Homeward bound

Managed to get diesel (yes, diesel fuel goes in diesel cars!), hit the road, and drove to Bordeaux on Friday. Had a bite at the airport. Flight left promptly at 13:55. We made it to Amsterdam. We managed to avoid any delays with striking French workers. Whew!
We stayed at the Sheraton, which is attached to the Amsterdam airport. Took the train into Amsterdam, drank the BEST Heineken beer and had a wonderful steak for dinner. Ams was a major culture shock from quiet little Plazac, but fun nonetheless.
Got to sleep in till 8 a.m., then caught the 11:15 to PDX. No headwinds, so we made it in 10 hours. Paul (of Paul and Joelle) picked us up at the airport. What a stud! I was home by 13:30. I made it until the 2nd qtr of the Oklahoma game, when the roof collapsed. I crawled into bed around 7:30 and slept great, until o'dark thirty (that's about 2:30 a.m.) I got out of bed at 3:00 a.m. Ugh...
I'll do better tonight...
Great trip.
I feel relaxed, which is the not the norm for my Euro vacations.
So, as I often say, I'd like to come home for a week, sleep in my own bed, trash my old clothes, and head back. Larry spoke highly of Portugal... hmmmmm...

Thursday... last day

Our last day. I'm gonna miss this place. The owners of the house stopped by to say goodbye. Wonderful people.
Btw... you cut the cheese with the knife, but you eat it with your fingers. This from daughter Nicole, who has lived in the Franceland.
Bon Soir

Wednesday

Winding down...
Yesterday we drove back to Perigueux. Bad idea. The marchers were back and the old town area was a mess. We left and drove cross country, ending up in Martignac, where we had lunch. Today we went back to Montignac for the market. It has become our favorite town. If we had to do it over, we would probably forsake this beautiful house and get something in Montignac. It's a town that's just big enough... plenty of restaurants and shops, two markets a week, lots of interesting streets... but not too big. The market season is winding down. The market today was about 75% of what we saw last Wednesday.
Anyway, we bought some pasta and are now having lunch at home. We bagged lunch out in favor of a couple of good bottles of white... I'm going to miss this lifestyle.

Bergerac

Sunny this a.m., but it soon gave way to clouds. After breakfast, we headed to Bergerac. Most stores and restaurants are closed on Mondays in the Franceland. So we found Bergerac rather cold and boring. We wandered aimlessly, had a forgettable lunch and headed home. D & C are headed to the wine store. They have specific instructions... bring back some good wine. And a lot of it. What else is a man gonna do on a gray day in France...

St Cyp

Like mon ami Laney, who is travelling to Mexico for one month, we are immersing ourselves in the French countryside way of life. Our normal day begins with breakfast, then we travel to a town that hopefully has a market. We peruse the market, gathering food for lunch or dinner, then return to the house around 2-3 pm. Today we went to St Cyprien, which had a HUGE market. Here are some snaps...

We spend our afternoons just lounging around... reading, movies, music, cribbage... we're are doing our best to reeeeeeelax.

Perigueux

Rainy morning, so we headed to Perigueux, a town of 30k. Lots and lots of people downtown and they all seemed to headed in one direction... and soon we found out why.

As Johnny Horton sang in the Battle of New Orleans... "There must have been a hundred of 'em, beating on a drum". Yep, a full scale march. 15 to 20 thousand people by our estimate... the march went on for about 45 minutes.

They were protesting the change in retirement age from 60 to 62. That's for partial pension - full pension starts at 67. Lots of drumming, lots of noise. There is a national strike called for next Tuesday, 19 October. Hope we don't get stranded here, but worse things could happen. We due to fly out on Friday, back to Amsterdam. Spend the night, then fly out Saturday to PDX.

Anyway, Perigueux was a nice town. Lots of fun shops to explore - a large market. Reminded us of Bergerac. Ciao for now. P

Wine

So far we have been a lot of Bergerac wines - both red and white. Quite enjoyable and not too expensive. The big reds we have sampled here have been from Cahors. Today we had a Malbec from Cahors, which went well with the meat. When in Sauternnes, we drank their whites. Have not had any cabs to date. The wines have been enjoyable, but this is not Burgundy.

Desert

I had a pineapple thingy - chunks of the fruit in the bottom of a glass with ice cream on top - ended up being kind of a pineapple milk shake. C & D has apple tart with ice cream and carmel sauce. We ended up satiated, not stuffed. Best meal so far...

Cheese course

The cheese course - Cabecou with a dab of honey, eaten with your knife. Didn't mama teach us not to eat with a knife? Well... when in France...

Main course

D & I had steak. Cathy had stuffed chicken breast. The green glob was a stuffed squash blossom. Stuffed with peppers and some sort of mousse. The tomato was stuffed with some sort of a pork/mushroom thing. Also a potato au gratin pancake.

La Recreation

Fog... i mean fawg. 1.5 hours to Cahors driving in mushroom soup. Cahors was a bit underwhelming - cold, foggy and kind of miserable. We spent an hour there before pushing on to Les Arques for our lunch at La Recreation. We were not disappointed.

