Travelling to the Dordogne, France         19/9/2009


We were glad when we finally arrived in France from Vienna.   As we feared, our airline went completely broke a week before and stopped flying altogether, so we booked a considerably more expensive set of flights via Dusseldorf with Berlin Air. When we arrived in Dusseldorf we found there would be a long delay and our flight wouldn’t be leaving until 7.30, so we took the opportunity to go into Dusseldorf. It is a work-a-day sort of town but it is on the Rhine and there is a small historic centre. The place is wall to wall bars and cafes and whole city seemed to be out having a long boozy Friday afternoon. There was also some sort of military display, a student demo, musical entertainment and even people making a movie on the rivers edge. All in all, it was moderately entertaining, but we wouldn’t add to your places to visit list.


We finally made it to Paris close to 10pm and picked up our hire car to head south.   We had a GPS so didn’t have much trouble getting out of Paris (taking the slow route), but let’s just say that we now know a lot more about how to use a GPS.  We finally stopped at a hotel about 11.30.


The next day we continued our drive south to Beynac, in the Dordogne, stopping off at Oradour-sur-Glane, or ‘Village des Martyrs'. This village has been left as is as a memorial, after the Nazis killed all the villagers (642) and destroyed the whole village during WW2, probably to revenge the death of one SS officer. It is a very moving sight.