Day Eight: Thursday, Sept. 25th, 2008
Today we left Chinon and headed to Sarlat where we will spend 3 nights. Along the way we stopped in a little town and had a picnic lunch provided by Patrick.
Patrick did a great job with the picnic supplies. We had a variety of cheeses, pate (including rabbit pate which was excellent), fruit, salads, and wine.
After our picnic lunch we stopped at the village of Oradour Sur Glane. This village was attacked by Nazi troops during World War II. They killed all the villagers who were in the village at the time, including men, women and children, about 625 people. Then, they burned the village.
The surviving villagers (because they were in another town working) decided to leave the village exactly as it was the day after the Nazis came through. I could hardly believe what I was walking through, streets with burned out buildings including bakeries, hair salons, auto garages and the church, burned and rusted vehicles, bicycles, and sewing machines just to name some of the devastation. There were plaques on building walls listing the names and ages of those who had perished. Although there were many people in the village walking around this day it was almost completely silent. 
When we were done visiting the village it was time to get back on the road and head towards my favourite town on the trip: Sarlat where we would spend the next 3 night.
We arrived in Sarlat at about 5pm and after checking into the hotel we did a quick walk around the old town. We had a group dinner this night at the hotel. The starter at this meal was pate and the main dish was fish (dorado), which tasted like nothing. The dessert was a walnut ice-cream which also wasn’t very impressive. But after the meal we had the night before we dealt with the less then spectacular group meal.
After dinner we did a short walking tour of the old town and got to experience Sarlat by street lamp light, which felt like it was right out of a child’s story book. The cobblestone streets, the flowers flowing out of window boxes and the soft lamp light on each street created a magical feeling.
When the walking tour ended we headed back to the hotel to get a good rest since the next day we would be seeing pre-historic caves and canoeing down the Dordogne River!
Today we left Chinon and headed to Sarlat where we will spend 3 nights. Along the way we stopped in a little town and had a picnic lunch provided by Patrick.
Patrick did a great job with the picnic supplies. We had a variety of cheeses, pate (including rabbit pate which was excellent), fruit, salads, and wine.
After our picnic lunch we stopped at the village of Oradour Sur Glane. This village was attacked by Nazi troops during World War II. They killed all the villagers who were in the village at the time, including men, women and children, about 625 people. Then, they burned the village.
The surviving villagers (because they were in another town working) decided to leave the village exactly as it was the day after the Nazis came through. I could hardly believe what I was walking through, streets with burned out buildings including bakeries, hair salons, auto garages and the church, burned and rusted vehicles, bicycles, and sewing machines just to name some of the devastation. There were plaques on building walls listing the names and ages of those who had perished. Although there were many people in the village walking around this day it was almost completely silent. 
When we were done visiting the village it was time to get back on the road and head towards my favourite town on the trip: Sarlat where we would spend the next 3 night.
We arrived in Sarlat at about 5pm and after checking into the hotel we did a quick walk around the old town. We had a group dinner this night at the hotel. The starter at this meal was pate and the main dish was fish (dorado), which tasted like nothing. The dessert was a walnut ice-cream which also wasn’t very impressive. But after the meal we had the night before we dealt with the less then spectacular group meal.
After dinner we did a short walking tour of the old town and got to experience Sarlat by street lamp light, which felt like it was right out of a child’s story book. The cobblestone streets, the flowers flowing out of window boxes and the soft lamp light on each street created a magical feeling.
When the walking tour ended we headed back to the hotel to get a good rest since the next day we would be seeing pre-historic caves and canoeing down the Dordogne River!
Day Nine: Friday, Sept. 26th, 2008
This morning the first stop we made was at the Grotte de Rouffignac, which is a pre-historic cave near Sarlat. This cave had a little train that we boarded and were taken down a small track into the cave. The guide who served double-duty as the train engineer gave a good commentary about the paintings and markings on the walls and ceilings, although is was sometimes difficult to hear her because of the acoustics in the cave. Do note there is no light in this cave except when the train is stopped to look at a particular section of wall, which is then illuminated by small lights and the guide uses a flash light to point out items of interest. It was pretty incredible to think these pre-historic people drew these pictures of animals in almost perfect proportion.
After we emerged from the cave we headed for the little village of Domme, perched high on a hill. It was such a picturesque little place. Mom and I bought duck pate sandwiches and sat in a park overlooking the Dordogne River, it was very scenic and a terrific photo opportunity. The sandwiches were absolutely delicious, and maybe it was the beautiful view that helped enhance the sandwich!
