The Heritage Weekend

This weekend in France and across Europe each nation is celebrating it's heritage (culture, architecture, history) for 'Les journées européennes du patrimoine' and properties which are normally closed open their doors to the public.  We are spoilt for choice with visits possible all around us but, as the weather forecast said rain on Sunday, we decided to visit a nearby Château on Saturday afternoon.  It was a pleasant drive through wooded valleys but ... about 2 km from our destination we found we could go no further!

We had had strong winds all morning and this was the result.  Curiously, we had just turned round and were heading back when we saw our neighbours Jean-Jaques and Nadine approaching so we were able to stop them and warn them of the blocked road!  We were fortunate in choosing our detour as it ended up in the village we were heading to and to the Château de Cabrerets.

The Château is perched on a cliff edge some 30 metres above the river Célé.  The original building was started in the 13th century, then added to in the 16th and 17th centuries.  The château is privately owned but, as a historic monument is is required to be open to the public for this weekend.  We realised that it was the owner who acted as our guide for the first part of the tour, but then his grand-daughter took over.
We had thought that our translating duties would be over once our English friends had gone but we found ourselves with a Dutch couple who wanted the guide to speak more slowly!  However as the grand-daughter was about 20 this was obviously impossible for her so Sue or I were translating into English (all Dutch people speak English!!!)

At the end of the tour we then wandered in the grounds ...

... and we were staggered by the profusion of Cyclamen in flower.

Sue reports that we have 2 cyclamen growing under a tree in the alley so maybe in some 2 or 3 hundred years we may have something like this.