From cars to castles.

In an effort to balance our chateaux viewing we set off this morning for Le Mans, the home of auto racing in France where the first 24 hour endurance race took place in 1923. During the 24 hours the cars will travel a distance of over 5000 kilometres with a rotation of three drivers. It is an enormous strain on the car to keep up that pace and they not only race specially made cars but also high performance cars that are available to the general public, though not in our budget! The race is about to start with the qualifying rounds taking place at the beginning of next week and the race itself on the following Saturday/Sunday so there was lots of action around the track as they are getting ready. Gord spent a wonderful hour in the museum, one of the few museums that he enjoyed more than me. We actually drove a portion of the track as the race is held both on the closed Bugattit track as well as the public roads. Actually we drove the Monte Carlo track just before the start of that race too - maybe there is something to this?!? but I think that the tours of the chateaux this week may prove to be a greater endurance for Gord than the Le Mans race!

Le Mans actually has a fascinating old centre complete with roman walls and a spa. There are dozens of half-timbered houses that date back to the 15th century and lovely cobbled streets and lanes, with the magnificent St. Julien's Cathedral in the centre of the town.

On the way home from Le Mans, we happened to drive past another chateau (remember who the navigator is!) Le Lude is on the banks of the Loire and is still the home of the Count and Countess of de Nicolay and has been owned and lived in by descendants of the Talhouet family for over 250 years. It was fun to go around this one as it is a real home and we were very much aware of the occupants. The principal rooms were the only ones on the tour but they were magnificent and rich in history and interest. The gardens were lovely and very extensive and I particularly enjoyed seeing the stables and some lovely old carriages. Everything felt very much as it would 100 years ago and it was easy to imagine visitors arriving through the cobblestone village streets, through the impressive gatehouse and up the gravel driveway to the chateau.

Another good day, and a balance of interesting things for both of us!

Life in the Loire

I woke up this morning to the sound of a rooster close by. He heralded the morning for quite a while and I finally gave in and heeded the call to rise. It wasn't long before he was replaced by a cuckoo. We have heard them in the distance and love the sound but this one was very close and I now know why someone decided to stick him in a wooden box and only allow him to come out on the hour! Actually, I am loving listening to the sounds of the birds, it will be all to soon before we hear the sound of buses and cars and an overenthusiastic cuckoo is certainly an improvement! 

We had breakfast in our lovely little cottage and then set out to see the sights.

The fields around here contain the expected vineyards but there are also acres and acres of wheat which is just now turning golden. It is a beautiful sight in the sunshine with the red poppies growing at the edge. Unlike the praries where the fields go on forever, here they are quite small and a small cornfield may very well be next to a vineyard or a field of potatoes.  We are continually surprised to see how much of France is rural and there are pretty little farms everywhere.

The Loire valley is vast, both long and very wide and the river splits and merges with numerous tributaries and throughout the whole vast valley are sprinkled the most amazing chateaux, country cottages for the once rich and famous. Every town and village has its own chateau. We started on two today, first Le Chateau Azay-le-Rideau built on the quiet river Indre and said to be the most romantic chateau in the valley. It is very pretty and sits on a little island in the sleepy river but it was smaller than I expected. It has been carefully restored and while there is little in the way of furnishings, the grounds are lovely.

Le Chateau Azzay-le-Rideau

Then we went to Le Chateau de Usse, a fantastic confection of a storytale castle rebuilt in the 15th and 16th century on the site of a medieval castle and said to have influenced Perrault to write The Sleeping Beauty. It is so large that it was hard to get a photograph. It is an enormous white palace that backs onto the dark forest of Chinon which makes it all the more impressive. Both Gord and I were mesmerized by the perfection of the place.

Le Chateau de Usse

We came back to our humble little cottage but it wasn't long before we too were feeling like royalty.  Our hosts had prepared an amazing dinner for us and served it to us in the privacy of our own dining room. It was wonderful! We had a great four course meal in our own place and all we had to do was sit and enjoy it - they even did the washing up! We may not be living in a chateau but at least we are being treated as though we were! It was a perfect way to celebrate Fetes des Meres, Mother's Day, here in France.

A picture perfect picnic place!

