Dordogne 2017 : addressing a lifetime of fear
Jul 12th, 2017, 06:24 PM
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Dordogne 2017 : addressing a lifetime of fear
It's years since I've posted a trip report mainly because as you get older and your business gets busier, I just haven't had the energy or the time to post one. Anyway this time I seem to have the inclination.
Dordogne July 2017 :
A lifetime of fear - you carry many childhood issues throughout your life and my two main fears that I have are : sharks (thanks to Peter Benchley) and France (thanks entirely to Mrs Fielding our middle school French teacher).
French lessons consisted of an hour ever other day simply conjugating verbs over and over again in class. We had to learn them as homework and then repeat them to the rest of the class, if you failed Mrs Fielding would simply rap you over the knuckles with a cane. Childhood humiliation amongst your peers sticks long in the memory. I've hated France ever since. It's interesting as my 12 year old now loves and excels in the subject. At his posh, liberal school they sit round in groups chatting in French lessons about music, football and holidays.
After over 20 trips to both Italy and Spain, familiarity breeds contempt and we just needed a change. We have a rapidly growing working cocker spaniel which has so much energy I couldn't face inflicting her on the kennels for a full two weeks. I've also just bought my prized new Volvo which is about the size of a camper van, it drives itself (literally) and so we decided to drive. Pet passport in hand we set off on Friday afternoon to head for Dover.
For years now I've admonished anyone and everyone on here about drive times in Britain. So much so that I actually no believe some of the rubbish I post. Yes, Manchester to Dover on a sunny Friday afternoon in July will be easy, set off at noon and everyone else will be at work.
How wrong we were, it took 8 and a half hours to travel about 300 miles, I could cycle faster.
We stayed at the Holiday in Express at the side of the channel tunnel. For anyone wanting an overnight stay before using the tunnel. Just stay here without hesitation. It should be an absolutely unloved hotel, nobody stays here because they want to or because it's at the side on the Leaning Tower or Table mountain. 99% of its guest stay for one night. It should be awful but it's not. The staff were lovely, rooms were good quality and it's two minutes from the tunnel.
We arrived well after 8pm, bought food from the M&S shop next door and headed straight onto the white cliffs for a sunset picnic. The dog was so good for the journey she just sat her crate in the car for the full journey with that "told you JanisJ was right about driving in Britain" look on her face.
Every Brit should sit in the cliffs, you stare across to France and realise how close we are. If more of my narrow minded Northern neighbours had done this then maybe, just maybe, they would have voted differently and we wouldn't be leaving the EU. After stuffing ourselves with the best "food to go" in the world (M&S is Britain) we are off to bed.
Dordogne July 2017 :
A lifetime of fear - you carry many childhood issues throughout your life and my two main fears that I have are : sharks (thanks to Peter Benchley) and France (thanks entirely to Mrs Fielding our middle school French teacher).
French lessons consisted of an hour ever other day simply conjugating verbs over and over again in class. We had to learn them as homework and then repeat them to the rest of the class, if you failed Mrs Fielding would simply rap you over the knuckles with a cane. Childhood humiliation amongst your peers sticks long in the memory. I've hated France ever since. It's interesting as my 12 year old now loves and excels in the subject. At his posh, liberal school they sit round in groups chatting in French lessons about music, football and holidays.
After over 20 trips to both Italy and Spain, familiarity breeds contempt and we just needed a change. We have a rapidly growing working cocker spaniel which has so much energy I couldn't face inflicting her on the kennels for a full two weeks. I've also just bought my prized new Volvo which is about the size of a camper van, it drives itself (literally) and so we decided to drive. Pet passport in hand we set off on Friday afternoon to head for Dover.
For years now I've admonished anyone and everyone on here about drive times in Britain. So much so that I actually no believe some of the rubbish I post. Yes, Manchester to Dover on a sunny Friday afternoon in July will be easy, set off at noon and everyone else will be at work.
How wrong we were, it took 8 and a half hours to travel about 300 miles, I could cycle faster.
We stayed at the Holiday in Express at the side of the channel tunnel. For anyone wanting an overnight stay before using the tunnel. Just stay here without hesitation. It should be an absolutely unloved hotel, nobody stays here because they want to or because it's at the side on the Leaning Tower or Table mountain. 99% of its guest stay for one night. It should be awful but it's not. The staff were lovely, rooms were good quality and it's two minutes from the tunnel.