When we were finished with lunch it was time to Canoe! Mom decided to sit out the canoe ride, (she’s not to “into” water activities), and so I teamed up with our guide Patrick to canoe down the Dordogne. It was a great day to paddle, cool and a bit cloudy, so no hot sun to deal with.
As we paddled I took lots of pictures, no surprise there! And we made our way down the river passing picture perfect little villages. We paddled for just 11/2 hours and ended in the town of Beynac. Once we were all out of the water we piled back into the bus and went back to Sarlat.
After a short rest at the hotel we set out to take a look at a couple restaurants for dinner potential. While meandering through the streets there was an artist’s studio that caught my eye, actually it was one of her pictures that caught my eye. The artist herself was there and she could not have been nicer. I began looking through her work and there were several prints that I was really drawn too, so I bought all 4 prints (at €10 each) Each print was a scene of Sarlat and they each had all the perfect colors that would go with the colors I have throughout my home.
We then found our first pick restaurant for dinner, the Presidial (a Pudlo pick), and made an 8pm reservation. It looked great from the outside and the menu looked even better. By now we were ready to have our usual pre-dinner aperitif, so we found a café in the town square and we had a few drinks while watching the sun go down and the street lights come on.
Just before 8pm we walked back over to the Presidial at 6, rue Landry. This was one of the larger restaurants we ate at; there were 2 dinning rooms, one rather large and then a smaller one that had only 6 tables. There was also ample covered outside dinning. When we arrived almost every table inside was full.
We both had the €42 menu. I started with the lobster ravioli and mom had the foie gras, both were excellent. My main was pan fried scallops, there were 6 huge scallops, and puree of broccoli surrounded by a wide peel of carrot. Mom had the tournad of beef with haricots and potatoes. My main dish was delicious, but mom definitely had the winner in this meal. The beef was done to perfection! We also had a bottle of Rose wine.
Next was the cheese course and we both had the goat cheese served with lettuce and a walnut dressing which was wonderful…well, let me be honest, there isn’t really any cheese that I wouldn’t like!
The best part of the meal for me was the dessert. We both had the same thing and it was called Emotion of Dark Chocolate. It was a base of dark chocolate cookie with chocolate mousse on top served in the form of a disk, it was chocolaty goodness! We capped it off with espresso.
A really delicious meal and the total for it all was €115. I would rate this meal our second best after L’Oceanic in Chinon. After our 3 hour meal we walked back to our hotel and ended the day happily satisfied.
This morning the first stop we made was at the Grotte de Rouffignac, which is a pre-historic cave near Sarlat. This cave had a little train that we boarded and were taken down a small track into the cave. The guide who served double-duty as the train engineer gave a good commentary about the paintings and markings on the walls and ceilings, although is was sometimes difficult to hear her because of the acoustics in the cave. Do note there is no light in this cave except when the train is stopped to look at a particular section of wall, which is then illuminated by small lights and the guide uses a flash light to point out items of interest. It was pretty incredible to think these pre-historic people drew these pictures of animals in almost perfect proportion.
After we emerged from the cave we headed for the little village of Domme, perched high on a hill. It was such a picturesque little place. Mom and I bought duck pate sandwiches and sat in a park overlooking the Dordogne River, it was very scenic and a terrific photo opportunity. The sandwiches were absolutely delicious, and maybe it was the beautiful view that helped enhance the sandwich!
When we were finished with lunch it was time to Canoe! Mom decided to sit out the canoe ride, (she’s not to “into” water activities), and so I teamed up with our guide Patrick to canoe down the Dordogne. It was a great day to paddle, cool and a bit cloudy, so no hot sun to deal with.
As we paddled I took lots of pictures, no surprise there! And we made our way down the river passing picture perfect little villages. We paddled for just 11/2 hours and ended in the town of Beynac. Once we were all out of the water we piled back into the bus and went back to Sarlat.