Well we ended the day yesterday deep in the country, about half an hour north of Limoges. We had booked into a hotel that was an old farmhouse that had been carefully restored with exposed stone walls and timbers. It was very charming and we had a delicious dinner served in the former orangerie before falling into bed. Today we set out for the Loire and had lots of time to do the rest of the trip so we took a cross country route. It was a glorious day, bright blue skies and sunshine though much cooler than it has been in Provence. We followed the Vienne river and visited several picturesque towns along the way getting out for a little visit at each.                        . 

The Mill in La Trimoulle

The Church in Montmiron
But the best was the little town of Angles-sur-l'Anglin. Here the town tumbles down the hill to the river from the ruined castle at the peak to the watermill on the river at the base of the hill. Narrow cobbled streets lead up the hill to the haute village where the local specialty is lace, a centuries old tradition that is still very much alive. As it was lunch time (always a 3 hour closure) I had to be content to look at a few window samples and brochures but it certainly added to the interest of the place. We had a picnic lunch by the stone bridge by the river, looking up at the town and the castle and I could not imagine a better spot for a picnic.

The lovely Angles

 We were alone too, at the start. When we were just finishing our lunch a wedding party arrived to take photographs, not the traditional style but in medieval costumes! We left them in peace and then went on towards our new home for the next week, another converted farmhouse just outside of Saumur. This time we are living in the barn, actually just one end of it, but again, it has been very tastefully restored. It is a charming place, completely surrounded by roses with the vineyards just over the fence. It is very comfortable furnished and has all we need and will be a great base for our visit of the Loire Valley this week. 

The happy couple

The Lot Valley

This morning we left Meyreuis under cloudy skies (what is this wet stuff?? we haven't seen rain for weeks!) but the sun soon won over and we took the road through the Gorges de Gargilan on our way to the Lot Valley. One of the benefits of the cooler weather as we are a little farther North is that we are getting an instant replay of some of the lovely flowers that I have been enjoying this past month in Provence. There the roses and poppies are really over but here they are still in full bloom and I will never have enough of of either of these two lovely flowers. This is an area of France that we saw briefly when Dean and Kathy were here but it is one area that I really enjoyed and even after today I feel that I would love to come back to explore further here. We drove from along the river to the picture perfect village of Estaing, which nestles beneath its  massive chateau on the riverbank. We had a picnic lunch by the 13th century stone bridge that crosses the river and felt that we could not imagine a more perfect setting. Truly the highlight of the day! 

From here we drove to Conques, one of the most important sites in France. (It should come with a warning that "you can't get there from here" as it is so deep in the countryside that it took an hour to get there and an hour to get out and while extraordinary, we were not sure that it was worth the trip. Again it is a picture perfect village with cobblestone streets lined with half-timbered cottages that seem to lean precariously inwards but the centre of the village is a massive church and abbey , part of which dates back to the 9th century. Here the treasury holds the most important collection of medieval gold and Renaissance gold work in western Europe. The place was swamped with school and tour groups and we were content to look at the highlights displayed in the postcards and move on. In oder to enter the town we had to purchase an annual pass which is affixed to the window of the car, a clever marketing tool when there is no way that most of the people who go there would ever find it again in a lifetime much less a year.

The church in Conques

 By the time we made it to the autoroute we were actually happy to pay our money and make some much needed progress up north. Sadly we had to hurry past Limoges, famous for china, and Aubusson, known for its rugs to the little place that we had chosen to stay the night. I was sad anyway, Gord is not really interested in china except as a place to put his food or rugs except as something to wipe his feet on and he had done more than enough driving for one day.

The Gorges of the Tarn

When I was a girl my parents brought us to France on many occasions, too bad that I was not mature enough to appreciate the travels then. Once thing I remember clearly is Mum and Dad driving us through the "Gorges duTarn", a 30 KM drive through deep gorges that the river Tarn has cut through the limestone. I remember, not the beauty so much, but the fact that my parents were disappointed in our lack of appreciation and our great desire to just get to the campsite and get out of the car. So I felt I owed it to them, while we were living here, to repay a visit to the area and yes, Mum & Dad, it is truly spectacular. We passed magnificent rock sculptures, charming little villages clinging precariously to the sides of the gorge and at the base a sparkling river. Although there were numerous camping spots, this time we chose to stay in a hotel in the picturesque little town of Meyreuis. The hotel was in a lovely setting on the bank of the river which meandered through the town. We had a balcony looking over the little stone bridges that crossed the river and there were three little ponies grazing on the bank on the opposite bank - all quite lovely. The hotel has been in the same family for five generations and although we felt a little sorry for the last of the five generations who now has to carry the mantle whether he likes it or not, we were grateful for their hospitallity and service, a perfect place for our first night on our slow journey home.

