kings, wars, protests, riots, political strife, civil unrest and beheadings. Quite a history wouldn’t you agree.