Noble travelers, let me guide you with my words echoing through the ages from a very distant past. Now, on this starry night, and through this enchanted tunnel, here we are in the year of grace one thousand six hundred. My name is Guilhem. Beautifully, I offer you my cordial greetings. I am a painter, illuminator, and fresco artist. This gift grants me the privilege of creating beautiful scenes on the walls of churches, cathedrals, and many castles. It is nature that offers me its colors: blue comes from azurite, red from cinnabar, ochre from oxidized stones. Thus crushed, I obtain pigments offering me a thousand hues. The waltz of colors is infinite: red and blue impose violet, red and yellow offer orange, blue and yellow fertilize green! Through these paintings, let yourself be told what once gave life to this enchanted rock. In “imagination,” is there not the word “magic”? Follow me, my fellow dreamers. Remain calm, speak in low voices, and keep your steps vigilant, for the ground is littered with many holes and hollows, remnants of the citadel of yesteryear.

A few steps from my fresco of the troubadours, flickering candles illuminate a long table of aged wood. Imagine, seated beside us, these handsome lords, these noble ladies, and these valiant knights! They quench their thirst with the finest nectars and feast on the most delicate dishes! Observe these dishes, my friends, and imagine this flamboyant feast… But, could it be a trick of our old Antòni? In these hollowed-out wooden bowls, see, dear companions, these fantastic victuals appear as if by magic… In the neighboring alcove, I present to you the portrait of our guests, all surrounded by colorful flowers, just as my brush loves to immortalize them! Yes, in the wind float the distant echoes of laughter and murmurs of their guests… In this moment of great joy, dear friends, I like to share with you these moments of celebration, suspended in time as we are from the top of our dear cliff with a thousand dreams and fabulous memories.

Fellow dreamers, take the time to contemplate my fresco. It honors these valiant knights, their destinies linked in this epic tournament at the foot of the cliffs of Roque Saint-Christophe! There, on the left, I painted this young knight with a lion, dressed in his purple armor and prancing on his immaculate steed. Opposite him, I immortalized this ferocious champion wearing the dragon on his azure breastplate! I think he is in a mad mood, riding a stallion with a gray coat like a day without bread. But suddenly, the trumpets sound and the champions take flight, their flaming lances pointed to the heavens, ready to strike like lightning… But as I trace the final details of this fresco, I leave it to your imagination to decide the winner. Who of the two won this tournament and won the heart of the noble Isabeau? The passionate lion, or the untamed dragon? I can’t remember, but if you feel like it, ask the mischievous Antòni to whisper to you the lucky winner of this formidable tournament. Stay curious, he might slip a sign where you least expect it.

Welcome, dear friends, this shadow filled with mystery, and this tranquility offered in these holy places. Here stood the church of La Roque Saint Christophe! Likewise, there was a priory and a small hermitage. Open your heart, and imagine the reassuring light of the candles casting their flickering lights. Feel the wind of yesteryear bringing back, like an offering, the distant chant of the pious monks. The moon, with its diaphanous clarity, casts the shadow of the forgotten vaults. Look, many fireflies invading the rock shelter like so many twirling souls, bearers of blessings, protections and luck to come… Oh my dear companions in reverie, perched thus, closer to the stars than to the earth, I confess to feeling the clemency of a profound peace. And you, do you feel it the same?

Dear friends, the time has come to reveal to you a great secret that Antòni was able to confide to me in his time. Lady Moon, with her silvery light, illuminates the forest and the banks of the Vézère. Many creatures, under the starry vault, come stealthily to drink the clear waters of the Vézère. During the day, game is hunted there, herbs are gathered, but at dusk, these woods are not the territory of men. But do not think that only deer, wolves, wild boars, and other foxes come to drink… Not so! In the tall grass, the little people of the Fades dance beautiful farandoles with the rabbits. And suffer to learn that between man and wolf, there is the werewolf, that between the hare and the profane, there is the Leberou thus transformed to atone for his sins! And know that the water of the Vézère is so pure that the unicorn comes to quench its thirst there. But at dawn, all these creatures vanish… In order to honor this world of the night playing with our imagination and preluding our beautiful reveries, I painted this fresco which strangely deforms as the reflections of water approach. What we believe to be is only the dream born of our imagination.

Just as day opposes night, and virtue fights vice, the graceful unicorn finds itself confronted by the terrible dragon. In our country, his name is lo Coulobre! Under the cloak, they say he is hideous! Full of claws! Full of teeth! Quick as lightning, precise as thunder! I am not a coward but… but it is said that this monster breathes fire! Fire, do you hear me? Devilishness! Suffer to learn that here, on Passion Sunday in the year of grace one thousand four hundred and one, the castle, the town, the church of La Roque Saint-Christophe were reduced to ashes! I fear greatly that the worst creatures of our fableries are as cruel as man… It was Jean de Beaufort, a sad sire, hateful towards Lord Adhémar de la Roque, who had this place burned down during the so-called Hundred Years’ War. But no turmoil, my friends, just like the phoenix rising from its ashes, La Roque-Saint Christophe was slowly rebuilt by the craftsmen of our lands! Let us continue my friends, I will introduce you to them.

Hear ye, fellow dreamers, as the moon fades, here is one of my latest frescoes in the hollow of this alcove. In my heart resonates an unfailing admiration for these masters of craftsmanship, who, with many wooden beams and many rope-making machines, forged these fabulous machines: capstan, drum winch, outrigger crane, squirrel wheels, so many precious tools used to build these impregnable fortresses and celestial dwellings almost touching the heavens. Many craftsmen, in the fervor of the construction sites, built these edifices that proudly dominate the hills of Périgord. May our children remember these builders and honor their heritage by working for beauty. By the wisdom of the ancients, may their know-how never be forgotten.

Before dawn, when the sun rises again to offer us a new day, and before its rays fade the magic of my colored pigments, I wish to present to you one last fresco. Why did I want to represent this scribe and all these beautiful parchment works, you might ask? Well, dear friends, because books have the power to preserve the memory of beautiful things, and Antòni, by one of his beautiful enchantments, possesses a quill with strange powers. Whoever leaned the words on a sheet could, in this way and with the magic of his imagination, rewrite history as he saw fit. I would have so much wished, one last time, to entrust to a scribe armed with this quill, the memories of my enchanted rock, so that, like the phoenix, it would rise from its ashes, and that nobles and onlookers would live again, surveying my dear cliff. My old friend used to say: “If by misfortune you are ignorant of history, your head must be quite deprived of it. For you then forget that you are like a leaf, unaware that it is part of a tree.” I therefore entrust its memory to you, companions in reverie, so that the wisdom of the ancients, nor the beauty of times gone by, may never fall into oblivion. Take away a little magic and, with your wisdom, rewrite history, no matter the pen. May my citadel rise from its ashes, and may the magic of our enchanted rock return. Yes, my good friends, young and old, I wish you beautiful dreams and a joyful heart!