A picnic in the hills with MJ

It is driving me nuts that I am still without my camera still so I shall have to paint the picture with words...

Today is our last day in the village so we took our dear friend MJ on a picnic. I brought the food and she brought her little black dog Zazou and chose the place and Gord drove. It was a hot day, over 30 degrees but as MJ does not hold with air conditioning so we drove with all the windows open, me in the front seat and MJ in the back holding Zazou, who had his head out the window with his ears pinned back by the wind.  The wind helped all of us cool off a little and after all, none of us were worried about our coiffure. MJ directed and we followed a main road for a while before we turned off and drove up a narrow winding road for about 20 minutes as MJ entertained us with stories from the village, interspersed with directions to 'Gaeton' to slow down! We came to a pass in the hills and from there we had a glorious view of "our" valley and of Mt. Ventoux, the "papa" of the mountains who MJ tells us watches over all. We unloaded our picnic things, baskets, blankets and bottles of water and set off for about a 15 minute walk further up the path. We came to a site that our guide declared was perfect and she chuckled as I laid out the blanket. We spread out the lunch; pate for the boucherie in the village, fresh baguettes bought when they were still warm, olives and wonderful cheeses and MJ brought a huge basket of cherries that she had picked that morning. Within a couple of minutes it was obvious that if not exactly sitting on an ant hill, we were surrounded by them. Gord and I were certainly ready to pick up and move but MJ said that as these were large ants (so big they almost looked like charicatures) she assured us that they would not bite and while I madly flicked them off the cheese and meats, she instructed me not to kill them but to simply move them as we were in their space. Gord and I decided that the only advantage of the blanket was to show up the ants more clearly, it certainly did not keep them away! We ate, chatted, sureptisiously flicked away ants, rested in the cool breeze in the hills and before too long it was time to head back down the mountain and back to cleaning up our little house. I wish you could have seen our friend, she was a picture as she walked down the hill in her long black skirt, plunging white tank top, strappy sandals, and carrying a large homemade walking stick, with a huge old basket over her arm with the cherries and her scruffy little black dog running in front of us. The sun was warm, the day lazy, there is much affection between us all and life is good!

Time to say good bye...again!

It is very mixed emotions that we cleaned up La Maison du Four and prepared to once again take our leave of this little village that we have come to love. We have missed our family in Canada but this place has brought us so much joy and a richness that is hard to put into words. it will always hold a very special place in our hearts. Yet we feel real peace and a sense of completion as well, it is almost as though, unlike the first time that we left, we are now ready to move on with whatever the next chapter of our lives looks like. We have had extraordinary weather which makes up for the very bad winter that we experienced. It has been so hot that the lavender is even coming out, several weeks ahead of schedule and something I never expected to be able to see before we left. We expect to be back to visit but we doubt that we will ever spend an extended time here again. So it is with deep gratitude that we say goodbye and also sadness for the friends that we have met and come to love and now leave behind. We have had our goodbyes, lunch in the Cafe de Poste with G & M, drinks on the terrace with B & J, a wonderful picnic up in the hills with MJ and her dog Zazou, and cherries just picked and still warm from the sun from our friends Stephan and Marie, and now we are off.

May, the month for roses

For some time now I have been meaning to do a post about the roses here. May is the month for roses in France before the heat becomes too much for them. Apparently this year the weather conditions have been just what they needed and the show has been spectacular, the locals say that this year has been exceptional. I have taken dozens of photos, I just can't stop.

 There is something so beautiful about the way they look climbing over the golden stone walls, or cascading over softly coloured shutters. They are everywhere we look, and every colour, red, yellow, pink, white, sparsely petalled like a wild rose and densely petalled in a kind that I have never seen before, dark pink on the outside and paler pink towards the centre. It is called the Pierre de Ronsard and I think it is beautiful.

The roses seem to grow effortlessly as the containers that some of them are in would appear to be quite inadequate. I never see a flawed rose either so I think that their owners must come out at night and carefully go over the bush looking for dead flowers and cleaning them up before morning. I am completely taken with the roses and want to come home and plant a rose garden, and somehow I have to find a Pierre de Ronsard to feature in our garden!

