Adieu Dordogne

If you can read this blog it means that we are still alive, but have been forced to go to McDonalds for a cup of coffee and free internet access, as our latest cottage has no connection.
Yesterday, being Friday again, was declared another R&R opportunity. Judith, Ted and LouAnne had a leisurely start to the day.  Mid-morning they started off on a slow drive around some of the small villages near Domme. They had a very pleasant lunch on the terrace in a village called Castlenaud.  In the afternoon they went on a boat trip up and down the Dordogne, seeing from river level all the sights they have seen from
ahigh on walks over the earlier part of the week. I, of course, not being as smart, and went on another 40 km walk.

In France, like England, most farmhouses and hamlets are situated half way up hillsides.  All of them are linked to their neighbours and local villages by old donkey and cart paths, often going up and over the hills. They would also have tracks going down to main roads in the valleys that would link them to bigger towns.  With the coming of motorized transport in the early 20^th Century the major roads and roads linking farms to them were widened, and sealed for faster and heavier traffic.  The paths over the hills were gradually abandoned for transport, but still exist as public rights of way.

Some of these paths would have been major routes in their time. They are two to three metres wide, enough for a donkey or ox and cart to use.  They have straight dry-stone walls perhaps a metre high on both sides.  In steeper sections they were paved with large rounded flat stones laid upright across the slope to give pedestrians and animals traction. In sections where the paths crossed limestone bedrock you can still clearly see the two deep grooves cut by the iron-clad wheels of carts.

Just after the Second World War a group of European walkers, or ramblers, or randonneurs began a movement to link these unused rights of way into continuous paths linking the major historical and scenic points of interest, sometimes thousands of kilometres long and crossing several countries.  These Sentiers de Grande Randonnee, or GR routes, are world famous among long distance walkers. In 1982 I walked 1200 km along the GR3 from Nice to Dijon.

These GR routes were all way-marked by volunteers painting markers on rocks, trees, lamp-posts, fence posts or anywhere handy that did not move.  They used a consistent system of red and white stripes, with right-angles to indicate direction change, and crosses to show that you had gone the wrong way.  These paint stripes are still there, sixty years later.

Over the years local groups made up smaller circuits, called boucles, in their areas, and painted way-markers with yellow painted symbols.  There might be more than a hundred splashes as they are called on a 10 km walk. They are still there after years of good work.

In France one of the biggest contributors to the national and local economies is tourism. Local administrations are encouraging all forms of tourism – there are all sorts of value-added activities, such as ballooning, rafting, quad-bike riding, boat-tours, chateaux openings … They also recognize the need for self-directed activities, such as walking and cycling.

Domme-Perigord canton, which covers an area of about 400 km², has decided to encourage walking by designing and marking some routes.  Looking at the result one can only conclude that this was done by an Appointed Committee. They have marked about 30 loops, on average 10 km long each. They are all marked in yellow, and there are so many that they run often run through and parallel to each other, and you are never quite sure which one you are on.  Instead of sending out some real walkers with a paint pot they have decided to send teams of workers with power augers, 1.8 m treated pine posts, and a bag full of plastic strips, and hammers and nails.  Every post has a cute little yellow plastic cap with “Domme Perigord Randonnee” embossed in capital letters, and Braille. Beneath this is a nailed a yellow plastic strip indicating straight ahead, or tune L or R. Being put in by a work crew they are usually put where it is easiest, and not necessarily best, to do so. Because they are expensive each boucle has about thirty posts, sometimes 500 m apart, so when you are walking on a route with tracks coming and going from left and right you just keep going and hoping.  The yellow plastic strips are quite brittle, and have either broken off in the sunlight, or provided sport for the local ne’erdowells, because one walk I went on had almost half the strips missing. I had to go up to the post and look at the remaining nail pattern to guess the direction of the path. I reckon that it could be time to buy a tin of yellow paint and a couple of brushes.

Chris