Trip to The Gironde – Rocamadour to Les Sables D’Olonne

Most of today didn't go as planned although our early departure from Rocamadour left us unscathed by the inundation of tourists on the narrow streets of the village.

Our destination this evening was Les Sables D’Olonne, the start/finish

town for the Vendee Globe solo, non-stop yacht race around the world. It was only a 5 – 6 hour drive so, somewhat over-optimistic about our central Australian ability to drive for 10 – 12 hours in a day, we decided to take a side trip to the Lascaux caves display.

It was a beautiful drive and we visited many beautiful towns and villages including Montignac a beautiful town near Lascaux.

Grotte de Lascaux is the setting of a complex of limestone caves in Dordogne re-discovered in the 1940’s. There are over 600 wall paintings. Because of the human impact replica caves have been built called Lascaux II. It is supposed to be very impressive with one of the paintings of a bull being 5.2 meters long.

Oblivious to the completely overflowing massive car park and the fact it was school holidays we had a leisurely lunch and meandered to the entrance of the complex. This is where we found that reservations are required, they are usually booked out and there is only one English tour per day. Maybe another time?

Back on the highway we drove towards Bordeaux, skirted around the perimeter road and drove north to Les Sables D’Olonne. Les Sables is a seaside town of about 16,000 in the Vendee on the Atlantic Ocean. It has an active fishing industry and is a French beach town – not too many English menus at the restaurants. This is very little evidence of the Vendee Globe yacht race which was a little disappointing for us.

We stayed at a hotel near the railway station and after the torrential downpour had seafood for dinner on the waterfront.

Next: Trip to the Gironde – Sables D’Olonne to La Rochelle