Cherry time

When we arrived in France this spring the cherry trees were in full blossom. We were so happy to arrive in time to see this as the valley looked spectacular. There were fields and fields of beautiful white blossoms. Coming from Vancouver where the ornamental cherry trees are pink, I didn't even know that fruit bearing trees had a white blossom. Before too long the flowers were all gone, the leaves appeared and then the tiny cherry buds arrived. We cannot believe how fast the growth appears and pretty soon the tiny buds grew and turned red and now we are surrounded with full, fruit laden cherry trees. Sometimes they are so prolific it is hard to understand how the limbs can stand up with all that weight.

And the cherries are delicious!

There are little stands set up everywhere, I bought some the other day from a lady with a little wooden shack under the trees that I had to pass over a wooden bridge to get to. The cherries were picture perfect, still warm from the sun and as sweet as could be. Yesterday, we picked some up from a little stand at the end of the driveway to a farm and we were requested to just drop the money in the box. And the price? Well yesterday's were 1.50 euro a kilo!! We have had Jen with us from Paris for the last couple of days and all three of us have really enjoyed them and I will forever think of cherries and Jen together. They are in such abundance and so delicious, now if I could just think of canning a bunch and bringing them home.........Don't worry Gord, we have too many linens to consider bringing cherries home as well, we had better just continue to enjoy them here!

On our own again... but just for a day!

Today was the first day that we have had on our own for quite a while, a chance to do exactly as we wanted. We have loved having the company but have tried to make it the best holiday possible for each of them so left on our own what did we choose to do? 

Well, after coffee in bed and a little reading we got right back in the car again. This time we measured out a distance from the house and then Gord got out of the car to jog the route home and I headed off to the market. Gord is feeling the need to exercise as we have been having a lot of full French meals lately. I certainly need the exercise even more but (as I always say) it can wait, I needed the market more. It was fun to go to all my favourite stalls and to take as long as I wanted without feeling any time pressure. (The fact that Gord might have passed out on the road from over exerting himself after so long never entered my head.) I spent ages in the market picking out some presents and taking a final look at everything and I left feeling quite satisfied; I think that I have bought all I need and can be at peace for some time. Don't quote me on this when I return to Canada!!

Back at the house we had a lovely lazy lunch on the terrace, a nicoise salad made from fresh produce that I had picked up at the market and great bread from our boulangerie. Lunch was followed by a game of scrabble, a little reading, a little snoozing and before too long it was time to get ready to go visit some friends for an 'appero' before dinner.

We took the pretty scenic back road; past the now heavily laden cherry trees, the prolific vines, through wheat fields still sprinkled with poppies, along little roads lined with trees that make a emerald archway over the road as we drove through to the home of our friends. Then, sitting in the shade of the still hot sun, we had lots of laughter, outrageous stories, refreshing rose, wonderful olives from their own trees, and a bittersweet time as we prepare to say goodbye. The sinking sun turned the countryside golden as we returned home for a light dinner on the terrace at 9:00pm. The scented air was still warm, the village very quiet as we watched the lights start to appear in the valley and we basked in the silence and peace of the village.
Ah, another wonderful day in Provence and although it was a day on our own, we spent it pretty much the same way as all the other days when we have been blessed with the visit of friends, just taking it all in and revelling in the joy of being here.

Training Day

As soon as our friend Fraser arrives back in the Pacific Northwest he is taking part in one leg of the seven part "Ski to Sea" relay race. He is to tackle the canoe section and as he has not even paddled in a canoe for at least three years, we decided to help him out by giving him a practice run on the Sorgue River. The source of the river is at the very picturesque Fontaine de Vaucluse a kilometre or so from where we started, and the water runs fairly quickly through about 8 kilometres until it comes to the pretty town of L'Isle sur la Sorgue. There the water parts and encircles the village and runs off in several different directions. There are numerous water wheels on the river which, while no longer functional really add to the charm of the place. I love this area and was really excited to get to see it from the water instead of all the little side roads that we have come to know. 

