The Last Night in the Perigord

Thunderstorms over the Gite (and the Sechoir, straight ahead)

La Roque Gageac and Dordogne from Chateau Marqueyssac (the fancy gardens)

In the narrow streets of La Roque Gageac

Appetizer tapenades: artichoke, red peppers, black olive, sun dried tomato

Saving the duck fat for veg saute

...the veg


Duck breast roasted with a full bottle of Cotes du Rhone, full head of garlic, jambon and prunes

Giving Wheatfield's a run for their money...but only just

Strawberry tarte and Mossy's pre-Birthday

One last walk along the Ceou

Well, this is the end of internet as we know it. We'll try to get something out over the next two weeks. Send all your France-Bound friends to Ian and Ien's. It has been the most lovely, laid back, delicious and beautiful two weeks of our lives.

Dinner a la iPhone

Food is not just for eating...

Cheese/Salami..but this time we found both walnut cheese and walnut salami, to die for...

Cahors, Walnut Liqueur (digestif) and more Cahors (The Black Wine of the South)

Jambon, sliced

Sideways Kitchen Gnome

Artichokes from the Market

Dinner was in many courses so that, for two nights running, we have eaten the real thing at about 10pm.

Merlan (a troutish fish) with shrimp with sauce a la Parisienne

Shorty Blog

Hint No. 2

Do not put gasoline in a diesel tank*

Chez Le Garage a Gourdon

My god....

Well, backing up,

We were on our way to Gourdon this morning and we had to drive through Cenac (just over the hill from the gite.). We saw that it was market day and hopped out. There we found nocino, or liqueur de noix, or in other words, the green walnut liqueur that I wanted to make. So there was that and a few table linens that we couldn't pass up..and a huge pan of paella that I promised J. when we get to Banyuls, because you can just buy the seafood off of the boats at the port. So , off to Gourdon we went.

It was much more charming when we were driving through on Sunday and I had a distinct feeling of just wanting to leave for most of the time we were there. Not much to see and the kids made do with playing in a public playground that had wafting odors of human waste....so we left.

French Planning

But on our way out of town we stopped at the massive Intermarche..a walmart sized supermarket where we dazedly shopped for food. Beforehand, we filled up on said gasoline, taking from the green pump (instructed by Renault to only take green because it was diesel) The yellow said "Gazole", so that certainly looked suspiciously like gasoline. (Gazole=Diesel!!)

Well, off down the road about a kilometre and the car starts acting erratically and jerking around. Mon dieu. We turn around and go back to the gas station and ask. The woman there actually says, "oh la la" shaking her head, "gazole, c'est diesel" Well, Jesus, Joseph and Mary, have we wrecked the car? No phone, no number for Ian, a car full of groceries and four hot kids. Time for the merdre to hit the fan. It is a long complicated story but, in the end, Ian comes to rescue the kids, who go back to the gite and act impeccably, because their parents aren't there. We tow the car to the garage where they siphon out the 70 E of gasoline out of the car (they had all equipment on the ready, so we have a feeling that this happens more than quite often) and under 50 minutes we are out the door driving to the station to meet Margaret and Steve at their train with 10 minutes to spare.

At home, all is well, thanks to our wonderful children, all of whom kept their cool and were happy to get rid of their parents for a while. Many a drink was had after this.

Car perfectly fine.

Simpler Times

Monday Pique-Nique by the Ceou

Vide-Grenier and Accidental Tourism

Um..something funky at the vide-grenier

We forgot to take pictures at the vide-grenier. Well, it's exactly like any flea market in the States..full of junk. With a few treasures far and few between. Ien calls them the bbt (bits of broken toys). I managed to find sheets though for our next place..all six for 20 E, saving us a total of 100E to rent them from the guy in Banyuls. Ruby found some white Converse for 5E...not bad. And Moss found..yes..Luke Skywalker. This was a pretty fast trip because there really was a lot of junk. However, if one were wanting to fit out a gite or something, it'd be a great place to go.

Hint*: bring your own toilet paper into toilettes publiques. There ain't any.

The French love of Symmetry

We found ourselves near Souillac (we were in Cazoules if anyone is looking at maps), so we decided to check it out. We then realized we were very close to Rocamadour, which is just a fabulous cream puff of fantasy..a fortified city build more vertically than any of the others we've seen in a gorge. We took off and ended up in an unbelievable jam of tourists and shops..not really knowing where this place was. Armed with some chocolate eclairs and custard pies, we dropped by a little grocery to add the usual salami, cheese and bread and had a picnic right in the middle of the tourists. We sat on a piece of grass near an intersection and drew bemused stares from passing cars. Really it looked like a small parc, but you got the feeling it would be like seeing a family picnicking on a median in the middle of a boulevard.

Rocamadour From the Tourist Trap

After a bit of wandering, we stumbled to the edge of a cliff, as we are wont to do, and below lay our beautiful city. Really, it looks like Minas Tirith or something. Back to the car so we could race down the windy one-car wide switchbacks to the bottom of the gorge. Car after car after tour bus was ahead of us, then straight on the main gate..pedestrians only.

