After trying numerous times to use the edit function to no avail, I have posted the report unedited. Most annoying that the function does not appear to work.

Nice report so far.

For ease of editing, write the report in Notepad or Wordpad or another simple word processor that doesn't have a lot of formatting and when you are happy with it, cut and paste into the Fodors posting box.

Can hardy wait for more!

Write it in Word first, then copy here

Stu Dudley

Thanks, guys..not sure if I am adept enough to use word and paste it..please do not laugh! I will continue to muddle along hopefully later today..

Next morning was devoted to walking around Bayonne and doing some shopping (2 pair espadrilles, which were born in the Basque country, according to the owner of the small shop that makes and sells them in a myriad of colors for about 8 Euro a pair). We did not have time to visit the celebrated Musee Basque. I was disappointed but will now have at least one excellent reason to return to this city. Bayonne would make, by the way, an excellent base for visiting the small towns in the interior of the Pay Basque as well as coastal towns including Biarritz and St. Jean de Luz. Having spent some time in the area a few years back, this flying visit only whetted my appetite for further adventures. I would love to rent a house for a week or so in the area....have looked at www.justfrance.com but their properties seem a bit high-end for my set.

Back on track. We left the LeGrand and walked 5 minutes to the bus stop where we boarded a 12 noon PESA bus bound for San Sebastian. It is a wonder the bus did not veer off the road into the choppy sea someplace around Biarritz, as the driver spent the entire trip with his neck craned away from the road and toward my friend; both of them had an animated discussion the gist of which was that, although we were excited to be headed for Spain, he as a Basque did not recognize national borders..it is all one Basque homeland...Spain or France, political boundaries do not matter. Had he not had to attend to the minor matter of driving the bus, I would have joined in more earnestly. Many of our fellow riders did so and it became kind of a roundtable discussion on wheels, only to be interrupted by our arrival in San Sebastian on a drizzly Wednesday afternoon which happened to be the beginning of the bridge holiday for the Virgen of Pilar.

From the bus docks, we caught a taxi from the stand across the street for the short ride to Hotel Niza. And now we must check into our rooms...having requested a sea view double, we were to be sadly disappointed..the hotel was full and no rooms with sea view can be found....not only is it a holiday eve but there is a group from "Tejas" staying at the Niza with their guide...

ooops.... we need to back track to Bayonne a bit. AS I said, I did not take notes and memory is fading fast...That last morning in Bayonne we spent an hour or so visiting the small and very colorful covered food market and chatting with a few of the vendors. Bought a few jars of piment d'Espelette peppers and my favorite black cherry confiture from Ixtassou cherries (used some versions of what just might be my favorite cake, Gateau Basque) and some local brebis cheese. Right across from the market, away from the river, is a large and elegant shop stuffed with fois gras in all its incarnations as well as a few local wines. We had an interesting hour there chatting with the young manager and learning about fois gras production in Les Landes, which is where the this shops' offerings hail from, and about the various forms of the liver. I learned something new here, that "mi-cuit" may literally mean "half-cooked" but means in this sense (on labels) "half pasteurized" and needing of refrigeration. We did not buy anything, however, since we had miles to travel before returning home and were headed to the Dordogne for a week of eating and then to Paris, where I eventually bought my jars to take back to the US.

(More fois gras coming up in San Sebastian very soon..Maribel knows where......after we finish our check in at Hotrel Niza and venture out into this supremely dazzling beachfront city.) Since I mentioned Maribel here, I will go on to say that it was she that actually did the planning for this trip or rather that I may have done the planning but that without her guides my task would have been a lot more difficult and not nearly as successfully executed. Muchisimas gracias, Maribel!

I'm looking forward to reading more. My plans for that area will have to wait until a third trip. It looked like I was biting off too much to try to add it to a trip to Brittany.

Back at the Hotel Niza. We were, much to my dismay, not accorded a sea view room although I had requested one months ago. Our room faced the street and was nice enough, if a tad small for the two of us..cheery blue and yellow prints and whitewashed walls. Decent enough bathroom. Good beds. There was no time to brood on the room (no, we could not move the next day..there were no rooms facing the sea to be had..) since it was past 2pm so we dashed over to the Parte Vieja and sat down to a terrific meal at Juanito Kojua
(www.juanitokojua.com)

This is a very relaxed place, whitewashed walls puctuated with wood paneling and dark beams.. For 70 Euro we had a terrific light lunch consisting of:

***Hongos al horno (grilled mushrooms..remember this is the fall..they looked like porcini to me) A three-star dish, one of the best of many great ones on the trip. (from now on I will indicate stellar to-be-dreamed-about-on dreary-days-back-home dishes with, what else, a few stars..)

Berenjenas con hongos y langostinos..great unexpected combo of langostino with eggplant and mushrooms..lightly stewed. Excellent.

2 Gambas a la plancha..grilled shrimp. Excellent and of course they leave the heads on, unlike many places back home. YES!

Bottle of sidra Bereziartua

A wonderful intro to the joys of San Sebastian. Good regional food, nothing fancy. Worth a return visit. And another.

JUANITO KOJUA portu Kalea, 14 in the Parte Vieja. (15 minute walk from the Hotel Niza)

Hi ekscrunchy,

first time I have heard someone here mentioning Juanito Kojua ... I thought it was my secret ...

Rgds, Cova

Cova that is a really good place! I read about it in Maribel's guide and it is firmly on my list for a return visit.

.......So here we are, after a great first meal in San Sebastian. We walked around a bit after lunch and did some window shopping. At tapas time, with great excitement we made our way back from the hotel to the Parte Vieja and searched around a bit before finding our goal: La Cuchara de San Telmo, recommended by Maribel in her guide, where it receives 4 stars, a rating I concur with. We had three nights in San Sebastian and three nights found us here, elbow to elbow against the smoky bar chowing down on just about every item on their menu. The "foie" is the thing to order first here and this grilled fois gras, served with a concasse of fruit, is quite wonderful, for a very low price. All of the tapas are made in the small open kitchen in the back of the long, narrow space. It is a real show to watch the barmen pouring Txakoli, swiping plates, calling out "dos foie, tres chipi..." Fabulous. Apart from the ***foie, we loved the ***xipirones, the slow-cooked veal, the steak, the tomato stuffed with mantecado of bacalao, the tempura of bacalao, the carrot cappuccino, and lots of other dishes I can no longer recall. One of the chefs here is Catalan and trained with Ferran Adria of El Bulli and molecular gastronomy fame. If you love Cal Pep in Barcelona as I do, you need to make a beeline for La Cuchara de San Telmo. We ate and drank standing but there are tables in the back outside that may be difficult to snag but worth a try.

The next morning we were up early. After breakfast at the nearby Hotel Europa cafe (2 cafe con leche, 2 crossant, 2 mermelada..6.10), we walked to the bus station, bought tickets at the office around the corner, and boarded the PESA bus for Bilbao. The buses run every hour or so and the trip takes a bit over an hour. Arriving in Bilbao, we walked to the Guggenheim, about a 20 minute or so stroll (there is also a tram). Frankly, the exterior is the gem here and it is quite a sight rising up against the backdrop of the river and the old city. The audio guides are free with admission here. There was no line to enter. We loved the Richard Serra installation and spent a good bit of time viewing the sparkling new contemporary African art exhibition. We were inside for about 2 hours before hunger called. Of course the restaurant inside the museum, under the direction of Martin Berasategui, was fully booked as we knew it would be. This being a holiday, many restaurants were closed. We walked to Cafe Iruna across from Albia Park, about a 20 minute walk. Unfortunately it was past lunch hours and we had to "make do!!" (poor us!) with raciones of jamon Iberico and potato tortillas. Embellished with painted Moorish-style tiles under a glorious coffered wooden ceiling, this cafe is worth a visit if only to admire the interior and grab a quick drink at the bar. After our snack we walked back to the bus station and caught the bus back to San Sebastian in time for tea and a bit of jai lai on tv at the Belle Epoque Cafe La Concha in a pavillion jutting out over the sands of the spectacularly beautiful crescent of sand that curves around the Bay of Biscay. (1 cafe; 1 te; 1 small water...4.60)

Then time for a quick rest at Hotel Niza before heading back to the Parte Vieja (do you see a pattern here??) for a quick tapa or two followed by dinner at Bodegon Alejandro, another spot under the supervision of three-star Michelin chef Martin Berasategui. We had no reservation here and were lucky that they had a table left in the cheerful yellow downstairs room hung with photos of Basque sporting heroes. The restaurant offers a 30 Euro set meal (plus 7% tax). I began with an order of seasonal cepe mushrooms from the daily specials (not included on the set menu). Next was a garlic-spiked fish and shellfish soup with clams, mussels, prawns and angler fish. For the main course (6.50 supplement) I chose baked lobster and saffron rice. And for dessert, toasted hazlenut souffle. Very good value for somewhat refined and creative cuisine but not among my favorites of the trip. And then to bed........to sleep before beginning our last day in magical San Sebastian.

bookmarking

ekscrunchy, I love your screen name!