So we paid our dues, picked up our paddles and life jackets and met our guide by the side of the river. The canoes look as though they have been through several battles with ignorant tourists so at least we knew that we would not be the first to inflict damage on them. They were a little wet and so I carefully dried my seat with a kleenex and took my place. We were told that we would be portaging over a couple of dams so we should store our shoes and socks, and that there would be a "leetle surprise!" Off we went. The day had been forecast to be sunny and warm and while the temperature was no issue, the clouds started to roll in as we made our way downstream. But despite the clouds the river was beautiful, the houses on either side like something in a magazine and the water was clear and fast and lovely. In no time at all we came to the first dam, pulled our canoes up, gingerly walked down some steps fastened to the side, tentatively made our way over the mossy stones and then hopped back into the canoe which had made a much faster but not so neat trip down over the dam. The seat was a little damp, but not to worry, I was really getting into this now and was having too much fun to notice a slightly damp behind.

Once underway again the river moved quite quickly and I am afraid that Fraser really wasn't getting much of a workout. I on the other hand was getting none at all as Gord was quite happy to go it alone and do both the paddling and the steering. The canoe had no hull so it was a little like paddling one of the teacups at Disneyland and I was very happy to sit in the front, grinning from ear to ear, enjoying the quiet beauty of the place and the whole experience. The skies were a little overcast and the ominous rumbling only made the ride feel more enchanted. We could have been going down the Amazon with the sparkling emerald water, the stillness and only the birds for company. After the second portage over the dam we were feeling like pros and the whole trip was going very well when I thought that I heard rapids and by the grin on the face of our guide, I had a strong suspicion that I knew what the "leetle surprise" was going to be. Fraser and Michele were the first to go down and Michele's scream made me determined to stay quiet. The whoosh down the rocks was fun, the only problem was that that whoosh of water came right over the top of the canoe and absolutely soaked me. That water had been in the depths of the earth just minutes before and it was very, very cold and now not only were Michele and I soaking wet but we were sitting in it. So much for cleaning off the few drops of water that I had seen before I sat down! I wrung out my shoes, that I had foolishly not put in the barrel, used my sun hat to bail water and tried to pretend that I was really hot and that this was a bathtub and not a plastic canoe full of cold mountain water. Nevertheless, we had fun. We laughed at ourselves (and the couple who seemed to spend more time going backwards than forwards and who seemed extremely interested in the low growing vegetation that was on the side of the river) and continued to glide peacefully down the river. Our plans had been for Michele and I to spend some time wandering around town while the guys went back to pick up the car but we were not going anywhere but home. The minute that we got back in our car we whipped off our soaking pants (the guys were much drier having had the sense to sit in the back of the canoe) turned up the heat and headed for home. Michele had a blanket to wrap around her naked legs but I just had an old t-shirt of Gord's. It was at this moment, arriving home half naked and drenched that we were welcomed by our new and very sophisticated neighbours (see yesterday's blog). 

Ah well, we had a lot of fun but I am afraid that it wasn't exactly a useful training session for Fraser and that if he goes at the speed that we sauntered down the river at, it may take him 8 hours to do the 8 miles.

Let's just hope that he has half as much fun as we did and it will all be worth it.

New Neighbours

(I left the battery charger for my camera on one of our trips so there will be no more photos until it arrives in the mail. It is killing me not being able to take photos but Gord really enjoys walking for more than 3 minutes at a time...... so photos to come!)

Photo courtesy of Dean - all the big windows are on the other side

For all of the time that we lived here last year we watched construction on the house across the way. We had no idea for whom the house was being renovated but we figured that they had to have an endless bank account because the workers were there, almost every day, (this is France, no one works every day and certainly not during lunch time, afternoon rest, Friday afternoons, if it is raining, holidays, "ferme exceptionals" etc etc). We thought that we saw the owners once during our time as a very elegant couple that we had not seen before were there on one occasion looking around the house and everyone was working that day, the architect, contractor and all 6 builders. When we arrived this year the house looked just about finished but every couple of days there would be a small project and about a week and a half ago a team of people arrived to finish off the place. They were interior designers and drapery installers and even without translating the logos on the vans, I certainly recognized the tools of the trade. Then last weekend the house was suddenly occupied. There appeared to be a couple about our age, several adult children and even a couple of possible grandchildren. They have a terrace that looks directly onto ours and for the first time since we have been in this house we felt as though our precious terrace was invaded by onlookers. They had a cocktail party (with at least one person that we recognized) and after polite "bonjours" across the little road both households pretended that we could not see what was going on in the other house. I was immensely curious and at dinner took a seat at the table with a perfect view through their french doors so that I could surreptiously snoop while seemingly occupied with entertaining our guests. We were very confused. The family spoke French yet had the same foreign non-EU license plate that we had. Who were they and where had they come from?