After a short rest at the hotel we set out to take a look at a couple restaurants for dinner potential. While meandering through the streets there was an artist’s studio that caught my eye, actually it was one of her pictures that caught my eye. The artist herself was there and she could not have been nicer. I began looking through her work and there were several prints that I was really drawn too, so I bought all 4 prints (at €10 each) Each print was a scene of Sarlat and they each had all the perfect colors that would go with the colors I have throughout my home.We then found our first pick restaurant for dinner, the Presidial (a Pudlo pick), and made an 8pm reservation. It looked great from the outside and the menu looked even better. By now we were ready to have our usual pre-dinner aperitif, so we found a café in the town square and we had a few drinks while watching the sun go down and the street lights come on.
Just before 8pm we walked back over to the Presidial at 6, rue Landry. This was one of the larger restaurants we ate at; there were 2 dinning rooms, one rather large and then a smaller one that had only 6 tables. There was also ample covered outside dinning. When we arrived almost every table inside was full.
We both had the €42 menu. I started with the lobster ravioli and mom had the foie gras, both were excellent. My main was pan fried scallops, there were 6 huge scallops, and puree of broccoli surrounded by a wide peel of carrot. Mom had the tournad of beef with haricots and potatoes. My main dish was delicious, but mom definitely had the winner in this meal. The beef was done to perfection! We also had a bottle of Rose wine.
Next was the cheese course and we both had the goat cheese served with lettuce and a walnut dressing which was wonderful…well, let me be honest, there isn’t really any cheese that I wouldn’t like!
The best part of the meal for me was the dessert. We both had the same thing and it was called Emotion of Dark Chocolate. It was a base of dark chocolate cookie with chocolate mousse on top served in the form of a disk, it was chocolaty goodness! We capped it off with espresso.
A really delicious meal and the total for it all was €115. I would rate this meal our second best after L’Oceanic in Chinon. After our 3 hour meal we walked back to our hotel and ended the day happily satisfied.
Day Ten: Saturday, Sept. 27th, 2008
Today was market day in Sarlat and what a market it was…there was just about any item you could possibly want from food to clothing to soap and cutlery. The market began on the street right outside of our hotel…how convenient!
Since the whole day was on our own, we had a leisurely morning and went out to the market at about 10am. We perused through the food section of the market first picking up bread and cheese for a picnic lunch later in the day. As we made our way through the crowded streets of the market we came upon a little boutique. The scarves outside drew me in but what kept me there were some really great ponchos. We each bought one, mine green, mom’s black and grey, they are tres chic!
As we continued through the market I then came across a really “funky” purse and it was just too cool to pass up. It’s green and blue in color and triangular shaped and has a bunch of pockets in the front. My description is not doing it justice, I may have to take a picture of it and post it!
By 1:30pm we dropped off our purchases in our room and took our picnic supplies to the public garden for an outdoor lunch of cheese, bread and fruit. After relaxing at lunch we took another walk around the market and poked around in several of the town shops. After mailing our last few postcards we found a café in the town square for an aperitif before meeting up with the group for another group meal at the hotel.
Tonight’s group meal at the hotel was a step- up from 2 nights ago, but not the best of the trip. We started with a Roquefort salad with endive and walnuts, the main was duck confit with potatoes and chocolate cake for dessert.
We were ready to hit the hay early for our trip to Carcassonne in the morning.
Today was market day in Sarlat and what a market it was…there was just about any item you could possibly want from food to clothing to soap and cutlery. The market began on the street right outside of our hotel…how convenient!
Since the whole day was on our own, we had a leisurely morning and went out to the market at about 10am. We perused through the food section of the market first picking up bread and cheese for a picnic lunch later in the day. As we made our way through the crowded streets of the market we came upon a little boutique. The scarves outside drew me in but what kept me there were some really great ponchos. We each bought one, mine green, mom’s black and grey, they are tres chic!
As we continued through the market I then came across a really “funky” purse and it was just too cool to pass up. It’s green and blue in color and triangular shaped and has a bunch of pockets in the front. My description is not doing it justice, I may have to take a picture of it and post it!
By 1:30pm we dropped off our purchases in our room and took our picnic supplies to the public garden for an outdoor lunch of cheese, bread and fruit. After relaxing at lunch we took another walk around the market and poked around in several of the town shops. After mailing our last few postcards we found a café in the town square for an aperitif before meeting up with the group for another group meal at the hotel.
Tonight’s group meal at the hotel was a step- up from 2 nights ago, but not the best of the trip. We started with a Roquefort salad with endive and walnuts, the main was duck confit with potatoes and chocolate cake for dessert.
We were ready to hit the hay early for our trip to Carcassonne in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment