Anniversary Caves And A Hat

No hangover, phew…., but we did have a bit of a lie in to get our anniversary off to a good start.

The cycle ride in to Les Eyzies-de-Tayac was fun.  The cycle path/walkway on the bridge over the river was laid out like a roller coaster, three ups and three downs and a lovely view to right and left.  We cycled through the village and 2.5km out to the Grottes des Combarelles, only to discover we needed to buy the tickets 2kms back towards the village at the Grotte de Font-de-Gaume.  So we cycled back to the ticket office and were told that all tickets for today had already been sold. We said “oh dear, what about tomorrow?” And the lady said “Sorry, you have to buy them tomorrow”.  We decided it might be easier to visit the Grotte de Font-de-Gaume instead as we were there, right now, but again she informed us they were also all sold out for today and tomorrow’s tickets have to be bought tomorrow…….

So we cycled around checking menus at the various eateries in the village and decided to have a posh lunch.  We picked Au Coup de Silex ( roughly translates to ‘the blow of flint’ ), because it had a good view of the cliff and the museum.

At this point Rodney had asked me if he was wearing his hat when he set off this morning.  I knew he had, I remembered seeing it on his head, so he was a bit sad over lunch as it was rather a favourite, having been bought in Croatia last year.  After lunch I wandered the river and the roads in the village while Rodney cycled 2.5 kms back to the Grottes des Combarelles.  Sadly no sign of the hat…….

As we were obviously not going to get into any caves today, we visited the museum instead.  It is a stylish building built in to the cliff wall and after visiting the two levels of more flint weapons and bones than we have seen in our lives, we walked out on to the terrace above, for a wonderful view over the valley.  We strolled around the village a bit more and then as the heat was now beginning to build, we cycled back to the campsite for a swim.

Amazingly, sitting on our table, next to Eileen in the campsite, was Rodney’s favourite hat.  He reckons that some very kind, anonymous person obviously recognised it as his hat and returned it to him….?  I think, we’re both going senile….or was it last night’s rosé?!!!!!