On Wednesday we took Fraser and Michele to a little restaurant for dinner that we really enjoy in a little village not too far from here. (Actually they took us but our intention was to take them!!) Who should walk into the restaurant but Monsieur and Madame plus a couple of adult children. Since there are only five tables in the restaurant it was hard to not notice each other and we smiled and nodded when they arrived in case they also recognized us. After the dinner, Gord and I went over and introduced ourselves to our new neighbours, French speakers from Cameroon. We would not have ever guessed that. The conversation was a little awkward as the parents spoke no English and the daughter just a little but they were very nice and were happy to say that they are moving permanently to the village in August. When I asked Madame if she was pleased with the house she replied, "Enchante, en-chan-teeee!" so I guess she is happy but stopped short of inviting the nosy neighbours to come in for a look. Anyway we said our goodbyes and see you laters and took off. 

The next afternoon we arrived home and to our horror all the family were standing on their terrace waving. It could not have been worse timing because Michele and I were hardly wearing any clothes and we were hoping to slip into the house unnoticed. We sat in the car, as close to the door as possible, and when it seemed as if they were ready to ignore us we made a dash for the door. (To find our why we were in a state of undress you will have to read tomorrows blog.) Anyway, we must have made an appalling impression as this morning the house is all closed up, the shutters are locked and the family have departed. I am not sure if they are trying to get their money back or put the place on the market because of the crazy Canadians across the street but I think I am definitely out of luck for having a tour of their house this year!

Nicolette

Oh my gosh, I am a princess!! 

We decided to bring Fraser and Michelle down to the Cote d'Azur and show them around Nice and Monte Carlo and I found a good deal on a hotel in Cagnes sur Mer. After price and location, my first choice in a hotel is character and this one sounded promising. All the reviews were good except for the comments on how difficult it was to drive to the hotel. Well, I thought, we have Gord and he is practically French in how he manages to navigate the tightest turns and narrowest roads so that will be no problem. After all, last week he drove down a flight of stairs, how hard could this be. Well….. the reviews were correct. The road was certainly narrow and after pulling in the side mirrors and having Fraser walk ahead to guide him, Gord managed to park in front of the hotel. Here there is parking for "5" French cars or 2 N. American cars so we fitted our car into the jigsaw puzzle, gave our car keys to the concierge and checked into the hotel. Only then did I realize that we were actually staying in the castle!

 The chateau dates back to the 13th century and it is quite amazing. It sits high up on a cliff with views out to the Meditteranean. The 20 rooms are in a bit of a rabbit warren and I hope that we will be able to find our friends before it is time to check out tomorrow. We were planning on dropping off our things and then carrying on to Nice for dinner but after this experience this afternoon, I am not sure that the car is going anywhere before it has to. Our room is called "Nicolette" and her tragic story is retold in beautiful script on the wall. Just for tonight I will be "Princess Nicolette" but I hope that I manage to keep my head! We have a lovely French window which opens up to a little wrought iron balcony and views to the old village below and the beautiful blue sea about 2 miles away.

 I can almost imagine Nicolette standing at the window and watching for her love to return from across the sea. Fortunately for me, my love is right here and we are off to find a quaint little restaurant in the village for dinner.

What a great day again, started out buying more old lace in the Provencal market, coffee in a wonderful old cafe in Aix-en-Provence and now here we are living the life of the rich and famous on the riviera. Such fun, if only for one day!

Change over in the guest room

Today we were sad to head off to the airport in Marseille with our dear friends to take them back for their flight to California. We were not to be lonely for long as we picked up our next visitors before the others had even checked in. Fraser and Michele have just had a week in Paris and are now ready for the peace and quiet of the Provencal countryside. Little do they know that I don't know much about peace and quiet and we have a full schedule of places that they really must see! Sometimes it is hard to be peaceful when we know of so many interesting places that we want to introduce our friends to but as my wise daughter said it is impossible to show the place in one week when we have been taking months here to discover just some of the treasures of this place. 

