Friday's Bike Ride

The "Bike Bus" rental place is run in what seems to me to be typically French fashion, although it turns out to be owned by a young English expat couple. We tried to find out from their pretty useless website how, where and when we could rent bikes but no luck. There was a list of towns where they had locations but no addresses! We tried to call the telephone number but made no contact. Finally we decided to just drive to the town of Castelnaud near here where they had a rental location and luckily as it is a small town we found it. It was open! There were other people there getting bikes. But we were told bikes are only available by reservation. The very pleasant young man working there told us he knew nothing about the business, he was hired only to deliver the bikes. But he called the owner and they agreed to rent us bikes. The shed was full of bikes but we had one heck of a time finding four that were in working order. Most of them had non-working brakes. Jim says that it takes just a few minutes to replace the brake pads. There was no wrench to fix the seat heights and they had no locks for the bikes. Some of them had broken gears. Some of them had flat tires. Okay, it's the end of the season but are you really in business or not guys? We tried about ten bikes and almost went to plan B but finally find got four bikes that were mostly in working order.

The good news is that it was all worth it. The paved bike path was excellent and went on for many miles, through beautiful countryside. Fields, orchards, streams, woods, along the river, through adorable little hamlets, and the sun was shining. We stopped by a really cute farm to eat our picnic lunch of baguette, pâté, cheese, pears and wine. We had to borrow a tire-bouchon from the farmer and had a nice conversation with him and later his mother. Chris was so in love with the place he wants to buy one just like it.

Tonight we are cooking in. Tomorrow JL and I take the train from Bordeaux to Paris.

Thursday - Cave paintings

Back to Les Eyzies to get in line early for tickets to the caves. We were there at 8:45 AM and got the last ones for the afternoon English tour! Then we had a few hours to burn so we went to the museum of Prehistory and lunch. We give the Museum only one star, given the fascinating subject matter and all they discovered there about early man, the presentation left a lot to be desired.

Lunch, on the other hand, was a terrific find. We decided to drive out of town since Les Eyzies is a total tourist trap, and pulled in to a completely non-descript-looking place. Well it turned out to be one of those places where locals in the know go. Just a bar and six tables. One proprietor who did everything, cooking, waiting tables, clearing, tending bar and probably washing dishes too. Here was no menu, just a four-course meal of whatever he was serving that day. Today it was a vegetable soup with croutons, followed with a chopped salad and home made pâté de campagne, then to my great delight a main course of Boudin Noir (pork in sauce as an alternative) and then desserts of profiteroles, brownie with vanilla sauce, Creme Brûlée, and the cheese plate of three delicious cheeses. Of course we had to order one of each! All of this for 12 Euros!!! The name of the restaurant was "La Marmite," it was in the town of Manaurie. It was excellent and we we quite pleased with ourselves to have found it.

So we were well fortified for our walk through the amazing, awe-inspiring cave of Font De Gaume. Font de Gaume is the only cave open to the public today with prehistoric cave paintings, since Lascaux and Altamira are closed because of the damage from breathing etc. Our guide was terrific, he had such love and respect for his subject matter. He explained to us why it was so hard to get a reservation for a visit to the caves. All of the guidebooks said that advance reservations were absolutely necessary but we could not find out on the Internet or by telephone how to get a reservation. And we were told earlier this week when we went and inquired, that reservations were not possible. Very aggravating! Turns out that it is because the cave art is so fragile as is the environment, that they take only 96 people per day in the cave, down from 200 just a while ago, and so they do not really want to encourage people to come because they will only have to turn them away. So they just make it hard and elusive to get information about how to get entry tickets. Being in this cave and being shown the 14,000 year old cave paintings of bison, reindeer, and horses was almost a religious experience. What would those artists have thought to know that
14,000 years later people would come into that cave and see and admire their drawings? What is clear is that they weren't doing this art just casually, there was something very special in the meaning of this art for them.

On the way back to La Roque Gageac we followed a sign for Chateau Milandes. It is a lovely smallish chateau (for a chateau) originally built in 1489 and where the American singer Josephine Baker lived from the 1940's to 1969 (when she went bankrupt.) We toured it and it was quite lovely. Her story was interesting and ultimately rather sad.

We had a fabulous very French dinner at an excellent restaurant practically next door to our house. (La Belle Etoile) Really haute cuisine, outstanding food and service, gorgeous presentation. I was thrilled that the waiter spoke French to us the whole time and understood our French. I am enjoying listening to French spoken and understanding most of it.

Wednesday- slightly rainy walk around town

Today was a low key day. Chris & Jim got up early and went to the market in Sarlat, brought us back some yummy things including lamb for a Navarin for dinner. JL and I slept late. After a nice lunch on our terrace we took a hike in the woods and through the town. The photos are from our walk and some of the interior of our house. The expansive river view is from our terrace.

Day 3 - gardens and castles

Today we drove to Chateau Fenelon, the guidebook said it is open every day of the year "sans exception." But when we got there the gate was locked and the sign said "closed Tuesdays!" Plan B was to go to the gardens of the manor of Eyrignac. That was spectacular! The beautiful manor is still inhabited by the same family after 500 years, although they did not seem tone there now, probably live in
Paris or Monaco and we did notice a small airstrip so seems they only fly in occasionally. Huge, extensive and constantly sheared gardens, pools and fountains,a tiny chapel, dovecote, old (and beautiful!) stables. We took lots of photos. We did find another castle, this one a ruin, originally from the 10th century and we walked around there. We had a nice lunch of Galettes in Salignac. Driving here is a joy because the countryside is so beautiful and there are so many castles and even the farmhouses are old and gorgeous.

Day 2 Le Bugue and Paunat

We tried to get up early and go to Les Eyzies to see the cave paintings. But when we got there they were already all booked up for the day! Quite a disappointment. But we ended up having a lovely day driving through this beautiful countryside and seeing several lovely towns. The 12th century abbey church in Paunat was spectacular and we were there all alone. It is very nice to be here at this time of year because it is so uncrowded. Haut Limeuil is another picturesque town that we loved walking around. Charming charming!
In les Eyzies we came upon a small farmers' market where we bought some dark forest honey, walnut cake, cheeses, and wild boar sausage.

The first picture is of the 12th century church of St. Martin in Limeuil which was built by Richard Coeur de Lion in atonement for the death of Thomas Becket. Too bad it was closed and we couldn't see the inside. Next time!

Day 1 La Roque-Gageac

La Roque-Gageac is an almost unimaginably gorgeous and atmospheric little town, situated on cliffs on the side of the Dordogne River. Today we wandered the winding medieval ways (you can't really call them streets) on the side of the cliff and paused for a long and delicious lunch at the very pretty Auberge Platanes on the riverside. There I had Perigord specialties such as confit d'oie, pâté de fois gras, and Gateau de Noix.

The house we are in is very old, maybe even close to 1,000 years old, as is the town. The stone walls of the hous are three feet thick. The fireplaces are enormous and nearly take up the whole wall. We are wondering what this beautiful space looked like before the owners renovated it. We think they took a few separate medieval units on different levels and combined them. There is a wonderful large outdoor terrace and it has been warm enough to have drinks and dinner out there, looking out over the ruelle and out to the river, over the rooftops. It is covered with a grape arbor. Very very charming.