2 days late. Figac to Sarlat.

We had to eat breakfast at 7:30 the morning of the 14th. I heard my roommate Hailey getting up before I heard the alarm go off and I thought she was crazy. Suddenly in her adorable quiet voice she wakes me up and says, “Um, Tiffany… its 7:20.” It was the worst news I have ever woken up to! I wanted to sleep some more, but I had to rush to get ready and have everything packed. Somehow we managed to look decent, pack up and go to breakfast.

We left Figac to go to Sarlat. Monsieur Lee said that Sarlat is a very famous city to film movies. He said it is 3rd in line. First being Paris (of course) and 2nd being Nice. When we first arrived we couldn’t check into our hotel yet, so we got to go walk around a market for lunch. There were tons of sausage, cheese, and one of my new favorite foods… Olives. We ran into 2 other girls from our tour who had the brilliant idea to each get a few things from the market, then meet up for a pique nique! Michelle and Whitney got some strawberries and nectarines. Brynn and Hailey got some grapes and a walnut cake. Sam, Holly, and I got some baguette and some fabulous tapenade. The man we brought the tapenade from was so nice! He let us try them all and we asked him a lot of questions about how to say things in French. We bought one spicy olive spread and one with basil. He told us good luck on learning French and snuck in one more box of tapenade, he was so nice.
When we met up with everyone we found a WWII memorial in a petite jardin. We sat on some steps and fell in love with everything we ate. The tapenade was one of the best things I have ever eaten. The fruit tasted like candy, and the walnut cake was simply fabulous.



When we were finished at the market and all checked into our hotel, we went to a prehistoric museum. We were all exhausted, and super full from our meal that it was really hard to pay attention to a tour guide for 2 hours. The things we were learning were really cool… I just found myself constantly searching for a bench to sit down on! After 3 hours in a museum everyone was done for the day. I had heard Professor Lee mention earlier that day that if we had the time we could visit Lascaux. I was dying to go and I let Monsieur Lee know very clearly that I would LOVE to go to Lascaux.

For any of you who don’t know what Lascaux is: They are cave paintings! They are the oldest form of art that we know of today. It was found by two young boys looking for their lost dog. When they first discovered the cave along with the amazing paintings they decided to keep it their little secret. Of course the secret only lasted about 3 days. Once the word was out, people were coming from all around to visit the cave. They had it opened for visitors for a very long time, but they noticed that from people coming into the cave it was actually ruining the paintings. The temperature in the cave was absolutely perfect to preserve the paintings. Everything about the cave was ideal for the paintings. Once people came in, the cave changed temperature and with people breathing on the paintings they started to turn a bit white. Diseases from people’s shoes made the paintings turn a green tint. SO they closed down the cave and made a complete replica. It is exactly like the original, only off by 5mm.

It was amazing. Seriously one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life. There was such an amazing feeling, I can’t explain it, but it made me so happy. Writing about it now, I am started to get really excited about it all. I honestly started to choke up a bit, and it wasn’t even the real cave. If I got to go into the real cave, I’d probably cry like a baby. One thing we found out is that the two boys who discovered the cave are still alive today. They are both in their 80’s and ever September 12th they go back to the cave to celebrate the anniversary of finding the cave. Yeah I was there on the 14th… two days later! SO DARN CLOSE!!! I couldn’t believe it! Now I have to go back on September 12th, and quickly so they don’t die!

Go to this site for an online tour of the cave. Very cool: http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/index.php#/fr/02_00.xml

I bought a necklace with the Venus of Willendorf on it. I like it a lot. Sadly no one know what the heck Venus of Willendorf is, so a lot of girls have been giving me crap as to what I have around my neck. For those to don’t know: Venus of Willendorf is the oldest sculpture ever found. So in reality, it could be the very first sculpture ever made. If you were to take an Art History Class Lauscaux and Venus of Willendorf will be the first thing you learn about.

Once we got back to town, Monsieur Lee bought us all ice cream and then we went to dinner. We finished dinner a bit early and we went straight to our hotel. The internet was horrible, and it was so hard to blog and Skype my mom and Cassidy. Michelle and I went down stairs to see if it would work in the lobby. After a while Henry Lee came downstairs. None of us could get the internet to work. Finally we got the bright idea to check outside! And wouldn’t you know… the internet worked perfectly outside of the hotel. So Michelle, Henry, and I all sat on the curb… finished our blogs and I Skyped my mom and Cassidy. Random people on the street thought it was hilarious and were taking pictures of us… but hey, it worked!

-So right now I am back in Paris. This post is 2 days late again. I am trying to catch up… and I will don’t worry!! I’ll let you know all about Paris when I can!