I Just Can't Believe It

Three of us headed out on a gentle morning walk. The sights we saw were just amazing.

A home in 1617 this building is now the town hall. Yes - you enter by that massive fortified door. Those are nails embedded into the wood to keep invaders from forcing in the wood.

The village of La Tour Blanche is the crossroads of two Roman routes. One route goes from Limoges to Bordeaux and the other connects Perigueux to Saintes and Angouleme.  

Just outside of the village there is a small chapel and a little community where lepers lived.

A coin drop for alms for the leper community.

A recently restored windmill that captured the winds on the hill overlooking La Tour Blanche to grind wheat. The mill stones quarried from this area where shipped all over the world because of the hardness of the stone and thus no grit in the flour. 

In the valley below there were streams that fed the lavoir, the laundromat of days gone by.

 Yes on your hands and knees and a wheel barrow to transport heavy wet laundry to and from home...

Traces of the Roman roads that led to the big cities.

The surrounding plateau is riddled with quarries.

Older quarries were open to the sky. Stone was cut with hand tools. The average size of a stone was 70cm x 40cm x 30cm. Oxen were very important for transportation from the 15 quarries.

We were searching for ancient grain pots. These are not on the main road. They are carefully hidden in the woods to protect them from marauders. 

These are the holes where grains would have been hidden and stored during medieval times. Subtle, but I think you can see them.

We passed Chateau de Jovelle from the 14th and 16th century. It looks miserable and yet there is someone living there.

This was probably a quarry man's home. Small, but with beautiful details and a fireplace for each floor. There are traces of other homes carved into cliff sides and where the chimney is just a slit dug into the stone.
So many mysteries in these woods.

We circled the village on this 5 mile walk. Never more than a mile from the village center. There are so many more treasures in this history rich valley that I could not get photos of, including Paleolithic art - that's 25000 years ago or the Medieval quarry for mill stones .

 

La Tour Blanche is still a vibrant community even though it will look crazy old to some of you.

You wouldn't know that in about 15 minutes this place will be packed for the daily worker's lunch - 4 courses, wine included for 12 euros.

 I think I would like to travel back in time for one horseback ride from Limoges to Bordeaux crossing through these lively villages and tiny hamlets. What a wild unbelievable adventure that would be.