Not the river . . .

. . . just these two guys. 

We were only going to make it a short trip to Bergerac - it’s not far from Eymet - but at the old port down by the river, we made a sudden decision to take a river trip. A gabarre was just leaving, so we hastily boarded it. Bergerac used to be an important port and these few garbarres are replicas of the original barges that used to operate from here. And what a pleasant, entertaining and informative trip along the beautiful Dordogne River it was. 

Then we decided to stay for lunch and that was lovely too, sitting in the sunshine in the old town. 

So, plenty of pretty scenes and views. But my blip had to be the statue of Cyrano de Bergerac and one look at the extra, taken in 1987, will explain why - another bit of nostalgia. 

Oddly enough, the Cyrano of Edmond Rostand’s play was inspired by the 17C philosopher Cyrano de Bergerac whose name had nothing to do with the Périgord town. Not discouraged in the slightest, the townspeople took it upon themselves to adopt this wayward son and erect a statue in his honour in Place de la Myrpe. There is another Cyrano statue, erected in 2005, looking remarkably like Gérard Depardieu, who of course starred in the 1990 French film version of the play.