We arrived well after 8pm, bought food from the M&S shop next door and headed straight onto the white cliffs for a sunset picnic. The dog was so good for the journey she just sat her crate in the car for the full journey with that "told you JanisJ was right about driving in Britain" look on her face.
Every Brit should sit in the cliffs, you stare across to France and realise how close we are. If more of my narrow minded Northern neighbours had done this then maybe, just maybe, they would have voted differently and we wouldn't be leaving the EU. After stuffing ourselves with the best "food to go" in the world (M&S is Britain) we are off to bed.
Jul 13th, 2017, 10:06 PM
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Thanks Bilbo, Basil had played a major part in my life to date.
Sorry for the delay, I'm beginning to lose track of the days. It's probably a measure of the Dordogne just a very relaxing place.
We arrived last Sunday after the drive down on Saturday.
Be aware of the organisation of the channel tunnel, its solidly reminiscent of British Rail during the 1970s. We haven't used it before and weren't aware of their system. You arrive at the terminal and are forced through the service area. Which is fine, as there is a Leon food outlet.
My wife loves their cookbook, the porridge with honey and blueberries was great. However, and there is a large irony here, they operate the same La Cimbali coffee make as I do in my business. The Italian machines proudly use hold their national stereotype - promise everything and fail to deliver. They produce Robert rocket fuel coffee which keeps you going for days, unfortunely they break all the time. Both of this Leon store's machines had broken and so they were serving dish water filter coffee - not the way for me to start the day.
It got worse, at the terminal there is a calling system much like an airport "go to gate system". That's fine. However, it was the first weekend proper of the kids holiday and it was a bun fight. There was only one car queue for the trains and seasoned traveller types and already started queuing for later trains. The queue was huge and to make things worse our car was stacked with 120L The North Face bags ( as used by many international drug dealers) - we were pulled by security and had the car searched. Pooch tried to bite the security officer and the sniffer dog ( same breed of Spaniel) - great fun and we missed our train.
We were bumped onto the next available and lost 50 minutes.
For anyone making the journey, the motorway services at Baie di Somme are just brilliant. It's an hour south of Calais, has a world class contemporary design with carp lakes and uncut wild flower meadows to walk the dog. A wonderful introduction to the country. I just forgot how liberal in their prude that the French can be. The women's toilets had a huge queue and so the "ladies" were piling into the mens. You won't find that at Bolton Wanderers Football club on a match day!
The drive : our new car is ridiculously easy to drive. It's one step removed from driverless. It has adaptive cruise control which slows the car when you approach another and lane recognition which means you don't have to steer. Just have to remember to overtake when you need to ( AND NOT FALL ALSEEP).
We avoided Paris (as instructed by everyone who had ever been to France) and took the route through Rouen, Chartre and Orleans. I would nearly have loved to have frequently stopped. Chartre cathedral is awe inspiring from a distance - a monument to the emotional control the Catholic Church held over its population. It rises from flat wheat fields and you can see it for miles away. You can imagine peasants working in the fields feeling the power looming over them!
The whole journey down to The Dordogne was unbelievably easy. Dual carriageway all the way with little traffic even for a summer weekend. We just had one salutary experience on the way. Before setting off we had one of those typical (after 24 years) marital disputes. I wanted to bring our road bicycles, my wife didn't because of the safety of the bike carrier. At around 200 miles north of Sarlat, a car in front of us lost three bikes off it's carrier. The expensive bikes were smashed to pieces and a dangerous pile up was just avoided. She just couldn't resist one of those knife turning "told you so" put downs.
We reached the rental house at around 6pm in glorious sunshine.
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Some people smoke, some drink too much.
Some buy expensive handbags.
Some are obsessive about football teams.
My vice in life is spending money on holiday rentals.
This is a pinnacle !
https://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p1070194
Sorry to all about my grammar / spelling. Being Scottish, English is not my primary culture!
Sorry for the delay, I'm beginning to lose track of the days. It's probably a measure of the Dordogne just a very relaxing place.
We arrived last Sunday after the drive down on Saturday.
Be aware of the organisation of the channel tunnel, its solidly reminiscent of British Rail during the 1970s. We haven't used it before and weren't aware of their system. You arrive at the terminal and are forced through the service area. Which is fine, as there is a Leon food outlet.
My wife loves their cookbook, the porridge with honey and blueberries was great. However, and there is a large irony here, they operate the same La Cimbali coffee make as I do in my business. The Italian machines proudly use hold their national stereotype - promise everything and fail to deliver. They produce Robert rocket fuel coffee which keeps you going for days, unfortunely they break all the time. Both of this Leon store's machines had broken and so they were serving dish water filter coffee - not the way for me to start the day.
