DORDOGNE - La Roque St. Christophe

At the Maison Forte de Reignac, I was told that my entry ticket entitled me to 1€ off the cost of entrance at the Roque St. Christophe. The two places are only a few kilometres apart, so I quickly decided that would be my next stop.

Like La Madeleine, the Roque St. Christophe is on the 22 troglodyte settlements dotted along the Vallée de Vezère, but even at first glance you realise that it is much bigger. Classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, the ‘village’ is a staggering one kilometre long and 80 metres high.

The visit starts with some caves which would have been occupied by tradesmen of the day, and then a passageway leads through to the village behind where the ordinary people lived amongst other craftsmen such as the forger. Little of the original structures remain, but two models are in place to see how the village would have looked from the outside.

After the village is another section which is clearly more modern (in middle-ages terms anyway!). Here you can see early examples of armour, spears and other weapons. Leading on from the arms room is the fortress kitchen, and the dead animals hanging up looked horribly real!

As the visit heads back to the visitor centre, there is a another cave with bronze age artefacts and a skeleton, and another dating back even further with a tableau depicting Neanderthal man battling a bear – what is it with these people and bears!

By now the sun had emerged and it was nearly lunchtime, so I took a quick look at the menu at the snack bar. This was a nice setting just next to a pond with ducks, but as I’d had a late breakfast, I decided to bypass the café and head back to the car for my next exciting adventure!