Oh, What a Day It Has Been!

We had quite the travel adventure today. Actually, it started last night. We checked into our lovely Airbnb flat in Sarlat and everything was wonderful, that is, until the bug infestation started! How many bugs does it take to have an infestation? I don’t know but one bug is one too many for me.

I saw a small bug in the living room earlier in the evening but picked it up and didn’t think anything of it. As I headed into the commode closet before going to bed a few hours later, I saw about 30 of the same creatures crawling all over the floor. I picked up as many as I could (in bunches of napkins, of course) but they just kept coming.

We went to bed and since nothing keeps Peter awake, he’s sound asleep while I’m in bed imagining bugs crawling all over me. They weren’t but you understand the creepy feeling. I went back to the commode closet with my shoe and started slapping at them but as soon as I got them, more kept coming. I couldn’t relax enough to fall asleep, so I laid on the couch, finally falling asleep around 2:30am.

We woke up this morning to bugs, not only in the commode closet, but also in the bathroom, in the tub and a few strays in the bedroom, living room and kitchen counters. They were also starting to climb the walls. That’s when we said, “We’re so outta here!” This was a first for us. After more than 60 Airbnb flats over the 6 years, we left a flat prematurely.

I had notified the host Saturday night when we first saw them, but we didn’t hear back until this morning as we were packing up to leave. He offered us the flat next door, but since it shared a wall with the bathroom/commode closet in our flat, we said no thanks. Even if I didn’t see a bug, I would have been awake all night looking for them.

Not an auspicious start to our day. But it got better as we drove about 30 minutes to the Lascaux Caves. In 1940, a boy’s dog fell down a hole. After getting the dog out, the boy and his 3 buddies climbed down the 50-foot hole to explore.

What they found was a cave system containing over 600 wall and ceiling paintings from about 20,000 years ago! Not much happened with the cave because of the war, but it opened to the public in 1948. The cave got about 1200 visitors a day so in 1963, it was closed due to deterioration of the paintings caused by exposure to carbon dioxide, heat, humidity, etc. This original cave is called Lascaux I.

Lascaux II is an exact copy of two of the main caverns. It opened to visitors in 1983.

Lascaux III is a traveling exhibition. And Lascaux IV is an exact replica of the entire cave system. That is the one we toured today. It was really phenomenal. The paintings were just incredible. We couldn’t take photos in the cave but were able to get some in the museum.

Here’s short video of one the demonstrations of how the cave paintings were probably made.

The tour was amazing and was well worth a stop. Our 2nd stop of the day was the Chateau de Bourdeilles, about 90 minutes away. We were originally going to see a different chateau where the singer Jospsehine Baker lived, but since we weren’t spending the night in Sarlat as planned, we decided to head towards Bordeaux instead of going back where we started. Because of that, her chateau was too far out of the way, so we headed to Bourdeilles instead.

It was a beautiful drive through the French countryside, again rounding corners to see more chateaux.

We got there much later than we thought, just after 4:30pm. The chateau was open until 6:00 but it was a 15-minute uphill walk from the parking lot and, according to the steward, there were a lot of stairs, most of which didn’t have handrails. Since stairs without handrails are very dangerous for us, we ended up not even going to the chateau.

But there was a pretty little church we stopped in to visit.

And there was a small park with the requisite WWI monument. Virtually every town in France has one. Sometimes they are for French soldiers were served and/or died and sometimes they’re for foreign troops. We’ve seen quite a few dedicated to the bagpipe regiments of Scotland.

By this time it was almost 5pm and I had no desire to drive another 90 minutes to Saint Emilion, which is where we planned to spend the night. So, I found a beautiful boutique hotel only 10 minutes away….sold!!

The hotel also has a restaurant, so we don’t even have to leave to have dinner.

I still haven’t heard from Airbnb about refunding the canceled night at the bug palace and that’s one more frustration. But then I have to remember that it’s Sunday. Hopefully I’ll hear something tomorrow.

I guess there was more good than bad today but it has been a very long day. We’re looking forward to a relaxing dinner followed by a great bugless night’s sleep.