Now I live in a castle

we have arrived in southern france in a town named Siorac en Perigord.we drove 14 miserable hours from belgium through horrible traffic inparis (but i saw the top of the eiffel tower- go me) but we are here. everything in this region of france looks like it has been untouched for 300 years. there are roads and telephone poles but otherwise itcould be the middle ages. everything is stone and terracotta roofs and hilly and green. when you look up the mountains you can see huge chateaus (ie. big houses) and castles on the top. real castles, its a little crazy because this is really where battles used to happen andthe knights and the princess in the tower- okay maybe i'm exagerating a little, but still.we walked up to a castle last night that dated back to 1354. if you'vebeen to israel you can understand the idea of being somewhere thatlived through history, but coming from america my house was only built in 1982 so you can imagine the difference. it just always amazes methat these places still exist and in the same conditions they wereonce in and were not just destroyed to make room for a new generationand a walmart. besides the computer i am typing on and this plasticchair it could be 1734- well maybe