Our first full day in the Dordogne – more specifically the Perigord Noir - started off a dreary drizzly one. I’m not sure this place ever gets the weather that Provence does.
We set off in quest of some groceries, an internet connection and first off, the Sunday market in St. Cyprien which is the next town west of us.
We quickly reconfirmed what we’d discovered yesterday – there isn’t a straight piece of road anywhere and although distances as the crow flies aren’t far, we aren’t crows are we? We also confirmed that there are more chateaux in this region than you can shake a stick at – curious expression. We haven’t done enough research to ascertain the reason for all of these chateaux, but there clearly was lots of money here once and there still is. You don’t see too many chateaux in ruins and so far we’ve heard more English spoken here than anywhere in France.
The St. Cyprien market was a good one, with a high percentage of the stalls devoted to foie gras and exotic mushrooms. To obtain the remainder of our required groceries we stopped at the Carrefour in town, before starting our big circuit back to Les Hortensias.
Impressive estates and chateaux popped up everywhere along the route.
In Les Eyzies, we found a museum devoted to 15 000 year old Cro Magnum man, a nice little restaurant for lunch – La Marie – and an internet connection at the tourism office.
Lunch was a Perigord speciality – a salad with warm goose gizzards, cassoulet of white beans, flavoured with a duck leg and local sausage and finally a tarte aux noix (walnuts) for me and a tarte aux pommes for Dawn.
Continuing our explorations, we rolled into the largest town in the area, Sarlat-le-Caneda.
This is a place we needed more time to explore, being a good example of a bastide town, so we drove around a bit and then headed for the highlight of the day Beynac-et-Cazenac, a village right on the Dordogne crowned by a castle.
This village is all of 5 minutes from our place, so we anticipate returning here numerous times, because we also found a hotel with free Wi-fi.
By late afternoon we were back at Les Hortensias, anticipating our market chicken and potatoes for dinner. Gotta love that chicken guy!
Monday June 7
We were a little slow getting going today, but by the time all was said and done, we had been to 4 Plus Beaux villages de France and toured 2 chateaux. A full day! We actually drove very little distance to do all this, reconfirming that Les Hortensias is in an excellent location for exploring our area of the Dordogne.
Our first stop was at Belves. We walked at lot and saw alot, but I'll let the pictures do the talking.
From there, we went to chateau Les Milandes which is the chateau that we can see across the Dordogne from St. Vincent la Cosse. This is famous because the primary owner in previous history was Josephine Baker the famous black American cabaret performer who made France her home from to 1947 to 1975, but she lived in this chateau for 20 years and bascially owned the whole town around her.
This is a nice chateau to visit because it is still furnished with her furniture. They also have a birds of prey show that we didn't see due to timing. As in most chateaux, no pictures were allowed inside but I did sneek a classic of Josephine.
Our next stop was the chateau of Castelnaud. This is a massive medieval castle with no original furnishings but with lots of displays of weaponry of the period. There are, as well, full size replicas of catapults situated on the property. This tour was not for the faint of heart with steep winding staircases and lowly lit, low ceiling rooms. The views from here were spectacular.
Our next Plus Beaux Villages was Domme. This place had more incredible buildings, but it was very touristy, with shops lining all the main streets.
We crossed back over the Dordogne for our next Village- la Rocque Gageac. This is the place that was blocked the first day and low and behold, it was still baree. This is a town built up and into the cliffs and many of the dwellings here were originally in the caves.
Finally we ended the day back at our closest Plus Beaux Village - Beynac et Cazenac. We sat down for a drink at the Hotel Restaurant du Chateau and used their free Wi-fi. This will be our destination at the end of each day. You can see Dawn enjoying the ambiance.
No comments:
Post a Comment