Gérard Miquel (Conseil General Lot), Martin Malvy (Midi Pyrenees), Jean Paul Denanot (Limousin), François Hollande (Conseil General Corrèze), Jean-Louis Nesti (airport syndicate representative) and Phillipe Nauche (Brive Mayor) came together to show a united front over a project that has been besieged by controversy and delays over the last couple of years.

Brive Mayor, Phillipe Naerde said it was now important to forget the problems of the past and focus on the airports future success. The same sentiments were echoed by François Hollande, president of the conseil general in Corrèze who is keen that people now deal in facts and the rumours that have been circulating about the airport and quashed once and for all.

Test flights will take place in the early part of next year to ensure all equipment is functioning and to identify and resolve any teething problems.
The airport will open for traffic June 2010 and it is hoped that the airport will see around 24,000 passengers pass through its doors between June and December 2010.
Targets for 2011 the first full year of operation are currently anticipated as being 105,000 passengers, 85,000 of which will come from low cost airlines.

Airport owners confirm they are currently in negotiations with low cost airlines, Ryan Air, Easy Jet, and BMI Baby.

Even if projections are met in the first full year of opening the airport owners will still need to fund the operation to the tune of 1.3 million Euros with Brive stumping up a substantial proportion of the deficit.
It is hoped that the Dordogne will help with some additional funding as this is one of the areas expected to see the biggest gain from the inevitable boost to tourism in the area.

At the 200 hectare site. The 2,100m runway is already in place and at a 45m width, it is generously designed to ensure it can receive the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.

Although a little late for next year’s tourist season it is bound to bring huge benefits to Brits living in the area, although flight routes and operators have yet to be announced.

House prices in the area may well see a rise as was the case when regular flights between Limoges and the UK were introduced.

The airport is also well located for access to the A20 motorway.

- 25 years in the planning
- 5 years of construction
- 48 million euros investment
- 2 800 000 m3 de earth excavated
- 200 hectare site
- 13 partners

For 3 years now, they have been taking small groups from every corner of world into the very remote and unmapped parts of the Dordogne, exploring prehistoric caves, shelters, troglodytes as well as Roman and Medievel ruines.

From Walking Dordogne’s Blog

NEW FOR 2010 “Sacred River of Dreams”

After our “Valley of Caves” tour, the “Canoe / Hike the Vezere’ is our second most popular trip, and last year we had to turn down 47 people for this trip alone. “Canoe Hike the Vezere” is a fantastic (long) day trip, as the title suggests, canoeing and hiking to various prehistoric places of interest. However, we did have one big problem with this trip, and that was to decide WHICH prehistoric sites to hike to, because we can only fit so much into “Dawn till Dusk” and there is just so much to see, so, we came up with this new Trip Sacred River of Dreams.

Sacred River of Dreams is the ultimate adventure, we will canoe and explore 30 miles of the Vezere River. Our ancestors settled here, and roamed this area more than 460,000 years ago. These were the hunting grounds of the Neaderthals, and it was here that our ancestors the Cro Magnon settled. This area is riddled with prehistoric caves, shelters and troglodytes, that are unmapped, unknown and unforgettable. Too much to explore in just one day, so we will stay a night in a real Neanderthal cave, with spectacular views of the valley and river. On day 2 we will continue down river and continue our exploration, and at the end of this adventure we will all enjoy a delicious meal in Les Eyzies de Tayac.

This trip will be offered twice a week, from April thru October 20th. NO trips during July and August, and a max. of 6 people per trip ( 3 canoes)

If you would like to do a canoe / hike trip like this, but would rather not, or cannot do an overnight trip, then consider our “Canoe / Hike the Vezere” trip.

As with ALL our trips, you are guaranteed a UNIQUE and exciting trip of a lifetime.

Walking Dordogne is very secretive about their Trails, but, as Duke from Walking Dordogne states,

this is because we have spent years putting these unique trails together, and a lot of our trails are actually on private property.

Walking Dordogne’s notorious rides are :

•The Devils Play Ground
•Satan’s Fury
•Devils Backbone
•Valley of Revenge
•Hells Gorge

Walking Dordogne are planning to launch two Dordogne “EPIC” trails, an EPIC Trail is a trail that will take a whole day (if lucky) to complete, usually aboy 8+ hours.
These 2 EPICS will be finalized in about November, and will be added to the 2010 list of trips / tours.

To make it easier for Mountain Bikers around the world to find mountain biking in the Dordogne info, Walking Dordogne has launched a “Mountain Biking Dordogne” web page : www.mountainbikingdordogne.com

For all other Walking Dordogne Tours and Trips visit : www.walkingdordogne.com

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We can say without doubt that the best cycling conditions are to be found in the Dordogne: quiet country roads to suit all levels of riding, beautiful scenery, and one of the cleanest rivers in Europe to cool off in… La Dordogne. Weather conditions here are great for riding from April to November.

