Wednesday 17th July
Jacqui made an early start to the day and was working by
7am. At 9am she had a skype call with Pat and she continued to work until
lunchtime. We then set off on a
beautiful drive through the Massif Central, Haut Loire and Ardeche
regions of France. Last night’s rain had disappeared and after a few hours
driving we found ourselves in Murat of the edge of the Auvergne on the Mont de
Cantal route. Murat was a lovely old town and we had an enjoyable walk round it
in the evening. As we passed the market hall we were surprised to see people
dancing in local costume accompanied by regional musical instruments including
their variation of the bagpipes.
Thursday 18th July
Leaving Murat in the morning we soon found ourselves driving
on very minor roads through lovely green countryside (lots of walnut trees) and
sandy coloured medieval towns. All very quaint. Mid morning we stopped at St.
Flour to pick up some local information.
It looked a lovely town but we moved on with our next stop being
Carennac.
This was a beautiful medieval village. We walked around the chateau
which displayed local information and then around the rest of the village. We
had our lunch before we set off again and by now it was very hot and being in
the van was uncomfortable.
We were still driving on very narrow roads and in
parts it looked quite dangerous as the cliffs that run along the Dordogne hung
over us. We carried on until we reached Sarlat – le - Caneda.
This was a
beautiful medieval town if overrun with tourists and restaurants. Here we again
picked up a lot of information from the Tourist information office and this
allowed us to plan our next couple of days. We headed off to La Roque-Gageac
where we parked in a very pleasant aire on the riverside. There is a lot of
boat activity here with a huge number of canoes being launched from here as
well as the traditional boats known as ‘gabarre’. However the river had a very
strong flow and despite the number of canoists we did not see a single one
paddling upstream so we decided not to put our kayak on the river as
logistically it would have been difficult to get back to the van.
Friday 19th July
The day started with an atmospheric mist rising by the river
but it was clear it was going to be another very hot day. Jacqui went off to
buy bread and croissants and also stopped off at the market to buy some fresh
fruit and salad.
After breakfast we cycled to Domme a village listed as one
of the 150 ‘most beautiful villages’ in France. We are not sure how many of
these we have seen but we are ticking them off at a good rate. This one lived
up to its name. It was only 5.5km away but
with a steep climb up to this hill top town which in temps in excess of 30C
left Jacqui red faced. Mike just got the camera out! It was a busy town. We
were in the heart of gastronomic France and there were lots of shops selling
foie gras and other pates as well as truffle products and walnut oil goods. It
amazed me that you could go to the geese farms and see the geese being force
fed. Some stated in a traditional non stressful manner. I cant understand this
as force feed surely means exactly that! Domme had some lovely buildings but the view
over the Dordogne plain was spectacular. Once we had seen all we wanted we
enjoyed the downhill cycle back to the van where we had lunch sitting by the
river.
In the afternoon we got on the bikes again and cycled another
5km in the opposite direction to chateau at Castelnaud. Of course, it was on top of a hill again!
Here we had a very interesting guided tour where the history of the castle and
middle age warfare was explained to us. It was now about 6pm and temperatures
were still in the high 30s but we had one more place to visit. Back over the
river we went up another hill to the Marqueyssac gardens another 3km away. The
gardens were interesting for the mass of box topiary bushes and stunning views over the valley.
Still hot we cycled back to the van past the fields of
sunflowers for a well earned drink and supper.
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