Your report has me drooling! I enjoyed reading about Bayonne and Sebastian where I've never been and look forward to your impressions of food in the Dordogne and Paris.

The edit function is a pain when it isn't working but seems to be fine today. I don't know how you manage to write so well without being able to edit. I couldn't do my report without copying and pasting from Word. It's not difficult. Get someone to show you.

Our last morning in San Sebastian, a Friday, we discovered the joys of the fabulous Mercado de San Martin in the Centro Romantico. (we visited the Mercado de la Brecha the first day) We spent about 2 hours here speaking with the vendors and trying to hold ourselves back from buying too much, since we had to take the train the next day to the Dordogne. We did, however, splash out downstairs at Jenny, specialist in jamon Iberico that had been recommended to us, where we assembled a picnic spread of bellota ham, Idiazabal and other local cheeses, and a few other delights for the train rides to the Dordogne the next day. Laden down with these, as well as several three-packs of my favorite Magno La Toja black soap, purchased at the supermarket underneath the main market and next door to Jenny, we walked back to Hotel Niza.

We wanted to have lunch in the port area but by the time we managed to make our way there, no tables were to be had at any of the string of restaurants facing the water. So we booked a table for dinner that evening at La Rampa and made our way, again, to La Cuchara de San Telmo for a tapas lunch. Not a shabby alternative to a full meal!

The weather was glorious and although it was 13 October, the beach was quite crowded with sunbathers. We joined them and my friend did some swimming in the clear turquoise waters of the Bay. What a great way to spend an afternoon in this magical city.

Dinner that night was at the aforementioned La Rampa..**Clams marinara (not the Italian way with tomato sauce but simply sauteed in oil/butter with parsley and garlic) and **grilled heads-on prawns. Amazing how far superior these are to the prawns/shrimp we usually get in the US which have been decapitated and frozen, poor things. We sat outside, weather was lovely, and watched the crowds amble by. Had a nice discussion with our waiter, who was a Cuban newly arrived in the city. With local wine the bill was, and I am estimating here, about 65 euro for two. La Rampa. Muelle, 26-27 bajo. Tel-943-42-16-52.

Then joined the parade of strollers along the walkway ringing the Bay and made our way back for a good night's sleep at the Hotel Niza. I will add that, although the city was filled with visitors on this holiday weekend, we encountered very few Americans apart from the Texans staying at our hotel. Most of our fellow tourists seemed to be Spaniards.

...next morning will find us bound for the Euskotren (commuter train) to the border at Hendaye and then onwards by French trains to Bordeaux and Perigueux where we begin our Dordogne adventure.

Eks, pity you stayed for so little time in Bilbao...it is a city that has superb pintxos bars and restaurants...and many things to see and enjoy. Not the views of Donosti, though...I´m so very glad that you enjoyed your gastronomic visit to my country...can´t wait to read your report on the Dordogne, I (absolutely) loved it.

Mikelg, I was so sorry that this trip afforded us so little time in Bilbao and in the region in general. It was just so hectic and remember we did not have a car. I treated this like a reconassaince trip to prepare for a longer visit very soon. I thought of you when the PESA bus whizzed along the highway past the turnoffs for Getaria and Lekeitio and other places I have read about in your posts. Just the thought of passing by all that great food on the coasts, and those pretty towns made me a bit glum.
I hope you enjoy my posts..I do not have the usual detail that I have had in the past, as I said. Honestly I wish we had looked at the Guggenheim from the outside and taken a peek at the Serra installation, and then walked over to the Casco Viejo and spent our time there....

Hi ek,

Your report is so interesting that you are forgiven the lack of your usuual detail.

However, don't make this a habit.

Ira I am glad you are finding my somewhat lackadaisical missive worthwhile reading. Enjoy..at least you won't become out of breath keeping up with the (slow) pace of my postings! Thanks.

On our third morning in San Sebastian, we took the breakfast at Hotel Niza. There is no a la carte for breakfast, it is the buffet or nothing. Next time we will eat our breakfast outside the hotel.

Our double room, non sea-view, at the Hotel Niza cost 113 Euro per night plus 7% tax. It appears to be the luck of the draw whether or not you receive a sea view but even without one, the hotel was nice enough for the price and I would probably return.

We taxied to the Eusko-tren station in time to purchase tickets (no line) for the 8:45 am commuter train to the border at Hendaye. I should take a moment here to thank my traveling partner as well as all of the unnamed good samaritans who helped me at every station with my embarrasingly large black wheeled suitcase. A note of thanks to you all. In my own favor, I will say that perhaps next time I should edit the selections of my traveling library which seemed to be responsbile for so much of the heaviness of my bag. On this trip, in the spirit of taking responsibility and admitting the errors of one's ways, here is a list of the books I carried:

1. Cadogan Bilbao and the Basque Lands. Indispensible.
2. Cadogan Dordogne and the Lot. Indispensible.
3. Collected Traveler: Southwest France. Essential for anyone planning a visit to the region. I spent more enthused hours with this than with any other book of the trip.
4. Paris to the Moon..Adam Gopnik.. a classic
5. Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr. Excellent book; still reading; did not crack on trip
6. Cadogan Paris..great for sights
7. Zagat Paris..handy
8. Time Out Paris..see #6. Dispensible.
9. Time Out Eating and Drinking Paris..poorly organized but on-spot reviews.
10. Collected Traveler: Paris..read at home; not essential

And so, bags dragging, we alighted at Hendaye after an inexpensive trip of about an hour or so on the cute blue Euskotren. Reminded me a bit of the subways we had in NYC years ago. A walk of a few steps brought us into the Hendaye SCNF station where we purchased tickets for the 10:29 train to Perigueux with a change in Bordeaux. While waiting for this train, we visited the ATm across the street and ventured out for fresh read to complete our much-awited jamon Iberico and Iziazabal lunch en route.

I wish I could report more on the trip from the border to Bordeaux, which promised plesant scenery as the train skirted the sea and passed through St. Jean de Luz, Biarritz, and Les Landes. My attention, however, ws distracted for much of the journey by the train conductor who had developed an intense interest in my traveling companion. This man is a "controller" of the train and I can only imagine that the other cars were rather uncontrolled since all of this man's attention was taken by regaling us with his tales of finding a wife on a French lonelyhearts web site and traveling to Madagascar to meet her and to wed. He appeared to be in the market for a second partner, to judge from the attention he was showering on my friend. After revealing more than a few details of his personal life, and showering us with Bordeaux from the train cafe, he reluctantly assisted me (the bag, again) in my descent from the train in Bordeaux.

After about an hour in the Bordeaux train station waiting room, which included a visit to the tourist office at the front of the station, manned by a very friendly and helpful person well-armed with maps and brochures, we dragged our bags down and up the steps to the indicated track and caught the train bound for Perigueux. An easy trip of about an hour and a half left us at the train station in that town, from where it was a 3 minute walk (right turn after exiting station; no signs point the way) to the Europcar office where we were introduced to our no-key, push-button-start automatic emergency brake diesel Renault Scenic rented through Autoeurope at a pre-paid price of $360.00.
(Price represented a discount of $40.00 to allow us to take a taxi but that is a long and not interesting story; suffice to say that they are esy to work with)
After a brief lesson in the operation of this new-fangled vehicle (which would unfortunately meet a rather sad fate later in the week) my friend pronounced that she was ready to take on the Dordogne. She did an amazing drive of driving (the entire week, even as far as Oradour-sur-Glane northwest of Limoges but that will come later in this story), and after about an hour and a half we arrived in Domme where we had booked a rental house for one week and where we were to meet up with the four other persons who would complete our group of six. It took us quite a while to locate the house, Les Rosiers, and when we did we found it locked but all that was straightened out in due time and we hopefully walked (and dragged our bags) through the blood-red front door of this stone walled, red shuttered centuries-old structure covered with graceful wisteria vines.