We came back home to lunch on the terrace. The lovely views that we have were somewhat hindered by the laundry that surrounded us, but as we only have one set of sheets and towels for our guests and as the laundry takes over two hours in the washing machine and we have no dryer, we had to compromise the view so that our guests would not have to stand up all night. I once told my neighbour that I was happy that I could learn to live with a tiny, slow washing machine and no dryer and I was chagrinned to see that her "washing machine" was a bucket on the floor. 

Gord and I are a team, he is the superb driver, able to navigate the tightest corners and the most impossible streets and I am the navigator. I am also the shopper and when friends come I know exactly where to take them for whatever they want and also can tell them how much they should be paying. On   Thursday I was in one of my favourite store with Kathy and was then back there the next day with Michele. The shop keeper told us that she thought that I knew her stock better than she did and that I should just show Michelle around myself. I know many of the vendors at the markets by name now and where they set up their stalls, it is really fun. If I can't be shopping all the time it is almost as enjoyable to help someone else dispose of their money, whether it is one of our friends or just some tourists that are at the same stall. We will be leaving this little house in less than two weeks now and I don't think that we will be the only ones who are sad; I know there are a few vendors who are really going to miss me too!!

Pictures courtesy of Dean

Chateaux des Millandes and other Beauties

Today we decided that it was time to actually go into a castle instead of just looking at them. I did see one for sale that had 19 bedrooms and 17 bathrooms, a working farm and a number of outbuildings but as we didn't have an extra six million euros we decided to pay a mere 8.50 euros and go visit one instead. The one we chose was the Chateau des Millandes, a classic "Sleeping Beauty" castle overlooking the Dordogne. It dates back to the 14th century was lovingly resorted at the turn of the last century and for many years was the home of the notorious music hall performer, Josephine Baker.

The chateau had been built in the 15th century, restored at the end of the 19th century and then Ms Baker had added some extravagant extras in the mid 20th century such as bathrooms tiled black and gold leaf to match her favourite perfume. There were still remnants of the 15th century design such as the spiral staircases that were designed to be able to accommodate a sword fight ( left hand to hold on to the wall to free up your right to wield your sword!) and the grand entrance for the carriages. Once again it was a glorious day and yet we almost had the place to ourselves.

We then headed south, guided by our map of "Les plus beaux villages de France" which we are working our way through. It is a useful guide as we have seen some spectacular villages that we might have missed otherwise. Most are "bastide villages" meaning that they are walls towns, most set on hillsides and yet each has its own unique character. Most are very beautifully kept, are quiet with interesting artisan galleries and quaint shops and they look so beautiful under blues skies, with fragrant and richly coloured roses growing outside almost every house.

Lovely Monpazier

Lydele's French Linens

Well, some of you know that I am itching to get going in a new business venture using embroidered linens, both new and vintage. One of the reasons for doing so is that I have too much energy to not have a major project at hand, but mostly because I absolutely love the fabrics and designs of the French linens and I want to duplicate that look for the market back home. I plan on using vintage fabrics that I find here and incorporating them with new fabrics that I will buy from Vancouver. (Another very important reason for the business is that then we will have to come back to France regularly!) I have been scouting the markets since I got here but presently other people have the same idea and vintage linens are highly sought after and the prices are simply quite absurd, but on Saturday I found my place! There is a lady who sells pieces of old linens at a market near us. She will sell just the monogram or a section of lace or part of a curtain and this is just perfect for what I have in mind. Not only is the price drastically reduced but it also means that there is at least a chance of getting my treasures home without chartering an entire airplane. 






Yesterday when we were walking through town I saw a shop which sold vintage linens. Fortunately for all but me the shop was closed but as I am the navigator we had to go back through that town again today. The town was full of one way streets and as Gord was so anxious to get me there, he drove right down a flight of steps en route.

The shop was my idea of heaven, I have never seen anyplace like it. Clothes and table linens were beautifully displayed but what intrigued me were the boxes of ribbons and trims, buttons and bobbins and pieces of lace, collars and cuffs and bonnets.

I could have happily spent a whole day (maybe even a week) browsing through all the treasures. I just had to keep wiping the drool off my chin.  Although my travelling companions were very gracious, I limited myself to a few treasures, put back the indescribable dress that was over two hundred years old and all completely made by hand, and reluctantly walked out of the store and back to reality.  I did manage to have a chat with the owner who gave me her email address and told me that sometimes she sold items on ebay so I will certainly check that out. I was so grateful for my husband and friends allowing me time in there and I doubt that I will even come across another place quite like it. Ah………. sigh, but it was blissful, and I am sooooooooo inspired!