10 tables (4 deuces) in a classroom. All full except for two. Fixed price menu - 34Euro for a five course meal. First was the soup - Legume. It was served in a large pot and we dished up our own. Add some croutons. On to the appetizer - D&I had scallops with passion fruit - C had a goat cheese salad. The scallops were covered with something that resembled angel hair pasta, but we could not define it.

From here...

Have you read this book... From Here, You Can't See Paris?
I have not. However, we are going to the restaurant featured in the book. It's called La Recreation... it's in Les Arques. News at 11

Domme

Drove to Domme today. It's a hill town. Hill towns are great, because they offer killer views, except when they're socked in with fog denser than curdled milk in your coffee. Went to the market... here's proof. Also, saw this beautiful vintage Jag in the parking lot. Drove on to St Cyprien for lunch... now home. Cathy's is reading and David is snoring.

About French drivers... not as good as Italian drivers. The Frenchies lack road manners. They get some sort of joy out of climbing up your tailpipe going 60 mph on narrow, curvey one lane country roads . I just get passive agressive and slow down.

No friends today

No Addy no Burley :( The TGV from Paris to Bordeaux was cancelled tomorrow. Bummer...
Off to Domme tomorrow.

Easy Wednesday

Just an easy Wednesday. Gave up the Ambien, so now there's the rebound effect. I recall the church bell at 11, 12, 01, 02, 03 and oh yeah, the 04. Now I understand Michael Jackson and Heath Ledger... just trying to get a good night's sleep. Oh well, I can sleep when I get to the States. Left at 09:00 for Montignac and the market. The markets rotate between towns - Tuesday is Le Bugue, Wednesday is Sarlat and Montignac, Sunday is Rouffinac. You get the point.

Here's David in line to buy salmon for tonight's dinner.

The main street is still decorated from last weekend's festival. Quite charming.

Tomorrow we are expecting friends (Addie and Burley) from Paris. However, the trains may be on strike. The oil refineries have halted production, so there may be fuel shortages. 7.7% of the French workers belong to a union and the unions still seem to be calling the shots in this country. They're a bit upset about having to retire at 62, instead of 60. Of course, everyone agrees that the country is going broke. So, what to do? Let them eat cake...

Tuesday afternoon

Just sitting around, watching the sunset. The white is flowing, David's cooking duck and I just snapped these from the balcony. Wish you were here...

Oh by the way... France went on strike today. They're protesting the change passed by the Senate that raises the retirement age from 60 to 62. Jesus, what are we doing wrong... oh yeah, I forgot. We're Americans... we need more stuff, so we gotta work longer. Go figure.

Lunch in Sarlet

Drove to Sarlat. Not a cloud in the sky, 75 degrees. Is this heaven?

Went to a restaurant, but it was closed. We settled for a pizza joint. David and I had pizza. Cathy had a salad. The yellow in the middle of the pizza is an egg! Here's a view...

Lascaux caves

We have not the faintest idea whether the first words spoken were uttered 20,000 years ago or 200,000 years ago. What is certain is that mankind did little except procreate and survive for 100,000 generations. (For purposes of comparison, only about eighty generations separate us from Christ.) Then suddenly, about 30,000 years ago, there burst forth an enormous creative and cooperative effort which led to the cave paintings at Lascaux, the development of improved, lightweight tools, the control of fire, and many other cooperative arrangements. It is unlikely that any of this could have been achieved without a fairly sophisticated system of language.
Bill Bryson, The Mother Tongue

Amen I say to you. I sat crammed in a silver tube, shaken like an ice cube in a martini shaker, for over 12 hours, with no sleep. I have endured screaming children and crowded airports. I've been thirsty, hot, sweaty and somewhat crabby. I would do it all over again tomorrow for the experience I had today.
D&C let me sleep. I awoke at 10:00 totally refreshed, after waking at 01:00 and studying the ceiling art for an hour. A French breakfast (coffee and pain-au-chocolate) and we jump into the VW and head to the Lascaux caves. We arrive, wait 5 minutes and catch an English tour. Having just seen a REAL cave yesterday, I figured a replica of a cave (down to 5mm, they claim) would be pretty underwelming. Well let me tell you... I've seen the Eiffel Tower, the Mona Lisa, I've stood on the Med Ocean at sunset... nothing, I mean NOTHING, prepared me for what I saw at Lascaux. The animal art LEAPS off the ceiling of the cave. 15,000 years old is what they think it is. It will bring tears to your eyes. 40 people in our tour group and all I heard was WOW. If you're ever down this way... DO NOT miss this.
On to Sarlat for lunch...
P

La Roque

After lunch, we pushed on the La Roque, which, as Rick Steves says, is vying for the "cutest town in France" title. It is pretty impressive, glued to a rock wall next to the Dordogne. Here are a couple of pics...

David & Cathy wondered off, so I sat on the ledge, looking down the Dordogne River, which has been flowing down these shores for a very long time. I thought about how lucky we were to be here, just idling away our days in the sun. The following quote from Bill Hicks slipped thru my brain... it made me smile!

Today a young man realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves.