I will finish off this long day by mentioning that we had reserve in advance (good thing we did as they were fully booked and people were turned away) at Cabenoix et Chataigne in Domme. This is a cute little restaurant in the center of Domme. The daily offerings are written on a blackboard. The menu is somewhat adventurous for the region..a lamb tajine, a porcini risotto, etc, along with several fish offerings and fois gras in quite a few permutations. We had a decent, if unexciting meal and my opinion is that the place should concentrate on doing a few things well rather than overreach. The desserts were excellent and the place is convenient in tourist-oriented Domme. And thus ended our first day in the Dordogne.....we will awaken tomorrow, Sunday, with plans to visit St. Cyprien market, lunch at a ferme auberge, and stock up the house at the large Casino supermarket not far from Domme on the Sarlat road. More soon......

We stayed one night in Bilbao. Our visit was to see the Guggenheim. As we apprioached it, I thought it looked like a space ship had crashed. We were there shortly after it opened. Koon's "pup" was out front and we didn't like the Serra's installation two huge curved iron walls.
We thought the food exceptional in the Museum. At night we made the rounds of the tapas bars in the old part of town.now i'm anxious to what you felt about Oradour.
Loving your trip but you've made me hungry

I was surprised at how much I liked the Serra installation. But the "pup" is kind of silly, don't you think? Maybe because I had seen him before, or his relative, at Rockefeller Center. I liked the huge glass spider better. I wish we had had time to explore the city on a non-fiesta day and spend a night there. It certainly was an oversight not to reserve lunch the museum. I did not see any sign of tapas at the bar area, but maybe that was just poor timing.

Just a note: people from Bilbao (Bilbaoans¿?) are considered to be a bit "show offs" (not sure if translating properly), and we like to say over here that we brought Puppy ("the pup") first and then we had to build him a proper kennel...just behind!

Very funny! I like it. Is it Bilbaienos? (with tilde over the "n"?)

Hi ekscrunchy,

bilbainos (but I am awful with tildes and I don´t remember if there is one over the i).

Puppy was supposed to be a temporal installation, but ended up being way too loved by the people in town. Twice a year the flowers are changed (and with it, its colour), and the kids can take part at a contest in the museum and bring home one of the small potted plants. The daughter of one of my friends loves it.

Mikel, I am heading to Bilbao this weekend. I hope it is true that it is not raining, because I am bored to death with rain and wind in Madrid ...

Cova

Cova, you wouldn´t believe the weather we are having, 24º and sunny...everyday for the past two weeks..and no signs of rain

then again, it wouldn´t be a surprise if it rains on a weekend...

Cova, I hope I did not insult the puppy or hurt his feelings with my comments. The involvement of the children puts a new light on him. He is kind of cute!

Our first morning in the rental house n Domme, we walked up the hill to the boulangerie and purchased bread and croissants. Then picked up two Herald Tribunes and a Sud-Ouest from the nearby epicerie. At the boulangerie, noting that the lady in charge looked like she knew good food, we asked her for her rcommendations for a good ferme-auberge lunch in the area. After consulting with the other customers in the bakery, she recommended the farm of the Fagets in Marnac. Thus armed with bread, newspapers and a promising lead for lunch, we returned to the house for breakfast. After breakfast, we set off for the Sunday market in St. Cyprien.

St. Cyprien has a sprawling Sunday market and we did much provisioning for the house there. One highlight were the roast chickens with pommes Sardalaise that we picked up for dinner that night. Highly recommended, these chickens and potatoes were to become one of my best food memories of the week. The market was also overflowing with porcini mushrooms (cepes) and other autumnal goodies.

Once our shopping was finished, we set off for the Faget's farm. Located in beautiful countryside outside Marnac, the farm is called Ferme Auberge des Tilleuls (tel 05-53-30-30-26). Bernard and Nadia produce fois gras, pates, confits, vegetables and other produce and offer lunch for a most reasonable price in a pretty dining room with a fireplace. For about 20 E. per person, we had a multi course meal of frisee with smoked magret and pates; confit de canard or pigeon; potatoes; lovely ice cream desserts the name of which I cannot recall. Local walnut aperitifs and a Bergerac pecharmant completed the excellent meal. This ferme auberge and others in the area are listed in a helpful booklet with a green cover available free at the local tourist offices. I highly recommend the fermes for an alternative to restaurant lunches and we had the opporunity to visit another wonderful one later in the week.

ekscrunchy, I'm still enjoying your report and making notes for our next trip to the Dordogne. We have so many happy memories of our trip there in June. The edit function seems to be working now, thankfully.

Thank you Moolyn. You were a great help in planning my trip. Next time make sure to get the ferme auberge booklet from the tourist office for some great tips on good inexpensive meals. I am sorry I am dawdling with this report....so much food info and not all that much else....I had so much fun that I am thinking about doing another rental sometime soon. This was my first experience with renting a house and it certainly is a good way to go.

ekscrunchy,

Looks like a good find with that farm lunch.

Those very inviting poullet roti that everybody seems to be lining up for in the St. Cyprien market were on our "to eat list" but didn't know how to buy and keep it in our car, as we had the rest of the day planned for more driving around.

Good report. The Basque blips just got louder on our radar screen.

ekscrunchy - great report and about my favourite subject - food. That Sunday market at St Cyprien was the one we liked best. I can picture the roast chickens there - they looked so delicious. The other thing that looked so good was the huge pans of paella. mmm.

Bill, you need to heed those blips!

I had no idea these chickens were so renowned. The same vendor also had ducks that looked amazing. (We looked for roast chicken again at the Sarlat market on Wednesday and were told that Sarlat did not allow any cooking at their Wednesday market. I was quite disappointed because although we did buy chicken in Sarlat at a rotisserie, it did not compare to the St. Cyprien ones.) And the carcasses of those St. Cyprien chickens made an amazing soup later in the week. But even better than the chicken, I think, were those potatoes! We also bought brandade de morue from the fish vendor at the market but this was not as big a hit as the chicken by any means. There is also a terrific vendor of cabecou and other cheeses that we saw again twice that week at other markets.

After lunch at Marnac, we drove to the Casino hypermarche outside Sarlat, making note of a sign along the road outside Beynac announcing fresh cepes (next to a roast chicken place that was closed on Sunday).

We went a bit wild in the supermarket, piling carts high with all sorts of foodstuffs, as we planned to have lunches out and most dinners at the house. The rental house came with virtually no staples in the kitchen; we had to buy soap, salt, paper towels, and olive oil, etc. I wonder about all of the great stuff we had to leave behind...still there for the next group? I should mention a great gift item: Fleur de Sel which is quite inexpensive comapred to US prices..I paid just under 3 Euro for one of the little cork-topped round containers from the Camargue. And of course we stocked up on wines; Bergerac pecharmant; Monbazillac; Cahors; Madiran; Jurancon; Gaillac... we bought them all! Fabulous!

That about completed our first day in the Dordogne. You know the dinner menu so I will close here and return tomorrow, a day when many restaurants are closed.

Yummmm.....sounds like a great trip. We will be in the Dordogne in July so I am following along for restaurant ideas! Thanks.

ekskrunchy, we were disappointed in the Sarlat rotisserie chicken too. We didn't make the Sunday St. Cyprien market but I'm noting that famous St. Cyprien chicken with pommes Sardalaise for next time.

On Monday, our second full day in the region, we set out after breakfast in the house in Domme for Chateau Marqueyssac, which sits high on a ridge overlooking the Dordogne River and its valley. Along with the exterior of the imposing chateau, the attractions here are 16th Century gardens which sprawl over many acres and across terraces planted with over 150,000 exquisitely trimmed boxwood hedges. There are several trails winding through the gardens and marked to indicate the plant specimens, including one that leads to a belvedere with a stunning view of the river and the town of La Roque far below.

After a stroll along the trails, it was time for lunch. This being a Monday, La Belle Etoile was closed, as were many other restaurants in the area. Chateau Marqueyssac offers dining at outdoor tables on a terrace with a superb view of the valley and it was here that we had a light lunch of salads, cider, and ice cream desserts. Although the food is not inspiring it was satisfactory and the restaurant was certainly convenient on a day when there were few options in the area and when the weather was lovely.

