Old Man River and Foie Gras too!

We just returned from dinner, each of us having eaten the equivalent of an entire duck, and are about to settle in and weigh the ethical dilemmas of eating foie gras. Today was an unbelievably gorgeous day in the Dordogne River valley, and we took full advantage. We left early this morning (okay 10am is early for us these days) and rented a canoe at a local river port and began our journey down the Dordogne River. Stunning views of rock formations, caves, and the cutest dang towns in all of France (so far--Provence, we're talkin' to you!). We had several stopping points today on our 16 kilometer journey (that's about 160 miles-really). Our first stop was La Roque Gageac, which roughly translates into The Rock Gay Jack. Weird, right? We hiked up the hillside to a little old man's version of ancient caves (Troglodyte, in fact). I think he just made up a bunch of random signs and artifacts and arranged rocks in random formations, and charges stupid tourists 5€ to see it. Oh, wait...
After La Roque, we headed down the river past Castelnaud, an old chateau/defensive base. We decided not to stop there, but grabbed some cool pictures of it. On to Beynac, another adorable village contest winner. We were hungry for lunch, but sadly enough for us, all 3 of Beynac's restaurants don't serve food between 2:30 and dinner! So, after hiking up the steepest streets in all of France, we came down bitter and hungry and sweaty. What better to lift our spirits than dessert for lunch? 2 beignets, a walnut tart, and something called a Delices later, we were happy as clams. Returning to our canoe, we paddled our way furiously down river to our pick up spot. There, we boarded the bus from "Speed" to get back to our car. Seriously, our lives were in the bus drivers hands and he was looking under his seat while driving to find his sunglasses!!!
Back to Sarlat to clean off the dirty river water and sunscreen, and then we went our for a delicious 4 course dinner of foie gras, baby duck bills, duck tails, and fried duck feet webbing. Only kidding about the last 3, but we finally did eat our first foie gras (fattened duck or goose liver pate), and it wasn't bad! Like a creamier version of liverwurst. We're headed out to Carcassone tomorrow, and may not have internet for a while. Enjoy the pictures and keep checking back!