Heading to the South of Europe
- November 14, 2023 - Journeys
Just imagine…. walking through an old building. It could be a castle, it could be a spa resort ….. it could be anything you want… in that location you may find a memo or a newspaper. Let’s say a newspaper, but the paper is dated back to 1947. Open the paper, read the news articles. Can you imagine that? I can, even better… it happened.
And so, with that feeling coming alive and creeping back up, we were on our way to a new adventure. Me and Urbex et Orbi heading down south for a long weekend full of journeys. On our ‘to-see’ lists are some great places this time around; some castles and a derelict bathhouse. That last one has been on my “list” for a long time now.
Hogs
Millions of miles to travel, sight seeing in this beautiful country. Long talks with each other and in the late evening we stopping to take a nap. Where …. explorers venture, is where you are right now. And so we spent the night in the forest on our air mattresses. Neither of us slept, after just 15 minutes we were awoken by some eery noises. These noises kept on going for the rest of the night. In the early morning it became clear we slept right next to a family hogs.
the Next day
The next day starts early in the morning. The Hogs are awake [still] and we packed our stuff and hit the road, only 400 miles to go. For the start of our trip, we headed to the first location and got the doors slammed in our faces. Closed, #@$% a lot of swearing but as we abide by the code.. we won’t enter. Next location was….. hell no this is not gonna be that kind of trip…..once again closed.
Finally we headed up to one of the most precious ones, yes still preserved and still there. We encountered some beautiful artifacts that are still around, took our time and took our shots. Next one “Le Colonel” open but smashed, some rooms are beautiful to see but at the same time show their history and tell their tales. Vandalised and some artifacts have been stolen.
THE CHOSEN ONE
We visited several locations before heading up to one of the most fascinating ones, an abandoned castle. The story goes that an Eastern family bought this castle years ago but somehow left it. Doors wide open, their stuff still inside. A remarkable one (you can see some shots of it on my Instagram page). With nothing but our pictures we leave, waving kindly at a farmer that passes by. He nods and knows.. he sees the difference between exploring people 😉
At this point [red.2021] the castle has been reinstated into the village and a new owner has moved in, the castle will be preserved and we’re glad to here that.
This day will be a long one, visiting several locations which includes the bathhouse and a lovely church.
Where most of our friends will stay in a hotel, air BnB or something similar. We prefer to go to a campsite. And well yeah .. we just love this view on the border of the Dordogne.
A region in France where I’ve been coming here my entire life, I know it by heart and consider it my second home.