After lunch we drove the few minutes to La Roque Gageac, one of France's Plus Belle Villages and certainly worthy of this designation with its maze of honey-colored stone houses tumbling down a south-facing cliff seemingly into the Dordogne below. We parked the car in one of the large metered lots at road level and soon boarded the 2pm gabare tour offered by:

www.norbert.fr

The hour-long guided tour in French but, with English translation headsets, takes visitors in a flat-bottomed boat of the type that once plied this section of the river carrying cheeses, oak from which wine barrels were crafted, and chestnut which was formed into stakes for the vines, from the upper stretches of the river downstream to Bergerac. This river trade died out after the railway line reached Sarlat and the rest of the Valley beginning in the late 19th Century.

At the edge of La Roque Gageac we passed a structure known as the Leper's house, where the afflicted of the town were made to live as a kind of human shield to deter intruders from entering the village. Or so the guide said.... I found this fascinating. The guide gives a set speech but is most willing to answer questions we had incuding some about fishing in the River; salmon and other fish were once plentiful but any salmon on menus in the area nowdays is most likely farmed and certainly not from the immediate area.

After the conclusion of the tour, we piled into the cars and backtracked west towards St. Cyprien to seek out the cepe vendor we had seen the day before. We found him inside his hangar-like warehouse piled with wooden crate of the edible mushroom. The vendor is a middleman between the mushrooms gatherers and area restaurants and he was an excellent source of information regarding places to eat. The cepes were priced at 12 Euro per kilo (I saw them last week in New York City for $48.00 per pound!) We purchased a two kilo crate and set off towards Domme with our bounty. For dinner that night we had......yes, cepes! Sauteed in olive oil with shallots and parsley and served with crusty baguette traditional. (Bakeries often sell two types of baguette, the ordinary one and the more costly but usually far superior "traditional" baguette, so make sure to ask for these) The mushrooms we did not use that night found their way later in the week into a hearty soup (we saved those chicken carcasses from the night before for stock) later in the week.

.......tomorrow..Le Bugue Tuesday market, the Route du Cingle, lunch at the vaunted Le Vieux Logis in Tremolat, and many miles of Michelin "green" (scenic) roads.

ekscrunchy, I'm anxiously waiting to see whether you enjoyed your Tuesday outings and eatings as much as we did!

Did you use the headphones on the gabare cruise? We were the only English speakers on ours. I tried the headphones briefly--pretty scratchy. I did manage to hear the part where 12 houses of La Roque Gigeac were destroyed when part of the cliffs slid away, killing the 3 people who were not in church that Sunday. Hmmm. Luckily I had one night of sleep before I heard all this stuff!

I used the headphones and while the sound was fine, I immediately realized that they offered a translation of only a portion of what the guide way saying. Luckily, our guide was fluent in English so we spoke to her in that language after she had completed the script for the tour. I had scoffed at the boat tour for being too touristy the first time I was in the area but it really was lovely..as much for the views as for the actual patter of the headsets.

Moolyn I am glad you are having fun reading. You were such a help to me in planning this jaunt.

Tuesday morning we set off from Domme to the market in Le Bugue. After taking a wrong turn at St. Cyprien, we finally arrived at this very large market which winds along the street from one end of Le Bugue to another. This was the largest of the markets we visited that week and one of the best, although the roast chickens were nowhere to be seen! Perhaps they are more of Sunday specialty so people can bring them home for family dinner..?? Never mind, for we found plenty to buy here including several varieties of cabecou and other goat and sheep cheeses; Auvergnat sausages; olives; and prune eau d'vie.

Then we were off through the achingly beautiful countryside, through "Plus Beaux" Limeuil at the confluence of the Vezere and the Dordogne and along the Route du Cingle, a corniche road which winds above a dramatic loop in the Dordogne River.

Tremolat is the quintessential Dordogne village. Our destination here was the Relais Chateau property, Le Vieux Logis, where we had booked a table for lunch. The dining room, inside a renovated tobacco drying barn, is quite cozy in spite of the Logis status as one of the best Dordogne restaurants and possession of a Michelin star.
During the week the restaurant offers a 32 euro tasting menu which represents an excellent value.
We dined on a several amuse, followed by a succession of courses which included fois gras, rabbit terrine, mushroom cappucino, line-caught bar, loin of lamb, a medley of desserts, and a host of other small plates which I have forgotten. With a few bottles of local Bergerac wines, the total for 6 people came to just under 300 Euro. I recommend this place, although several of the touches might seem a bit contrived, such as the waiter presenting a tray of tightly wound napkins which he then annointed with acidulated water to expand them...hard to describe here. The hotel itself is lovely with its ivy-draped walls and cozy public spaces..would be a fine place to spend a few days to explore this area of the region.

www.vieux-logis.com

After our many coursed and multi-houred lunch, we strolled around lovely Tremolat which looks just as it does in the 1970s Chabrol film, Le Boucher and no doubt much the same as it did centuries ago. An absolute jewel.

We made our way back to Domme by taking Michelin "green" roads, through Siorac, Marnac, beautiful, miniscule Berbiguieres to Castelnaud to see the castle, and then on to Domme. That night we snacked on the bounty from the market before retiring early.

Next day...Sarlat market and Lascaux II and the Vezere Valley.

Something I noticed on this trip but forgot to mention, so I will do it here:

In the US, sweet wines are usually relegated to after the meal with the exception of serving Sauternes (or Beaumse de Venise, or another sweet white) with fois gras, which is a well-known pairing. But I had not realized that before the meal, when the aperitif is offered, it is considered usual in the SouthWest (and perhaps throughout France) to drink a sweet wine, such as a sweet Jurancon or a Monbazillac. Perhaps this is not news to many people but I foound it interesting, especially because I tend to like these wines.

Will get back to the report later today..

ekskrunchy, your Tuesday expedition to the Market in le Bugue followed by lunch in Tremolat at le Vieux Logis brings back fond memories. I don't remember the napkin trick but was impressed by the constant attention and changes of plates and cutlery.

ekscrunchy,

The Vieux Logis was by far my best dining while in the Sarlat area in September! It is also a place that I could stay..except for it being a bit distant.

Glad you enjoyed your trip....

Thanks..glad you are enjoying. Gracejoan, I would have to agree, based on the few restaurant experiences we had that week. Although I had a really really good meal at a Ferme Auberge near Martel, and a good one at L"Esplanade. Neither was in the Le Vieux Logis category. Next time I would like to have dinner there and chose from the Carte. By the way, where are you off to next in search of good eats? I like your style!

Moolyn, your report is awesome (I really hate the use that word gets nowdays but in the case of your report, I think I can use it safely..I am loving it!) The portion about the woad dying was fascinating...

And where are YOU off to next?

ekscrunchy,

I am heading to Paris on 2/4. It has been several years since I have been to Paris as I have been wandering all over other places of France and a month in the south of Spain/Portugal. I used to go to Paris at least once a year.

Excited about getting back to Paris and now will finally get to see the Monet Water Lily panels with the Orangerie now open. The hotel will make my reseration.

I am doing it up well. The Westminster has a good winter special. It is a lovely hotel and has the Celadon Michelin starred restaurant. The hotel will meet my flight for airport transportaion both ways.

I am working on my restaurants. I like e-gullet site for the best updates on what is going on restaurant wise. Many food experts. I have a pretty good list now and will probably do more updating before letting the hotel make my reservations.

Anxious to get back to Paris!! A good winter break. It may become an annual trip time..time will tell!!
Joan

Joan your trip sounds like it will be fabulous. I also like eGullet. I looked for the Pudlo guide last month, thinking I would buy one but it was not as easy to find as I thought it would be so I sort of gave up the search.

The SW is an area that I can see will be calling me back again and again..want to do more exploring over the border around Pamplona next time. But I also hear Normandy/Brittany and, to a lesser extent, Burgundy/Rhone, calling...

I always enjoy reading your posts...keep up the good work and keep relishing!

The new Publo can be reserved with Amazon for publication availability in May.

I have been gathering information on Brittany for some time now. It is a big area!! I think I would go for a month with 3 locations for best coverage.

Thanks, Gracejoan. I had forgotten that they were coming out with an English version of the guide.
If only I had a month for Brittany/Normandy! My usual travel partner will only take a week at a time, although I can always stay on longer. I think with only a week we might pick two bases...not sure where since I have done no in-depth reading yet on this area..So many places to go and foods to eat....

I will get to the Paris part of my report one of these days; I really liked Ze Kitchen Galerie and Chez Denise; also Atelier JR as far as the food goes.

I don't think you will want to try both Brittany and Normandy in only one week.

I will spend a month just doing Brittany. I have been in Normandy and covered what I wanted to see while staying at the Chateau Audrieu.

'scuse for butting in but where is the Chateau Audrieu?

escrunchy, looking forward to the rest. Chez Denise was my favorite day for lunch. It lasted almost four hours. I was sitting between two couples, one from Normandy , the other from Paris and we got into a conversation that went on and on.

hopingtotravel,

Chateau d'Audrieu is near Bayeux. This should get you there:
http://www.chateaudaudrieu.com

They are a Relais & Chateaux member hotel.

Your report brings bake very pleasant memories, ek.

Thanks for sharing.

Your welcome, Ira.

Gracejoan, thank you for the tip.I will check it out and get to my report very soon...

Cigale, I LOVED Chez Denise! I walked in for lunch one day and was not only the only tourist, but the only female diner in the place. Lots of "fressers" at the tables so right away I had good expectations and it did not diappoint!

Grace..the Cheateau looks lovely. I noticed a huge price differential (greater than usual) between the categories of rooms....which type did you have and wht did you think of it if you don't mind...

I was alone too and the only tourist, as far as I could see. Our server was from Normandy and the couple from N. were friend's of his parents.. so much joking going on. Denise sat across from me keeping a tough eye on the server.
The chef was autographing his cook book.
Had it been in English I would have bought a copy. Bernard Noel is that chef and he insisted on autographing the page from Figaro where I read about the La Tour de Monthiéry that morning at breakfast.

And what I did not realize is that the chef is noted for his fish dishes. Many of the reviews I had read touted the meats but the famous cote de bouef grille was only on offer for two. I had the skate, from the specials menu on the blackboard, and it was amazing, amazing. In fact, it prompted me to begin cooking this fish/creature at home with results that are not bad but of course nothing like the skate I had at Chez Denise.

I can't tell which room category we would have had. It appears that they may have done some re-modeling since we were there.

It is a nice place, good service etc. Quite a bit of history..the war was all around them.........

We "did" Normandy from there and only drove into Brittany as far as Cancale to dine at Maisons de Bricourt..a 3 star Michelin.
http://www.maisons-de-bricourt.com

A very special place..also Relais & Chateaux member...

After a few digressions, to Paris and to Normandy, I will proceed with my report.

On Wednesday we headed to Sarlat for the celebrated market and found parking in the pay lot quite close to the center. Sarlat is a spectacularly handsome, architecturally rich centuries-old town and merits a visit on its own, perhaps on a less-crowded non-market day. (I spent three nights here at Hotel Madeleine a few years back). Our focus on this day was a brief stroll around the town with a focus on the market. Although no roast chickens were to be found at the actual market, we did find all the usual suspects: the goat cheese vendor; the Pyrenees cheeses vendor; the cepe man; the Auvernat sausage lady; the vanilla bean man; the olive and cornichon vendors; and several large stands stacked high with cans and glass jars of fois gras. Prices here, not surprisingly, are lower than in Paris and I was glad I stocked up on a few cans and jars of fois gras de canard entier to take back to the US. (Yes, they made it as far as my kitchen with no problem, I am happy to report!)

The stand, Nicole Roche, (coincidentally the same one I had purchased lavishly from a few years ago) is manned by a delightful guy who is happy to explain and to give out tastes. For just a few euros, he offers a set of 6 small cans filled with terrines and bloc products. For more money, there are the glass jars in many sizes filled with the whole livers. By far the largest proportion of products are now from duck, rather than goose, liver. I paid about 22 Euro each for 140 gram glass jars of fois gras de canard entier. Would be curious if anyone could give me approximate Paris prices, as I did not make note of them during my Paris stay.

The Wednesday market is smaller than the fabled Saturday venue but offers lots of incentives to buy nonetheless. There is also a covered market in the center of town, open on market and non-market days. Although we found no roast chickens at the market, we were directed to a rotisserie/butcher (look for the rotisserie out front) on nearby Rue de la Republique. Decent these chickens may have been, but they paled in comparison to those lluscious birds on offer at the St. Cyprien Sunday market. And no pommes Sardelaise were to be had on weekdays!

After the market, we paid a visit to the retail outlet for the Salamandre Distillery. Although we did not have the time to visit the distillery itself, located north of Sarlat (I have made note of this for next time)


http://www.distillerie-salamandre.com/fr/tailles_main.htm

..the shop offers the full range of their products as well as assorted mustards, vinegars and other condiments and food items. If only I had more room or stronger arms! The shop glitters with fruit liqueurs, eau de vie, wines...many in lovely gift packaging. We made do with a bottle of eau de vie prune to sample later that evening at the house. As I said, I wish I had been able to purchase other bottles of the various liquid temptations.

One thing that puzzles me is the preponderance of shops selling fois gras in Sarlat. Walking through the town center it seemed that every other shop features this product in every possible permutation. I know that it is an important tourist center and that fois is a traditional holiday offering but WHO is supporting all of these retailers? Perhaps Carlux or another local resident can answer this question.
(I did learn later that week that many locals eat this quite often; a taxi driver who would be enlisted to drive us from Domme to to Brive (yes, it is true) told us she has fois on a baguette nearly every day for breakfast or lunch when she is working..but would she be buying the product in these shops, or at a more local vendor..?? Where DO the locals buy theirs? )

After our market meanerings, we made our way along the Rue de la Republique to the western edge of Sarlat where we lunched at the Bistro de l'Octroi. The friendly (Scottish!) woman at the Tourist Office confirmed, when asked, that this was an excellent choice for a casual meal. On our last trip, we had a good dinner at Le Presidial but apart from that restaurant and, to a lesser degree, that at the Hotel Madelaine, the restaurants in Sarlat seemed less than enticing and we found the Octroi to be a good choice. We seemed to be the only tourists, and the place was largely filled with what appeared to be local businesspeople on lunch break. Housed in a lovely stone building, the restaurant is unfussy and casual. At lunch several set formules are on offer, as well as blackboard specials. I chose a set meal which began with a green salad and had, as the plat, duck confit (yes, again) which wa quite nice. Dessert was an etheral Ile Flottante; the chocolate cake was another excellent dessert choice. Among my friends, the consensus was that both the Limoisin beef and the daily fish plat were good choices. (Sorry I am fuzzy on details here..all in all a good choice for lunch at a resonable price; I think my three courses were 15 Euro)

After lunch we set out for Lascaux II. I had visited Font de Gaume on a previous trip and was interested to see how the replica cave would compare to this experience). the drive from Sarlat to Lascaux took us through Montignac which sits astrride the Vezere and presented, to me, such a pleasing aspect that I was sorry we did not have the time to do some exploring here. (Yet another reason to return to the region.)

There is ample free parking in he lot and tickets can be purchased at the welcome booth (I gather that this changes depending on the time of year; sometimes tickets must be purchased in Montignac)

Upon purchasing our tickets, we were told that the last English tour had already departed, so we joined a French speaking tour and descended into the anteroom for the introductory talk on the caves. After the guide finished his speech in French, I attempted a question in my bumbling, stammering poorly pronounced version of that language and he must have taken pity on me and the members of my group, for he asked, "English?" and when I responded din the affirmative, the guide whisked us through the crown and into the replica cave where a tour in English was, in fact, in progress. This was a big improvement and, even more so than at Font de Gaume, it is critical to join a tour that you can understand, as there is much to say about the history, the discovery of the caves, the making of the replica cave, and more tht one cannot grasp by the visual alone. There is a thrill about font de Gaume, in knowing that it is the "real thing" but at Lascaux, the knowledge that you are seeing a replica did not deter in anyway the thrill of the place and the amazing artwork contained within which is larger in extent and understandably, more vivid than that at FDG. I would strongly recommend a visit to both places on a Dordogne holiday.

www.culture.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en

The Château d'Audrieu does indeed have quite a bit of history. Shortly after D-Day, Canadian prisoners of war were executed at the Château by members of the 12th SS Panzer (Hitler Youth) Division. A memorial on the grounds commemorates these and other POWs executed by the Nazis at that time. Those interested in the details can find them here:

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=feature/normandy/memorials/audrieu

After exiting the caves, and stopping briefly in the adjacent bookstore, we set off via Michelin "green" routes in a southwesterly direction, along narrow roads (D 65 and D706) which straddle both banks of the Vezere River. On one of the loveliest scenic drives of the week, we drove through willow-draped St. Leon-sur-Vezere (certainly worthy of its Plus Beaux Village designation); Thonac; Sergeac, which sits on the 45th parallel exactly between the North Pole and the Equator; and Roque St.Christophe, the largest natural terrace in Europe and once home to a thousand people in its series of about a hundred caves strung out in tiers along the steep cliff which looms dramatically over the narrow road and the river beyond.

www.roque-st-christophe.com

Hi ek,

>One thing that puzzles me is the preponderance of shops selling fois gras in Sarlat.<

Did you not notice the statues of geese in the square? Foie gras and other goose and duck products are a mainstay of the economy.

