Jour 6, 7, 8: Vendredi, Samedi, and Dimanche en France

Thursday I saw the biggest hole in the ground I've ever seen, and my first castle. On our way back from Egletons, we went to the Padirac Gouffre (The Chasm Of Padirac). It was seriously amazing. There is a hole that goes 100 m into the ground and at the bottom there is a huge cave. It is so big that you can take a gondola down the underground river. Incroyable!! (One of my favorite French words.) It was a lot of stairs but well worth the climb. And I was really glad that I had Stephanie and Ron to translate for us because the guides tried to give an English version of the tour but it was very abreviated. There was also a couple from New Zealand on our tour, so we weren't the only English-speakers, but this tour really proved to me that my French, while functional, is not all that good. So, if you're ever in South central France, you definitely should go out of your way to see this. It reminded me of Timpanogos Caves, but a hundred times bigger and more unbelievable. We had a gondolier who thought he was really funny too. He kept rocking the boat trying to scare us and using the oar to dump water on our heads. It was scary but also a little funny, but I really didn't want to fall in the water.

Afterwards we drove to a town called Rocamadour that had a medieval castle built into a canyon wall. It was very impressive. It was the first time I've seen a real, live castle. I'm not going to lie. It was a significant milestone in my life. We couldn't go inside but we got to walk along the top of the ramparts. You had to have Euro coins to get in and Stephanie only had a couple, so she sacrificed and let John and I go in by ourselves. It was awesome.

Saturday we slept in but then went to see Montesquieu's castle in the afternoon. The castle was pretty incredible. A lot of the inside has been restored or preserved and it was really interesting. Outside it was surrounded by a beautiful park with lots of grass, a herd of cattle, and lots of huge trees. The castle was also surrounded by a mote with fish in the water. It was pretty cool. When we got home, we watched some football games and Amazing Race episodes.

Sunday, I think I was still pretty tired. I didn't wake up until about noon. I guess I better enjoy it while I can. Later we had lunch with Stephanie's sister Christine and then Ron took us on a walk in his neighborhood. We went and saw the hospital near Carmen's house and the Bordeaux Soccer Stadium. It was a pretty low-key day.