The Dordogne Valley

This morning we set out to make the most of the short visit that Jen has in the Dordogne and we had a full route of chateaux and villages that we wanted to see. We started in Domme with spectacular views of the Dordogne river, then on to Castelnaud-la-Chapelle with its fantastic castle overlooking the river. On the way to the next fairytale castle in Beynac we were in the valley and could actually look up and count five fantastic chateaux all around us. It was as if each castle was just more beautiful than the last and with the brilliant blue skies and the lush bright green spring vegetation, they could not have looked more spectacular. We really ran out of adjectives and Dean was very busy giving us a "chateau alert" every few minutes. We are very grateful for a car with a complete glass roof so that we could make the most of all the sights around us. We had a picnic lunch by the river in La-Rogue-Cageac watching the boats meander past us and just wished that we had all the time in the world to bask in the tranquillity. We were delighted and amazed at the lack of tourists. This is the PERFECT time to visit. We had the sunshine (actually quite hot at 29 degrees!) the beautiful roses everywhere and NO tour buses. It could not have been better. Unfortunately, we were beholden to the clock so after a drive to visit to Rocamadour, a village that defies gravity by being built on an almost sheer rock, we had to take Jen back to the train station in Souillac and sadly say goodbye as she had to head back to the harsh reality of servitude in the kitchen in Paris! 

By now the standards of what is beautiful have become almost unattainable and we couldn't just stop anywhere for dinner! Although we were getting hungry, the restaurant had to have a very high "charm"  factor and we, especially the women, didn't want to settle for anything less. We were not disappointed! In a little village we saw signs for a restaurant named Le Roi Carrotte, and with a name like that it had to be interesting. Kathy and I set off on foot, sure that the restaurant du jour would be just around the corner. After we had gone aways, the guys who were lagging behind us eventually went back for the car, and shortly after we had walked a long kilometre we came to the anticipated spot. Le Roi Carrotte  is a little hotel and restaurant set in farmland. We sat on the terrace under plain trees, sipping a glass of wine, the picture perfect vegetable garden was in front of us and sheep and new born lambs were grazing in the orchard nearby. We had a wonderful meal served by a father and daughter while the 9 day old little black lamb entertained us (fortunately we were eating pork!) and the sun went down on the most tranquil pastoral scene one could imagine. "Le roi carrotte" is a local colloquialism meaning the epitome of all that is good in life and we certainly feel that we are living the the life of king and queen carrots right now!

Today we left our charming little auberge in the country and drove to Albi, the home of a most impressive cathedral built in 1265 entirely out of red brick. It is massive and looks more like a fortress than a cathedral and inside and outside it is quite simply breathtaking. Albi is a lovely town and was certainly deserving of the more than fleeting visit that we paid, but we had to press on. 

From here we drove to the hilltop town of Cordes-sur-Ciel which is a fitting description for this little bastide town perched on the top of a hill. It was one of the most charming towns that we have visited yet and once again we were impressed with how steep the little streets were and imagined how fit the residents must have been running up and down these inclines all the time. The roses are everywhere in this town and the perfume of them fills the air. The skies were blue, the scent intoxicating and the little town was almost too perfect to be real.

We were heading to Sarlat to pick up our friend Jen who was coming from Paris to meet us for a short visit when we got word that she was delayed and so, having a little extra time, we decided to check out the  village of Brunquel.  This little village had the requisite chateau at the top of the village, actually two, the newer one was built in the 14th century! We spent some time walking through this interesting site and marvelling at the views and the sheer drop of several hundred feet to the river running below the cliffs on which the castle was perched.  Roses everywhere, steep cobbled roadways, charming vignettes at every corner, just another perfect little village and delightfully free of too many tourists. We had a tailgate picnic in the village just drinking in all the sights around us.

It was wonderful to meet Jen off her train from Paris and she is delighted to have a very short break from the busy, exciting, but somewhat gruelling conditions working in the kitchen of a high class restaurant on the Champs Elysee. We had had enough driving and were happy to spend the rest of the delightful afternoon strolling around the medieval town of Sarlat, sipping coffee in a little cafe by the cathedral, getting caught up on Jen's news, a little more strolling and then a delightful dinner in a charming restaurant, a lovely and very relaxed time for us all.