We might have been scammed in Sarlat.

We stopped at a shop selling eau de viea and tasted the walnut product. Absolutely delish. Bought a bottle.

Opened it at home - Rotgut!

I agree with you about Lascaux II.

The drive back to Domme consumed the rest of the day and included three circuitous runs around Sarlat and several missed turns during which we attempted to find our way to the Gare. We finally arrived at Sarlat train station, where we purchased tickets for the coming Saturday's early afternoon train from Brive (where we planned to drop off the cars) to Paris. Here I will take a moment to salute the ticket agent at Sarlat who gets my vote for the most helpful and congenial SNCF agent in France. A toast to this young man, of Portuguese decent who lives in Limeuil and whose name I just know I jotted down somewhere..... He most helpful to us during the ticket purchase process. And he was more than helpful when, after we admired the poster hanging on the station wall, he ferreted out two copies and presented them to my friend and me. This colorful red poster, with a group of cute ducks and a drawing of a special train from Sarlat to Bergerac, will soon be framed to take its place alongside the map of France with fruits and vegetables that I purchased a few days later at Deyrolle, one of the highlights of my stay in Paris.....

And so we arrived back at the Domme house in time for glasses of our prune eau de vie, a spread of brandade, cheeses, smoked meats and sausages, and a superb chicken soup concocted from the leftover carcasses and market-fresh vegetables and cepes and served with an olive fougasse and other breads.
And so to bed....anticipating tomorrow, Thursday, when our ramblings would take us into a corner of the Lot to a walnut plantation.

Thanks for the Ch. d'Audrieu info. I had forgotten all those details. I remembered it being something quite nasty though..........

Ira, of course I am aware that fois is a basis of the local economy (how could one not be?) and yes, I saw the statue. What I do not understand is how all of these shops selling the identical product at a retail level can flourish in Sarlat. We were there on a market day in October and they did not exactly seem to be doing a brisk business. One answer may be that some, if not all, of the shops are the retail arm of producers who may do most of their sales at the ferme or at the wholesale level. This would certainly be true of producers such as Rougie and that other famous producer whose name begins with a "D..??" But what of the other shops? And the shops in Domme and in the other towns? Probably answered my own question with the producer-retailer link but would still like to hear from a knwoledgeable local..

There is a large difference in the various quality levels of the various eau de vies, just like with any other alcohol. The good eau de vies are not inexpensive. The walnut wine, which technically is not really wine, is not all that great in my opinion. Sorry you had a bad experience, Ira. The Salamandre products have an excellent reputation so give them a try next time; you may be able to order by mail depending on your state laws. You will certainly have an array of fine ones in Alsace which I see you are intending to take on very soon!!

ekscrunchy, what pleasant memories of Sarlat you bring back! I can almost taste that ethereal Ile Flottante! DH was not happy with the Limosan beef but we loved everything else at Bisto l’Octroi.

I agree with you about the English tour at Lacaux II. Our English speaking guide really enhanced the experience. Next time we’ll take your drive along the Vezere River.

You asked where we are off to next. We are going to the English lake district in June as we do almost every year but I am fantasizing about Paris, Italy, Greece, Croatia and returning to the Dordogne. The trouble with Fodors is that you discover so many new places that you didn’t know you had to visit!

lavendrye, are you a fellow Canadian? I found passing all the cemeteries in Normandy and Belgium very moving. People in Holland still think very highly of our soldiers who liberated them after the war.

eks: Thank you for sharing your trip with us.

I am really curious about your thoughts on foie gras production. There are some that believe that certain producers are much "less cruel" than others. Hopefully this does not sound too naive, but is it possible to make foie gras "cruelty-free"?

You´re bringing back very vivid memories of this same trip in Easter 2004. My wife was 5 months pregnant with twins...real foie lovers at present, I wonder why!

We stayed mostly at Logis de France hotels, cozy and offering terroir food at unbeatable prices. Will be back for sure, it´s just a four hour drive from my place and I´m sure my kids will enjoy the Dordogne (well, maybe in 10 or 15 years time).

Glad this is bringing back good memories for you, Moolyn and Mikelg.

Betty, I did not investigate that subject. When I asked the producers we met about the process, they insisted that the first time might be difficult for the animal and after that it does not bother them..they see it as the way to get fed and that is all.
An interesting sidenote to this subject is that fois gras and the fattening process came to SW France from Eastern Europe where there is a long tradition of eating livers in various forms. I believe it is done now on a large scale in Poland and other Eastern European countries. I realize that this does nothing to address the subject of cruelty that you are interested in, Betty, but I thought it was interesting.

more soon...

moolyn: Indeed I am a fellow Canadian and have made a number of visits to Canadian battlefields and memorials in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. You are certainly right about the Dutch people. One of my most memorable trips was to the Netherlands last year to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of the war. I regret not having posted a trip report after that one.

To get back on topic, your report on another thread and ekscrunchy's on this one bring back very fond memories of our two weeks in "our" chateau in La Roque-Gageac in 2004. Well done both of you.

Still wondering if anyone can answer my query about the wealth of fois gras shops in Sarlat.....

Next morning was Thursday, market day in Domme. I had been to this market in early May, four years ago, and was surprised at the difference in its size between spring and mid-autumn. There were only about half a dozen vendors arrayed in the Place de la Halle (no roast chickens but plenty of cheese and wine) so we wandered around about half an hour or so and meandered back to the house with a stop at one of the several fois gras shops that line the Grand Rue, the main street in Domme.
Then it was into the cars (we had two, one Renault Scenic and one Peugeot automatic, for the 6 of us)
and onto the D703, passing Vitrac and the spectacular sight of the Chateau de Montfort, as far as Carsac (lovely village of 16th and 17th Century lauze-roofed stone houses) where we crossed the Dordogne River and set off east along the D50, marked in green ("scenic") on our Michelin map. The road snakes along the banks of the river and offers some dramatic vistas; we drove through
Veyrignac and St. Julien and marveled at the beauty of this part of the Dordogne region.

Our destination was a walnut plantation east of Martel, where we had reserved lunch for six in the restaurant of a ferme-auberge and where I had enjoyed a wonderful meal during my first visit to the region four years previously.

Le Moulin a Huile de Noix, Route de Bretenoux, (D803), 46600 Martel
Tel: 05-65-37-40-69 (open from Easter through October)

On a dirt road east of Martel and a short distance from the highway, this is a walnut plantation that has been in the hands of the Castagne family for several generations. The farm, and their walnut oils, were the subject of an article in Saveur magazine in Sept/Oct 1997 and again in a National Geographic article in 2005 (I did not see the NG article but was told about it by a family member, who thought it was in the November or December issue).