Since 2000, Aquitaine Bike has organized cycling tours throughout France and Spain and worked as consultants to U.S. and British bicycle touring companies. Alongside their bike hire services, they specialize in self-guided custom tours in the Dordogne. Their system and organisation of these cycling tours keep costs to a minimum. Check out their Touring page for details. You can find suggestions for accommodation on the Where to Stay page.

The routes and itineraries that Aquitaine Bike design are the result of 20 years of personal cycling experience in the region and 10 years of client feedback.

Visit their Southwest France Tour page for information on our self-guided trip across Aquitaine, from the Dordogne to the Basque Country.

The Dordogne, or Perigord region, is a treasure of natural beauty, prehistory, history, architecture, and gourmet cuisine built around such delicacies as foie gras, the famous black truffle, walnuts, and fresh strawberries. Magnificent feudal and renaissance castles, prehistoric cave art, quiet country roads linking charming honey-coloured stone villages, meandering rivers, and dense oak and chestnut forests full with deer and wild boar. This magical land will enchant you!

Aquitaine Bike are fully insured and listed with the Ministry of Health, Youth, and Sports, reference number 02407ET0126.

Robert and Amy Owensmith
24220 Coux et Bigaroque, France
Email: aquitainebike@gmail.com
Tel / Fax: +33 (0) 553.30.35.17

For more info visit: www.aquitainebike.com

Aquitaine Bike is highly recommended by

• B&B Ferme de Tayac : www.fermedetayac.com
• Scenic Dordogne : www.scenicdordogne.com
• Walking Dordogne : www.walkingdordogne.com
• Les Eyzies Tourist Info : www.leseyzies-tourist.info
• The Dordogne : www.thedordogne.com
• Dordogne Tourist Info : www.dordognetourist.info
• Duke of Dordogne : www.dukeofdordogne.com
• High on Mountain Biking : www.highonmountainbiking.com

We have spent 2 years exploring the caves, and beyond. “Going Underground” is NOT a “Potholing” adventure, but an adventure for the hikers that want to experience another world underground.
These caves, chambers and tunnels have been used for 1000’s of years, and they played an extremely important role during the Second World War, where they were used by the French Resistance.

This adventure is suitable for most people, but requires a high level of fitness, the ability to clamber, and not claustrophobic.

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For more info about Walking Dordogne’s adventures / hikes, please visit www.walkingdordogne.com

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There are 1000’s of buisness owners in the Dordogne trying to run their buisness off the internet.Having a nice web site promoting your business is extremely important, but, unless it is high on the search engines, so that potential customers can actually find your site, it’s pretty much useless, a bit like having a nice sports car, but no petrol. The average person will spend on average about 600 Euro for a web site, 200 Euro per year for domain and hosting, 150 on advertising costs, and lot’s of free time but most people do not spend any time or money on having their site optimized.
Anyone serious about a meaningful online business presence needs Search Engine Optimization Services also referred to as SEO Services . With millions of web sites designed and published everyday in all kind of languages and topics, a long term and sustainable internet marketing strategy is crucial. There is no doubt that the following statement is true: An optimized web site, with SEO web design in mind, generates more internet traffic thus driving more leads, phone calls and sales which translate in revenue.
Have your site optimized now, and start making your site work for you, rather than you working for your site.

For more info visit: www.complete-seo.com

Details about the hikes, or prices have not yet been published on their site.

The original article can be found here: http://walkingdordogne.com/wdnews/

Unesco, the world cultural body, has threatened to humiliate France by placing the Lascaux caves – known as the “Sistine Chapel of prehistory” – on its list of endangered sites of universal importance.
The Unesco world heritage committee, meeting this week in Quebec, has given the French government six months to report on the success of its efforts to save the Lascaux cave paintings in Dordogne from an ugly, and potentially destructive, invasion of grey and black fungi.

At the same time, a scientific committee appointed by the French government has conceded that an elaborate treatment with a new fungicide in January failed to stop the mould advancing through one part of the caves.

An independent pressure group of scientists and historians claims that up to half of the startlingly beautiful, 17,000-year-old images of bison, horses, wild cattle and ibex are now threatened by the fungal invasion – the second of its kind in eight years.

The heritage committee warned France this week that it will consider placing Lascaux on its list of imperilled cultural and natural sites of global significance unless progress is made by next February. The committee requested France to open Lascaux – closed to the public since 1963 – to a visit by independent experts. It also advised France to commission an “impact study” of all past, and possible future, actions in the caves since the first fungal invasion in 2001-02.

There are already 31 sites on the Unesco “List of World Heritage in Danger”, including such treasures as the ancient Buddha statues of the Bamiyan valley in Afghanistan, partly destroyed by the Taliban. Only one of the existing, officially threatened sites is in western Europe – the architectural heritage of the Dresden-Elbe valley in eastern Germany, site of a planned motorway. A decision by the Unesco committee to list Lascaux as “endangered” would, therefore, be a severe embarrassment to France. Unesco would, in effect, be telling Paris that it can no longer be trusted to manage one of the world’s most important historical and cultural treasures.

