August 17: Kayaking the Vezere

After many days of walking and seeing museums and chateaus and ruins and caves it was time for something different. The Vezere river winds it’s way through the valley until it meets the Dordogne, through a canopy of very green trees and limestone cliffs and fields of corn and sunflowers. It moves slowly, and isn’t very deep, so I thought it a perfect way to spend the morning.

I reserved a single sit-on kayak for 10AM, and with little more than here’s your paddle and a life vest groups of people were transported up river to their choice of starting spot. I chose La Roque St Christophe as my start, figuring it was a good distance for a workout. And it was a beautiful day.

Since the river was shallow, there were spots where dark green fronds swirled in the water, many of which had tiny white flowers on top. The water was tinged brown with the mud from the bottom, but it was clear, and you could see the river stones. I didn’t see any fish, but had plenty of company with beautiful blue dragonflies, many of which would park themselves on the front of the kayak and ride down the river with me. For some of the time I let the river do the work and simply watched the scenery slip past, and at other times I decided to work hard at it to get a little exercise.

The one spot along the way which I had wanted to see was La Madeleine. This exceptional natural place is the ancient site that has given its name to a prehistoric era: The Magdalenian Period. Semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers settled there 17,000 years ago. Halfway up the cliff is a real man-made cave village, inhabited from the Middle Ages until the 19th century. The most remarkable building is a 15th-century Gothic chapel attached to the cliff. On the plateau can be seen the vestiges of Petit-Marzac church built in 13th century. I didn’t really want to drive to tour through it, so figured that a float past would be enough, and it was. There were other spots where the limestone cliffs looked as if they rose right out of the riverbed, and those were pretty magnificent sights too.

I hadn’t realized quite how far 13km is in a kayak and I will admit that towards the end I was ready to be done. I was paddling for just under 4 hours, so it’s not surprising that my shoulders and arms are a bit sore now!

Tomorrow I’m off again to the mid-Pyrenees area, enroute to Provence. And then I will stay in one place for awhile.