The raison d'etre of the place, of course, is the mill, which occupies a room on the ground floor of the building. The non-descript, modernized centuries-old exterior also holds, on the floor above, a kitchen and two rooms where lunch is served. You must reserve in advance, by phone a day or two ahead. A group of older French tourists filled the larger of the two rooms when we arrived, so we were given our own private room with a massive stone hearth and a long trestle table. Members of the family cook and wait on tables. There is a set menu, with two or three choices for each course. The food here epitomizes the heary duck-based cuisine of Quercy. We began with a frisee salad topped with gizzzards and surrounded by slices of smoked magret (duck breast). Terrine of fois gras was next (usually whole fois gras is on offer but this was the last day of operation before the harvest and winter closing so choices were limited.) For the main course plat, ***duck confit of course, although lamb is usually offered as an alternative, accompanied by a heaping platter of potatoes cooked in, what else, duck fat. The duck confit here was my favorite of the many versions I sampled throughout the week, and in Paris later on.
A fabulous, bountiful country meal, typifiying the fare of the area. Dessert was, as I remember, a frozen sweet like a semi-freddo or an ice cream frozen in a mold and served with walnut cake and molten chocolate. Aperitifs, beer, cider and local wines are on offer. We enjoyed a Bergerac rose and a white Gaillac and a few reds by the glass. The price of the meal, excluding wines, is 18 Euro per person and well worth the price.

After lunch, we trooped downstairs to the walnut mill where the dapper octogenarian M. Castagne gave a presentation, in French only, about the process of extracting the oil from the walnuts which grow on the property. On Tuesdays and Thursdays visitors can watch the oil being pressed. When we asked the gentleman how he managed to look so lithe and youthful despite his age, he answered with a sweep of his hands, indicating the bottles of walnut oil, walnut eau de vie, and walnut "wine" that stacked the shelves. Indeed, posters affixed to the walls backed up at least a portion of his claim, as they detailed the health benefits of the nut and its oil which contains a high proportion of Omega oils and other "good" nutrients. Along with the wines and eau de vie, the mill offers for sale three different categories of walnut oil which range in price and which are available in bottles of various sizes. I paid about 7 Euro for 25 cl of the highest grade of oil which had been pressed the day before; wrapped in bubble wrap, this made it safely back to the US and is now stored, as it should be, in the refrigerator.

After lunch and the visit with M. Castagne, we walked around a bit outside and caught a glimpse of workers harvesting the nuts which would be turned into oil.

This was a wonderful place to lunch and a fascinating experience and I highly recommend a visit.

By this time it was getting late in the day, so we headed back towards Domme, stopping at the handsome town of Martel for a brief look (worth a return visit with ample time to explore) and again in Soulliac where we had spotted a paper/book/magazine shop and where we were happy to locate the tubes de carton (cardboard packing tubes) that would come in so handy for transporting our posters and bottles of wine and oils back home in our (already overstuffed to the hilt) suitcases.

We eventually arrived back "home" to relax over an early dinner and so some reading about our next day's destination: Oradour sur Glane.

ekscrunchy, I have the September 2005 National Geographic Traveller magazine with the article you mention. It's called "In Search of the Perfect French Village" and the ones featured are Rocamadour, Saint-Cirq Lapopie, Autoire and Martel. Next time we'll try to visit that walnut mill.

Moolyn that is great! Does it describe the walnut mill and include photos? You MUST go there next trip!

Oradour-Sur-Glane:

Friday, which was our last full day in the Dordogne, was a dreary day, weather wise, with grey skies and intermittent rain, which proved an appropriately gloomy backdrop for our road trip to Oradour-Sur-Glane. A visit to this town, located west of Limoges, is one of the most moving experiences I have had in France. Four days after D-Day on June 10, 1944, Nazi troops seeking reprisals for French resistance activity in the region, methodically rounded up the 626 residents (including Jewish refugees from the East and Spaniards felling the civil War) of this small town. The men of Oradour were lined up at several points within the town and shot to death. The women and children were herded into the church, where they were tear-gassed before being machine gunned. The Nazis then proceeded to torch the town, as if attempting to obliterate their crimes from memory.

Before visiting the town, visitors enter the Centre de la Memorie, which outlines in graphic details the events of June 10 and the history leading up to the tragedy. Vido clips and meticulous exhibits (some English translation) graphically and methodically explain the suffering the France was subject to under Vichy rule and German occupation. The "path of memory" inside the center details the political and social context of pre-war Europe including the rise of Nazism and the defeat of the French; the "final solution"; the actual events leading up to the massacre including accounts of Resistance activities in the region; the Bordeaux trials which declared amnesty for the perpetrators and the reaction; and the decision to create the memorial.

Headphones with translation are provided for the 12-minute film, which tells the story of June 10 through the eyes of both a citizen of the town and through the eyes of one of the German soldiers. "Chilling" is an understatement.

After viewing the museum, visitors are then permitted to enter the remains of La Ville Martyr, where a sign at the entrance bears the words: "Souviens Toi" and "Remember" and asks visitors to maintain silence. Plaques commemmorate groups of villagers and the locations in which they met their final end at the hands of the Germans. Everything remains as it was that final day; you can see the charred ruins of the dentist, the wine merchant, the auto repair shop with the burned car's odometer intact....and the church where the women and children were slaughtered.

Admission is 6 Euro and the site is open daily apart for annual closing between December 16 the end of January.

www.oradour.org

www.oradour.info

RETURN FROM ORADOUR:

After the conclusion of our visit to the site, about 4pm, we packed up the remains of the picnic lunch we had speedily devoured, tailgate style, in the Oradour parking lot. The trunks of the two adjacent cars were open and the food platters, cutting board, roast chicken, sausages, cheeses, breads and wine bottles were piled, buffet-style under the hatchbacks while we gingerly tried to balance groaning plates and glasses while huddling under the trees shifting to avoid the raindrops.

The ride back to Domme was a somewhat comical escapade during which we managed to lose sight of the turnoff from the beltway to the highway, ending up in the middle of Limoges in the blinding rain. After remedying that situation, we took off, convoy style, on the highway south for a drive that took a lot longer than we thought it would (more than 4 hours!!) Perhaps it was the rain, perhaps it the heavy traffic near Brive, perhaps it was my poor skills as navigator and my use of an outdated map, and very likely it was a combination of all of these factors, but we whizzed by the correct exit at Soulliac while my head was buried in my book and the second car was following close behind, and quickly found that the next exit was miles and miles south..halfway to Toulouse, or so it seemed.

Rather than turning back, we took the next exit and by hook or by crook, pointed the cars in the direction of Domme. By this time it was pitch black and teeming, and we passed a horrific accident on the D704 near Gourdon. I see now that part of the problem is that I was using the same Michelin yellow #235 map that I had used four years ago. (This despite the warnings of Stu, as I remember, who advised me to get a new map). My map seems to show a different route from Brive to Labastide Murat, where we turned off. After stopping to phone L'Esplanade in Domme and move back our dinner reservation by an hour,
we continued on only to find ourselves soon bumping along in the pitch black, on a dirt road that wound through dark fields. After a hurried, frantic stop at a lighted doorway to beseech the startled homeowner to point us in the right direction, we set off once more and finally, shortly before 8pm, we traipsed into the house, shook ourselves off, hurriedly changed clothes, and set off for our final, and best, dinner of the week at L'Esplanade in Domme.

ekscrunchy, I'm glad that your very emotional day had a good ending!

You might have gotten lost anyway, even with a new map. We bought one just before we went and still found that the numbers varied between the map and the roadsides signs. We ended up following the place names rather than the highway numbers.

A somewhat belated response to your question about who buys all that foie gras –this is a question that puzzles the residents as well, and after 12 ½ years in the area, I don’t know that I can answer it. Unfortunately, I think that many of the commerces (businesses) in Sarlat focus only on summer visitors, who do in fact buy a lot of foie gras – that is what the area is known for, and that’s why many people come here.. That’s also why it’s hard to get anything in the restaurants other than confit or magret de canard. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it would be nice to have a somewhat broader choice occasionally. The town council in Sarlat has put a moratorium on cafes, feeling that there are too many, but not yet on foie gras shops.

And, regarding Oradour, it’s always a moving experience. We live 2 km from Rouffillac, which is on the way to Oradour, where there is a memorial to those who were killed on 8th June, by the Das Reich regiment on their way north. http://www.oradour.info/images/roufflc1.htm

There was a similar atrocity, although on a smaller scale, here. Along with members of the resistance who were killed, civilians and children were burned alive in the hotel on the corner of the road.

There was a great deal of discussion when the new memorial was installed a few years ago. The original wording mentioned German atrocities – never forget, never forgive. Members of the town council objected to the ‘never forgive’ which provoked an emotional response from families of the survivors. Eventually there was a compromise – the atrocities are deemed to be ‘Nazi’ rather than ‘German’ – but there are certainly still people who couldn’t forget – who leave flowers at the monument every year.