Caves

Up, b-fast, then on the road to the caves at Font-de-Gaume. No pics allowed. This is the real deal - a real cave. They only let in 180 people a day. To see art drawn 15,000 years ago does something to you... leaves you feeling rather insignificant. We pushed on to Beynac for lunch. This is a small town on the Dordogne river. Here are some pics from lunch...started with gazpacio, then Cathy had fish, I had veal stew and David had lamb. Kind of overkill for lunch, but that's how we tend to keep the meal bill to a minimum... Lunches out, dinners in.

Sunday evening

Just hanging out - leftover chicken for dinner on a bed of greens. Tomorrow is Lascaux caves and then Sarlat. Just another rainy Sunday - ring any bells...
ding-dong, ding-dong.
p
PS. we literally "battened down the hatches" (closed and latched the shutters). Heavy rains due here tonight. News at 11.

Sunday afternoon

A little Oregon drizzle.

This is the view from our grand living room. Yes, there's a pool, but it's a bit chilly.

We came back from Montignac, made chicken sands, had a beer and then a siesta.

Ah... siestas. They should be required by law. Well, actually they are in Europe and the rest of the world. Only the Americans feel the need to work 12 hour days.

Tomorrow is cave day, since they are predicting rain. Lascaux will be our first stop.

Ciao for now.

Boxed wine

You got boxed wine? No problem.

A visit to the wine store

Found a wine store in Montignac. A couple of old boys and their dog were babysitting the place. Missing prices drove them nuts. Most expensive bottle we saw was 16E. Most stuff was 4-8E. Here are a few pics.

Sunday morn

It's gonna get wet later, so off to the market we go. Rouffignac - small market - picked up a roasted chicken, vegetables, cheese, bread and a box of wine.

Then we set off to Montignac, looking for a grocery store (not much open today). Montignac had a big fair yesterday - elected a queen. Lots of paper mache flowers strung about the city.

Come Saturday morning

Up by 9, breakfast at the chateau, then the road. Headed to Bergerac (Cyrano's turf), where we had lunch. Motored to Plavac and found our wonderful house. Built in the 16th century. Whoa !

I can walk into the fireplace. Everything is wonderful.

p

Friday nite for dessert

Cheese & Sauterne

Friday night in the big time

OK, we've survived a nap and now its time for dinner. We make our way to a wonderful restaurant in Sauternes. Main courses, after opening kir royal's, are... steak for moi, duck for David and salmon for Cathy. The wines - see pics are wonderful. A GREAT meal - wondeful way to kick off the trip. Yeah, we put a dent in the budget, but when in Rome...

p

Arrive !

Three hours to the Twin Cities - lunch - eight, yes EIGHT, hours to Amsterdam. Did not sleep a wink, but music and a movie (The Joneses). Listened to Tracey Thorne's new album - Love and its Opposite - best song was Hormones. Tracey was the Girl in the band Everything but the Girl.
Arrive AMS, clear security AGAIN, go to the basement, take a bus to the tarmac and onto a "City Hopper" jet to Bordeaux. Arrive, rent a car (Golf Plus), fire the GPS and listen to Bossy Ben say... Turn Right in 500 feet. Drive to Chateau d'Arche in Sauternes. Check in. Grand old place. See pics.
No ATM's in Sauternes - drive to Langon - get cash - it's now 15:00 and no, let me say again, NO cafes are open. Dontcha love the Franceland! So, I'm running on no sleep, no food, my blood sugar is in the toilet. We grab a sandwich at a bakery - can't find anything to drink - head back to the hotel, consume the san with a bottle of hotel room water. C R A S HHHHH!. 1.5 hour nap. Oh gawd, I'm human again. Join David in the lobby - we order a bottle of 6E white, which we proceed to slug down. Cathy arises and we head to dinner...
p

Early

Brian picked us up at 6:45 and we took the uneventful ride out I-84 to PDX. Of course, my brain is racing... "what did I forget, did I turn off the stove?, do I have my passport?". You know, the normal circulating mental trash.
Anyway, walked into the airport, right up to the Delta (acronym for delta.. "Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport") counter, checked in... checked in the bags. Then we disrobed and cleared the metal detectors, managed to put a smile on our collective faces, and are now sitting at Star*ucks sucking down a java.
Hurry up and wait.
7:48 and our flight to the Twin Cities leaves @ 09:00.
We wait...
P

Watch spider

Some of you have watchdogs... some have watch kitties.
Meet Natasha the watch spider, stationed outside my front door.
Beware...

Bordeaux

Le Bag... in an empty state. Soon it will be winging its way to Bordeaux France. Outbound - 7 Oct 10 - Minneapolis... 3 hr layover - on to Amsterdam. A quick check through customs - outbound to Bordeaux. We arrive @ 11:30 on 8 Oct 10. Travelling with friends of Nicole and Brian... David and Cathy. Staying in one house for two weeks - here's the link...

www.vacationinparis.com/apts/id_175.htm

First night is spent in Sauternes... Chateau d'Arche. Wi-Fi permitting, I will update from there.

Ciao.

p