Les Eyzies ... a commune in this region of France ... was given UNESCO World Heritage site status in 1979 ... it contains several important archaeological sites ... and is most probably the location where Homo Sapien first appeared ... the first skeletal evidence was unearthed here ... and some of the sites contain the largest occurrence of 'rock art' in the world ... Font de Gaume is one of those sites and I visited there yesterday ...
After hiking up to the entrance you are greeted by 'Y' junction leading to what looks like a jail door ... the other leading to a solid iron door ... both of these leading inside the limestone cliff .. .the doors were solid and well locked ... was something being kept out or in ...
A tour guide showed up and after a brief intro ... unlocked the door ... and we were inside the grotto ... pitch black except for some minimal lighting ... after a few minutes my eyes adjusted to the lack of light and we penetrated further into the interior of the cliff side ... eventually we came to an area where the rock art was ... indistinct after 15,000 years ... but never the less visible ... but amazingly ... beautiful .... these 'paintings' were done by someone with great sensitivity ... this wasn't a group of men around a fire eating, drinking, belching, fighting, defecating ... this art was a sensitive portrayal .. even an artistic reach for the soul of the animals themselves ... there is a theory that speech resulted in homo sapiens as a result of a need to communicate about the arts ... so hold that thought while I visit Chateau de Beynac ...
Chateau Beynac is one of the best preserved medieval constructed castles in the world ... it sits perched a top a limestone cliff overlooking the Dordogne valley ... it dates from the 12th century .. and was built to 'close' the valley ... an assault on this edifice would require a massive uphill effort ... almost impossible ... one of the most famous barons of Beynac was Richard The Lionheart from 1189 - 1199 ... he of crusade and Robin Hood fame ... was there ever a place to keep/hide something that would be safer than Beynac until advanced weaponry and assualkt machinery had been developed ... that's say well into the 17th/18th centuries ... probably not ... so hold the two thoughts of speech development and safe keeping until the next blog entry ...
Of course after all this research I was famished so naturally I had to have a chilled carrot soup with a goat cheese garnish, a tart made from rabbit (that had been minced and combined with herbs, spices and egg) and fresh zucchini, a cheese plate and a chocolate cake (cake does not describe it as it was cooked until the exterior was done but the interior was a gooey delicious mess) accompanied by fresh made ice cream ( and I mean cream) and a fruit mixture all sprayed with chocolate ... and a glass of wine of course ... grail hunting can be draining ...
To quote from verse 1189 of the Krome Koan,
' ... this endless wining must stop ...'
The G.R. Ale Hunter (aka The Night Templar)
No comments:
Post a Comment