From One Side....

So we decided, given the complement of the car, time of day and availability of 15 minute rations (and the throngs of people), to go on. However, we found a field right around the corner which afforded a tremendous view of the city from below.

...And the Other

On we drove with the oft repeated (four different voices) "Are we going home now?" to Gourdon, which is on the way home, actually. It is positively charming and everything was positively closed because it was...just before 2pm.

The look of Stinging Nettles

We will go back tomorrow I think. What we didn't realize until later was that Gourdon, too, is perched, teetering on the edge of this same deep gorge. Jason kept offering to pull over to let me take a picture and we'd all scream, "No!!!!!!!!!!!"

We got home and the day was very hot. So we swam or lay in the shade, dribbling around. Finally, we got into the kitchen because we were to have a barbeque with Ian and Ien and their friend Julia. Rubes and I managed to wrestle the famous Julia Child chocolate cake from the dishes we had. I actually beat egg whites and cream into stiff peaks with my whisk. This, for me, is very satisfying and I didn't break my arm like I thought. It must be France, I thought. The French eggs, the French cream, the French air. Anyway......

Hen, Me, Ien, Ian, J., Rubes, Moss (Julia behind camera)

Things started off with some fabulous foie gras brought by our hosts. I cannot rember the French word for one, but basically it means scrapings, or bits. This could be scary, but it was so delicious and tasted like pan scrapings after you cook chicken or sausage. We had a great dinner (chicken kabobs and both duck and chorizo sausages) with lots and lots of conversations and wine and great food. Good company.

Hello Kabob!

Julia leads a great sort of bohemian life. She's from Maryland but has lived in England for the last 40 years. A textile artist, she just arrived from a Greek island where she rented a space for a month. Lucky. She was very interested in Ruby's art, especially photography, and promised to put her in touch with her friend, Max Adelman. (look him up).

Julia's Arm

We were up late so, sorry, I was on vacation.

Today we returned to Sarlat. Saturdays are the largest market in the area, with much more than food..artists, snacky food sellers, clothing, ronco knife choppers and every variety of sales person you can think of. All of the winding streets and small plazas in the heart of Sarlat are filled with booths packed side by side. We split up in varying combinations for a few hours and managed to drop some good money.

Sarlat Cave Bear

Waiting for Mama to Look at Clothes

New Wheels for the Car


Look for Ruby....

The afternoon laid on top of us like that post shopping daze when you can hardly move. The little boys splashed in the pool as I lay on a sunchair going in and out of a delirious heat-induced nap. Ruby and Henry watched their downloaded movie for the thousandth time. Finally, we roused ourselves for a lovely little appetizer

Three Salami (Blue cheese/Porc/Spiced) and majorly stinky sheep's cheese with Onion grass


and then dinner of roast chicken with white asparagus, garlic, thyme, gobs of butter and fresh beans from the market. The day finished with a long walk along the Ceou, with Ruby screaming if a bug got too close to her face and Henry biting my arm. The little ones had one last dip, including the stuffed bear.



Tomorrow we are headed to a vide grenier, or an "empty your attic"...basically a flea market.

We are headed to Banyuls-sur-Mer on Friday morning in order to be at the Mediterranean on Mossy's birthday (29th). This is close to the Spanish border. Then, a week after we will head up into the Pyrenees to Prades for a week. Then we're homeless for two days, so we shall see where we land. In there somewhere, we will go over to Aix-en-Provence, in-yes-Provence. That will be a one ay trip. We are not slated to have internet at either place so not sure how the whole blogging thing will work, but we'll try to get some info out.

For a Man in Nebraska....

It is hard to imagine a more beautiful river than the Vezere. Remember that this river flows in and among one of the most concentrated areas of prehistoric human habitation, and if you have your finger on that pulse, you can feel it. Clear, crystal clear waters are edged with limestone cliff faces that continue long below the water's edge down into a deeply gouged river bed. A slow moving river that is punctuated with 5 metre long waving greens, river seaweed if you like, floating down with the current but anchored in sand hummocks and adorned with white flowers with yellow enters. Horses wander down to the water's edge and nibble on our lifejackets, snort actross the edge of our seats looking for crumbs. Rock shelters, or abri, were everywhere, and we could not help but pull the canoes up onto a rock ledge, scramble out and up the bank...looking up at the overhang, imagining what it would be like to escape the weather or look out over the river for what...? many millenia ago. Then, we would come upon the shallows, which we did many times, and leap out, tie the boats with the green river mermaid hair and look through the water, drawing up the stones and holding them just under the edge of the surface to make use of the magnifying property of the water. We found many beautiful stones and only when we leapt onto banks and strange moss grown rock shelters that we came upon flakes. Only a few, but we came upon them. This was such a roundly wonderful day. So I will try to just convey it in pictures:

Rubes (I'll give you a cookie if you be quiet), Mossy (I wanna go in Daddy's boat), Mama