Arrive by 7 30. Find the bus stop and park the bikes beside a restaurant. In the distance, Excideuil's church chimes 'Ode to Joy' in a key that is off and makes the song sound broken. We have time to kill and so Katie finds the bakery while I stumble around the castle. At 8 o clock the bus pulls up to the corner.
Read Raymond Carver and watch the country side roll by. Small towns, green fields. A man in his garden, peeing. I find it impressive that this trip is forty five miles long and only costs me two Euros. By the time we reach Perigueux it is close to 9 o clock.
We're dropped off in the middle of town, right outside a movie theater showing Madagascar 2. I suggest we ditch the history tour and nod toward the marquee. Katie has never seen Madagascar 1 and anticipates the plot will be too hard to follow.
What we think of as Sunday in America is more like Monday in France and so many of the shops are closed today. Still, as we squeeze thru the city's narrow streets there are a few shops that stay open, lure us in with fresh baked bread products dangling out open windows. I try to imagine an analog of this back home and come up with gas stations and bags of Wonderbread hanging above cigarette racks. I am still very glad to be here.
Perigueux dates back to before the Roman empire and is known for its immaculate cathedral of St. Front as well as the remains of a Gallic temple and amphitheater.
Also, for the conspicuous amount of airline traffic forever streaming overhead.Lunch at a cafe. K has pasta carbonara. M has vegetarian pizza. After-meal espressos for both. Quite good. We board the bus back to Excideuil and find it filled with noisy kids heading home after a long day of school. Think, sitting in a kindergärtner's chair and trying to retain your dignity.
Afterward, the grueling uphill trek back to Anlhaic where we collapse on the couch and instantly fall asleep.