It got worse, at the terminal there is a calling system much like an airport "go to gate system". That's fine. However, it was the first weekend proper of the kids holiday and it was a bun fight. There was only one car queue for the trains and seasoned traveller types and already started queuing for later trains. The queue was huge and to make things worse our car was stacked with 120L The North Face bags ( as used by many international drug dealers) - we were pulled by security and had the car searched. Pooch tried to bite the security officer and the sniffer dog ( same breed of Spaniel) - great fun and we missed our train.
We were bumped onto the next available and lost 50 minutes.
For anyone making the journey, the motorway services at Baie di Somme are just brilliant. It's an hour south of Calais, has a world class contemporary design with carp lakes and uncut wild flower meadows to walk the dog. A wonderful introduction to the country. I just forgot how liberal in their prude that the French can be. The women's toilets had a huge queue and so the "ladies" were piling into the mens. You won't find that at Bolton Wanderers Football club on a match day!
The drive : our new car is ridiculously easy to drive. It's one step removed from driverless. It has adaptive cruise control which slows the car when you approach another and lane recognition which means you don't have to steer. Just have to remember to overtake when you need to ( AND NOT FALL ALSEEP).
We avoided Paris (as instructed by everyone who had ever been to France) and took the route through Rouen, Chartre and Orleans. I would nearly have loved to have frequently stopped. Chartre cathedral is awe inspiring from a distance - a monument to the emotional control the Catholic Church held over its population. It rises from flat wheat fields and you can see it for miles away. You can imagine peasants working in the fields feeling the power looming over them!
The whole journey down to The Dordogne was unbelievably easy. Dual carriageway all the way with little traffic even for a summer weekend. We just had one salutary experience on the way. Before setting off we had one of those typical (after 24 years) marital disputes. I wanted to bring our road bicycles, my wife didn't because of the safety of the bike carrier. At around 200 miles north of Sarlat, a car in front of us lost three bikes off it's carrier. The expensive bikes were smashed to pieces and a dangerous pile up was just avoided. She just couldn't resist one of those knife turning "told you so" put downs.
We reached the rental house at around 6pm in glorious sunshine.
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Some people smoke, some drink too much.
Some buy expensive handbags.
Some are obsessive about football teams.
My vice in life is spending money on holiday rentals.
This is a pinnacle !
https://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p1070194
Sorry to all about my grammar / spelling. Being Scottish, English is not my primary culture!
Jul 13th, 2017, 11:12 PM
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St Cirq
I know why "The English branch of the French royal family" lost the hundreds years war against a feisty young lady from the provinces.
I've been to InterMarket in Le Bugue on Sunday morning before it closes early. It's war and women rule the roost. French women are just more feisty then English women. That's why "The English" lost. Scotland remains, as it always has, an unconquerable country.
My father has a saying about crazy places....."it feels like the last plane out of Vietnam". InterMarket in Sunday morning felt like the last plane out
BTW you are truely blessed, you live in a magical place. The trees "soak up the tourists". I know it's really busy but it doesn't seem so becuase the area is so wooded.
Our last disappointing trip to Iceland seems like a distant memory.
I know why "The English branch of the French royal family" lost the hundreds years war against a feisty young lady from the provinces.
I've been to InterMarket in Le Bugue on Sunday morning before it closes early. It's war and women rule the roost. French women are just more feisty then English women. That's why "The English" lost. Scotland remains, as it always has, an unconquerable country.
My father has a saying about crazy places....."it feels like the last plane out of Vietnam". InterMarket in Sunday morning felt like the last plane out
BTW you are truely blessed, you live in a magical place. The trees "soak up the tourists". I know it's really busy but it doesn't seem so becuase the area is so wooded.
Our last disappointing trip to Iceland seems like a distant memory.
Jul 14th, 2017, 02:35 AM
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You mean the Intermarché, I suppose. And yes, it's war on a summer Sunday morning, with French women (most of them squat and portly, nothing like what people imagine French women to be like) ruling the roost and hogging up the cashier lines, talking endlessly with the staff. We go to Aldi.
It's wooded, all right. That's why it was the haunting grounds of all the brigands and n'er-do-wells of France. It's the forest primeval. And yes, it's magical. Not a day goes by that we don't note that. Except for the humming of bees and the occasional barking of hunting dogs down the hill, we live in peaceful silence.
