B20 DOING THE DORDOGNE

Posted by detoprod on June 24, 2011

From Limoges we moved on south to the village of Sarlat in the Dordogne Valley region and near the Dordogne river, very popular for canoeing, small boat trips and caving.

The old town of Sarlat is very charming and looks just like an antique village should; tight, narrow streets, lots of stone construction and lots of cars. We chose to visit this region because we’d never traveled here before. In a stroke of genius, we convinced our good friends, Beth and Terry Crofoot, to scout the area for us in the last days of May.

They brought back all sorts of reports on good things to do while here. Unfortunately, for us, they stayed for 5 days while we only had 2 1/2 to lavish on this area. Some things had to be left for our next visit.We were there on Saturday market day and the streets were jammed not only with tourists but with the locals buying and selling just about anything you’d want. The market stretched from one end of the old town to the other and up the side streets. It was about 100 times larger than our own Calabasas Farmer’s Market but it’s hard to believe you’d find better friends there than Beth and Terry Crofoot, George and Sue Fischbeck and Marilyn and Dale Young.

Regional food cookers were elbow to elbow but the paella cooker really caught our eye…mainly due to the large metal pan she was using to cook in. It rained heavily for an hour or so and the umbrella lady had a field day. By noon the sun was out and we were all sweating in our rain gear.

We tried to follow Rick Steve’s advice to buy some food and sit back and watch the crowd. The rain took care of the sitting so we had to elbow our way in to a little bistro for coffee and croissants. Turns out they don’t serve food but solved the problem by running next door to the boulangerie for fresh croissants. Don’t think they marked them up either.

If you would like to experience the sights AND sounds of the Farmer’s Market at Sarlat, just click on the triangle symbol to play a brief video clip of the city that carries on this centuries-old tradition. Best of all, visit it yourself. Hope this inspires you.

We did follow the suggestion to drive along the Dordogne river to the various villages that are built into the sides of the area’s many limestone cliffs. At Roque Gageac there are homes with false fronts because, when you open the front door, you are in a limestone cave. Want to add a room? Just start digging. Just across the highway you can rent a canoe and go paddling up or down the Dordogne.

We decided to make the MG climb a bit to the fortified hilltop town of Domme. It was designed to repel attacks but has failed miserably to stem the tide of tourists who conquer the town in waves after each bus arrival.

We offered to take a picture of a Portland, Oregon couple who returned the favor. They were on an open-end vacation with no reservations anywhere and no problems getting rooms as long as they waved their copy of Rick Steve’s guidebook.

The MG draws attention where ever it goes and sometimes we get included. One man insisted I pose with the car. After the click, and still smiling, I said, “That’ll be one euro please.” I would have paid one euro to capture the look of shock on his face. When I told him “just teasing,” he laughed so hard he almost choked. His wife demanded to know what I’d done to him.

Even more above ground, in fact way above the local terrain, is what is billed as the largest castle in France. It sits high above Beynac in the Dordogne Valley and miles from its neighbors. It is so isolated that it has it’s own little village built around it for the workers.

e decided to take a short cut to our countryside B&B and ended up on a very rough, very up-and-down road that wound through a black forest. “Not a good idea” kept crossing my mind as we drove, completely lost, over strange roads in an antique car. If it had trouble we probably wouldn’t be found for days and by then been eaten by wolves.

The area’s main claim to fame is the number of caves within easy driving distance…especially the one at Lascaux. The original cave contains ceiling paintings created by humans who lived 17,000 years ago. I say original because tourists are only allowed in a cave that exactly recreates the one discovered in 1940. In the ’60’s it became evident that visitors were bringing in algae on their shoes and, with the increased humidity, it caused big splotches to appear on the drawings.

The cave was closed for years until the re-creation could be completed. Still no cameras allowed though, so you’ll have to make do with these book covers. On thing unusual though. For some unknown reason, several of the drawings were left incomplete so will never be finished. Several teachers on our tour suggested that the budget for cave paintings might have been suddenly cut and the artists shuffled off to harvest nuts and berries or retrained to swing stone hatchets during battle.

That evening we used Rick Steve’s book to guide us to Chez le Gaulois in old town Sarlat. It is a Basque restaurant featuring many raclette type dishes with lots of melted cheese over potatoes. The owner spends the whole evening cutting thin slices of meat on a slicer in plain view of the patrons.

Rick’s book suggests letting Bridgette, the friendly server, select your meal. She said, “He always eats the same thing. One time I made him change. He liked it so now I’m in the book.”

Just as we sat down the Oregon couple walked in so we pushed our tables together. Joy and Dave Pahl are real Rick Steve fans and have attended several of his personal appearances so gave us inside information on this popular tour guy. We studied the menu but, in the end, Bridgette chose for us and even took our picture.

Due to the heavy tourist season we weren’t able to find housing to fit our budget but Chrise did uncover the Hotel Mounea in the nearby village of Marquay, some six miles from Sarlat in the rolling countryside.

The hotel is four years old and built by the hands of Brigette and Joel Battu, a relatively young couple who wanted to operate their own B&B. It was almost full with clients that came from all over the world. Our room was good sized with a comfortable bed, small table for typing blogs and a bathroom with the separate WC as seems to be the custom in this country. A spare bed in the room kept us from doing our daily suitcase lifting exercises.

Breakfast featured meats, cheeses and some of the best pastries we’ve tasted up till now. WiFi is on the premises although we had to go into the hallway to establish the contact. Then it was just a case of dragging Mademoiselle WiFi back to the room and having your way with her. We were here three nights and were beginning to feel right at home when it came time to leave. So comfortable that I was allowed to wash the MG down by their full sized pool. This couple works so hard to keep the hotel spectacularly clean and to pay off the mortgage. Joel looks forward to the day when he can give up his part-time job cleaning a local supermarket and spend full time caring for his guests. It is great to see the entrepreneurial spirit is not limited to our own country.