France 2024 - Days 75 and 76 – Much to do about nothing

I feel I have to squeeze my last days in France to the max, but in so doing I am like a kid trying to play with all his toys at the same time. For example, I went to town trying to visit every place I have been at one more time, and so ended in the excellent display the municipality has about the history of Bergerac. I have been there at least three times, but on this occasion I took my time to read the legend of every display and study each photograph with the eyes of a local. Have I told you about the river monster that lives in La Dordogne? La Coulobre is a giant river snake/dragon that slithers up and down the river, shaping with its movement the meanders of the river, and is happy to snooze at the bottom for years on end until, in a fit of rage, comes out to upset the barges that ply merchandise up and down the river.

Also, did I already tell you that Bergerac was hit by the Back Death (the Bubonic Plague) in the Middle Ages, and lost nearly two thirds of its population?

There is a new exhibition at the Tourist Office about Cyrano de Bergerac, where you move through the different acts under the tutelage of a young actor who has just landed the role of Cyrano. Lots of memorabilia about the different representations of the play, both in the theater and film, and about the historical facts about the life of the real Cyrano, and it was lots of fun. I particularly enjoyed seeing this young actor being trained in theatrical sword play.

On Wednesday I took the bus, with the ultimate goal of going one last time to Lascaux. Ah, but the crafty French played me yet another dirty trick: It turns out there is a bus schedule for the times school is in session, because the public buses double as school buses, and a different schedule for the vacation period. So I took the bus to Périgueux at daybreak, just to realize once I was there (7h20) that the bus to Lascaux was not at 7h50 as I had read in the schedule, but at 8h50. OK, no big deal. But this is where the French duplicity comes into play, because on top of the vacation schedule, there is the summer schedule (les Estivales), which is somewhere in between. So the bus to Lascaux left at 7h55, which I missed because I had gone for a walk around town, and the next one was not until 12h00. Of course everyone knows about the Estivales schedule, except for the dumb tourist. Fine, I will go to Lascaux tomorrow, and for the day will be happy to visit the Museum of Art and Prehistoric Archaeology, which doesn’t open for another two hours. And here I was imagining that I had adapted to French life!