You got yourself a fine place there.
It's wooded, all right. That's why it was the haunting grounds of all the brigands and n'er-do-wells of France. It's the forest primeval. And yes, it's magical. Not a day goes by that we don't note that. Except for the humming of bees and the occasional barking of hunting dogs down the hill, we live in peaceful silence.
You got yourself a fine place there.
Jul 14th, 2017, 09:47 AM
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Sunday :
As I mentioned to StCirq Sunday began with a very long lie in (after 800 miles of driving) and then we realised that we had no food and the supermarket closed at 12:30pm. We drove the few miles and it was so chaotic with people scramming for food, I had to stay in the car to protect it from bumps.
In the afternoon, the weather still wasn't great, overcast and 20oC which was worse than the weather we left at home. It feels strange being in the countryside, this is our first foreign trip in over 10 year when we won't be seeing the sea. The weather doesn't seem to be as much of an issue to us in the countryside. We decided to walk to the nearest village, Limeuil.
The walk was beautiful - down ancient, under-used cart ways. My son went on point to clear the way of spider's webs. The dog went absolutely bonkers, there aren't many ancient deciduous forests left in Southern Scotland or our other home in Lancashire. The forests in the Dordogne are very unspoilt and the pooch picked up the scent of everything and anything. We have been undertaking a lot of professional gun dog training with her. It was great see her in action in the right context, there's few better sights than a gun dog in their element.
Great show on the 5km walk, we saw a female marsh harrier, umpteen black kites soaring above the river and a special Kingfisher which nearly took my wife's head off whilst flying past with a fish in its mouth.
Limeuil is a picture post card place at the confluence of the Dordogne and Vezere river. Two large bridges cross each river at the confluence to make a very pretty scene. Being a picture post card place, it's a little swamped but nothing close to the crowds we had been expecting. Had an ice cream and headed back.
Monday :
I call these days Casino days. You put your life saving on red, the ball lands and you either won heavily or wonder why you got out of bed.
It was the Tour de France rest day in the Dordogne's main town, Perigeux. We are all addicts of cycling in any form, the Tour is our main fix of the year and at home we usually sit like zombies watching the Channel 4 daily live coverage. This time we had it for real.
Got to go the sun is going down it pretty warm and my son is giving me sooooo much earache about going in the pool. Hard life!
As I mentioned to StCirq Sunday began with a very long lie in (after 800 miles of driving) and then we realised that we had no food and the supermarket closed at 12:30pm. We drove the few miles and it was so chaotic with people scramming for food, I had to stay in the car to protect it from bumps.
In the afternoon, the weather still wasn't great, overcast and 20oC which was worse than the weather we left at home. It feels strange being in the countryside, this is our first foreign trip in over 10 year when we won't be seeing the sea. The weather doesn't seem to be as much of an issue to us in the countryside. We decided to walk to the nearest village, Limeuil.
The walk was beautiful - down ancient, under-used cart ways. My son went on point to clear the way of spider's webs. The dog went absolutely bonkers, there aren't many ancient deciduous forests left in Southern Scotland or our other home in Lancashire. The forests in the Dordogne are very unspoilt and the pooch picked up the scent of everything and anything. We have been undertaking a lot of professional gun dog training with her. It was great see her in action in the right context, there's few better sights than a gun dog in their element.
Great show on the 5km walk, we saw a female marsh harrier, umpteen black kites soaring above the river and a special Kingfisher which nearly took my wife's head off whilst flying past with a fish in its mouth.
Limeuil is a picture post card place at the confluence of the Dordogne and Vezere river. Two large bridges cross each river at the confluence to make a very pretty scene. Being a picture post card place, it's a little swamped but nothing close to the crowds we had been expecting. Had an ice cream and headed back.
Monday :
I call these days Casino days. You put your life saving on red, the ball lands and you either won heavily or wonder why you got out of bed.
It was the Tour de France rest day in the Dordogne's main town, Perigeux. We are all addicts of cycling in any form, the Tour is our main fix of the year and at home we usually sit like zombies watching the Channel 4 daily live coverage. This time we had it for real.
Got to go the sun is going down it pretty warm and my son is giving me sooooo much earache about going in the pool. Hard life!
Jul 14th, 2017, 12:56 PM
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Nice place! When we first visited the Dordogne, I really wished we had been able to take our kids for a visit there. Alas, the last one was just about to leave home, too late. And now gone 10 years. How great that your boys get to experience it.