Officials from the French government’s department of historic monuments and experts from all over the world have been quarrelling for years over the best way to preserve the Lascaux paintings. Some experts have accused the French authorities of a series of blunders, including a change in the air-conditioning system in 2000, the use of high-powered lights in the caves and allowing too many “special” visits.

An independent body, the International Committee for the Protection of Lascaux, infuriated Paris by asking Unesco to intervene last September. Laurence Léauté-Beasley, president of the committee, was jubilant yesterday. “The requirements placed upon France [by Unesco] are significant and strong,” she said. “France will now have to answer to the world community for actions they have taken in the past and will take in the future. Lascaux’s management must now operate in a spirit of transparency.”

The French authorities initially denied that the Lascaux paintings themselves had been attacked by the second fungal invasion. They later admitted to some blotching on the paintings but no lasting damage. The independent protection committee, citing information from experts who have visited the caves, insist that some of the images have been irreparably blurred or that their colours have faded.

Mme Léauté-Beasley said: “Upwards of 50 per cent of the caves’ … art is disappearing under an incursion of black spots, some as large as human hands, triggered by the use of high intensity lights and excess human presence inside the cave.”

On Thursday night, the French authorities admitted a setback. A treatment with fungicide in January appeared to have been successful at first but the black and grey blotches are now spreading once again across one part of the paintings, according to an official statement.

A committee of international experts, appointed by Paris after the first fungal attack in 2001, announced that the new treatment had been “very satisfactory” in one part of the caves, known as the “room of the bulls”. The spread of fungal blotches had resumed, however, in the “right-hand part of the caverns”.

Marie-Anne Sire, the head curator of Lascaux, told the French news agency AFP that the news was disappointing but progress was being made. Studies had revealed that the air which used to circulate in the caves had become immobile. This might explain the fungal outbreaks – and to offer a possible solution, she said.

The paintings were discovered by chance in September 1940. The 600 images of aurochs, wild horses, bison and ibexes are regarded as among the finest cave paintings in the world.

Visions of the past

The Lascaux paintings are in a cave on the left bank of the river Vézère, a tributary of the Dordogne. They include depictions of ibexes facing off, and a “unicorn” chasing a herd of horses. It is thought that they were painted between 15,000 and 17,000 years ago by hunter-gathering people who crushed minerals to create red, ochre, brown and black paints.

The paintings were discovered accidentally by four teenagers in September 1940. After a visit to the caves, the Cubist artist Pablo Picasso declared: “We have invented nothing.” The caverns were closed to the public in 1963 to protect them from just the kind of fungal infections that have appeared over the past eight years. In 1983, a complete life-sized facsimile of the caves and paintings – Lascaux Two – was opened nearby for visitors.

By John Lichfield in Paris
Saturday, 12 July 2008

Our recommended accommodation to visit Lascaux

B&B Ferme de Tayac : www.fermedetayac.com Lovely B&B in a 12th Century former farmhouse / monastery opposite the fortified church of St. Martin.
Ferme de Tayac is just 25 minutes from Lascaux

In the early 12th century 6 Monks from the Monastery of Paunat were travelling between Monasteries when one of the Monks became very ill, they set up camp in Tayac near a water source. The monk was dieing, but miraculously healed after drinking the water from the “Tayac Source”. To the Monks of Paunat this was a “Sign” and round about 1123 they started building the magnificent and fortified church of Tayac, they called it “St Martin“.
At the same time, the Monks of Paunat started working the land in this lush Vezere valley, they built the farmhouse / monastery, which is now “Ferme de Tayac” that has been completely renovated, and is now a lovely B&B opposite the church.
For hundreds of years the Monks lived here and worked the lands, bit by bit houses were built against the rock.
The water from the “Tayac Source” was taken to other surrounding Monasteries, for it’s healing powers, Tayac was thriving.
Two centuries later, things took a turn, wars were breaking out, armies were constantly attacking areas and strongholds. Religion and all that went with it lost it’s power, and very slowly the life in and around Tayac became what it is today. St. Martin still stands proud, and is without doubt the nicest Fortified Church in the Perigord, the “Tayac Source” is still there, although no longer in use.

During construction for a railroad in 1868, a rock shelter in a limestone cliff was uncovered. Near the back of the shelter, an occupation floor was recognized, and when excavated, it revealed the remains of four adult skeletons, one infant, and some fragmentary bones. The Link between Prehistoric Man and Modern Man had been found in Tayac.

Recommended accommodation in Les Eyzies de Tayac:

B&B Ferme de Tayac : www.fermedetayac.com Lovely B&B in a 12th Century former farmhouse / monastery opposite the fortified church of St. Martin