La Patrimoine

Since 1984 this weekend has been celebrated as a Heritage weekend.  Lots of museums, art galleries, chateaux, buildings both public and private are open free to the public and special events are put on.  This weekend is now designated as the days of European Heritage.

Yesterday we went to the hilltop town (a Bastide) at Domme on the Dordogne.  Having decided to make a day of it, we arrived there about lunchtime and so started off with lunch.  We didn't make a brilliant choice; a bit touristy but adequate.  We then wandered about the town, which unfortunately included a visit to a jewellers.  We have seen his work before and have been very impressed by his style.  So much so that an anniversary present (belated) was bought.

This is an example of his work; not the piece we bought as this was out of our price range!

Later in the afternoon we commenced an organised guided tour which included 4 'hidden' gardens; private gardens which are not normally open to the public.  Our guides were two ladies who must have been amateur dramatics actresses as they were dressed somewhat idiosyncratically and 'performed' their roles amusingly.

The first garden we went to had three musicians who performed North African music.

After a 20 minute performance, the large group proceeded to the second garden.  This was in the family home of a deceased sculptress and examples of her work were on display in the garden.

But, we were then also entertained by a Japanese gentleman playing the accordian.

As it was now getting hot and Sue was beginning to feel tired, we dropped out of the rest of the tour and so missed seeing what musical delights lay in store in the other two gardens!  We reflected that this respect for heritage and culture is very strong in the lives of all French people.  There seemed to be no disgruntleness at listening to 'foreigners' performing in rural France.