Carlux, that is most interesting. I read at Oradour, and in my guidebook, about the village of Rouffignac being burned to the ground by the retreating Nazis in response to Resistance activities, but I had never heard of Rouffillac. The memory center at Oradour was fascinating in many ways, not the least of which were the maps and materials relating to all of the resistance activity in the Dordogne region and the Nazi actions that they sparked. As Americans many of us are less aware of the horrors suffered by Europeans during that War but when in France, where every town has a memorial bearing a long list of names from various conflicts, many of the same family, it really brings history home.

So..the mystery of the preponderance of fois gras shops will remain just that....

Moolyn, thank you for your kind words about the maps..the town of Soulliac will remain as a reminder of my navigational shortcomings.

ekscrunchy, fine and informative report. I will copy for future trips to that wonderful part of the world. (I wish it could be soon)

Has anyone been on a tour with this company before. I intend to go next year but looking to see if osmeone used them and can tell me of the experience, their service quality etc. http://www.neolithictours.com

Thank you very much

....Friday night. Dinner at l'Espalade, Domme.

After arriving hungry and tired from Oradour-sur-Glane, we rushed to get ready for our last dinner in the Dordogne, at the Relais Chateaux l'Esplanade. One member of our group had mobility problems (she had a knee replacement two weeks after arriving home and is now recovering) and so one of us, unfamiliar with the Renault, drove her to the restaurant. Along with another friend, I went ahead on foot. Two of us arrived at the restaurant and were ushered into the fireplace-lit, paneled lounge overlooking the valley, where we ordered the house cocktail, the ingredients of which I cannot recall except for, possibly, Grand Marnier and liqueur de framboise. We relaxed into comfy club chairs and dived into the platter of elegant amuse bouches that arrived with our aperitifs. And there we waited for our fellow diners to arrive by car. And we waited. And waited. Did they get lost? Did they have an accident? After about a half hour they arrived with a tale of auto woe. The driver, who had not previously driven the manual Renault Scenic, told the tale of grinding gears, burning smells, and smoke emanating from the car. To make a long story short, we are now being charged $1200 US Dollars bu Europcar to pay for a stripped clutch!

Gettng back to the Esplanade, with the rest of our group present, we lingered over cocktails for a while longer and then made our way to the cheerful dining room and presented with menus. I will say here that the others diners were French, not the foreign tourists I might have expected.

There were so many temptations, it was difficult to make a choice. L'Esplanade offers a 3 plat-and- dessert- "Menu Decouverte" for 65 Euro, as well as three-course samplers, with an array of choices, ranging from 40-47 Euro. This being autumn, there was also a list of game selections, which included partridge, roebuck, venison, and the classic and not easy to find, Lievre a la Royale, which I had never eaten and which tempted me for a moment.

Choosing from the carte, and not the set menus, I had (copying now from the menu given to me after dinner and which now sits in front of me):

Escalope de Foie Gras de Canard Grillee aux Framboises sur un crumble (!!) d'epices accompagnee de Bonbon de framboise a l'infusion de poivre................................................22

Le Fillet d'Agneau du Quercy (AOC) roti au Basilic; Brochette de Ris d'Agneau, parfum de reglisse..27

La Variation sur le choclat l'extra bitter Guayaquil 64%, le chocloate 1er cru 65% et le melange 72% (basically an array of luscious confections made with chcolates of varying origin and percentages of cacao).......................12

It was a superb meal, accompanied by bottles of Madiran, Cahors, Pacherenc du Vic Bilh, one of the whites I first tried on this trip and liked very much, and Monbazillac. Service is most competent and very friendly and the English-speaking wait staff were eager to explain in detail the various menu items, as was the Chef, M. Gillard, who chatted with us during and after the meal. An excellent restaurant, fairly priced, and the best dinner of the week.
Hotel-Restaurant l'Esplanade....Domme..Tel: 53028-49-92. (Although we did not stay here, the front desk staff assisted us several times during the week, phoning various sites and offering general information, as we did not have a phone in the rental house; they were extremely helpful and friendly.)

And so the last day came to a close. We planned to be awake early tomorrow morning to make our way to the station in Brive (minus one car!) and the train to Paris, so after a last stroll along the esplanade overlooking the Dordogne, and through the silent town, we turned in, ready to deal in the morning with the matter of the wounded Renault.

Thanks, StokeB..glad you are enjoying. Stay tuned!

I will now finish the portion of this report that covers the Dordogne.

Saturday we had to vacate the house and take the train to Paris from Brive. Unfortunately, one of the two cars our group of 6 had rented was now out of commission. We contacted Autoeurope and were told to contact the breakdown service of Europcar, the agency who had rented the car to us. We had no phone at the rental house so had to do this from a phone at a cafe on the Place de la Rode. Europcar promised to send a mechanic but the mechanic did not arrive by the time we had to leave Domme in order to get to Brive. So we left the dead car in front of the rental house and let Europcar know; we entrusted the keys to the owner of the house. Two of us took a taxi to Brive from Domme; the price for this was about 80 Euro and we had a most entertaining female taxi driver who regaled us with tales of her years living in Congo Brazzaville; gave us recipes for duck confit; and explained that, yes, the local people eat a LOT of fois gras; she was in fact, having a fois gras sandwich that day for lunch on the road.

The situation with the car proved to be a bit problematic for we are now being billed by Europcar more than $1,000 US for the stripped clutch. That issue has yet to be resolved; we have written our dispute letter to the credit card company (mastercard) and await word of the decision.

We arrived in Brive with penty of time to lunch at the station cafe, which has decent food at decent prices. (Recommended by the taxi driver, who called it, "correct.")

The six of us were allocated a first class compartment to ourselves on the Paris train; because we had so much luggage between us (remember my large, book-filled bag?) and the train was not full, we were given the adjacent compartment in which to store our bags; the train controller then locked this compartment and would unlock it upon our arrival in Paris, or before then if we needed anything.

Upon arrival in Paris Austerlitz, we tok separate taxis to our various hotels; we were lodged as follows:
2 people in Caron de Beaumarchais
2 people in Hotel Lutece
2 people, my friend and I, at Hotel de Deux Iles.

And now we must unpack and prepare ourselves for our first dinner in Paris, at Le Petit Pamphlet in the Marais.

more soon....

Really great report; thank you so much. The stripped clutch story is scaring me, though. Was your friend not accustomed to driving manual or...?

Am looking forward to hearing about Le Petit Pamphlet.

Leely, this particular friend who drove the car that night had been driving the automatic car. He does know how to drive a manual can but was not familiar with this one. This Renault Scenic, by the way, had an automatic emergency brake and took a card, not a key, for the ignition. (The woman who drove us to Brive in a taxi told us that she hated the car as the brake gave many problems and that all arund it was not a good car and had lots of problems; but I don't suppose that helps us in the least!) It was tricky to learn how to drive it and this person should probably not have attempted it on the steep roads of Domme. I think we are going to be stuck with paying the tab although we have written a long letter to the credit card company.......I really can't see any alternative. If anyone has an idea, please feel free..!

I wish I could help but...the Scenic is a best seller and you´ll find it difficult to prove that there was a problem with the car. Also, being from the US will not be of help, in Europe 95% of cars have manual transmission...just the percentage of automatic ones in the US, they will probably take this as a point against you.

I don't think I'd like driving that car very much, either, and I've always driven stick-shift cars. Good luck with the $; I hope you don't have to pay all of it (or any of it).

Why did you choose Brive as the place to drop off your car and train to Paris? Sorry to be so inquisitive, but we too are planning on spending our final weekend in Paris after the Drodogne.

Leely, we chose Brive because of its easy accessibility to Domme, where our house rental was located, and for the fact that the train to Paris from Brive is direct. If you go to Paris from Sarlat or from Perigueux, which are also in the region, you would have to change trains and this was less attractive to us given the fact that we each had two suitcases and we would have to drag them down the steps and up again to change tracks.

You can also go direct from Bordeaux or Libourne, but driving to either of these places takes longer than the drive to Brive and because these two cities are larger, I was concerned about accessing the staion from the highway. I would recommend using Brive as a departure or entry point into the Dordogne region; there are good signs pointing the way to the station from the main highway and the station itself is fairly small. There are several direct trains to Paris daily. You can buy your ticket on the spot, or buy it a few days before as we did in, Sarlat. You can also get it long in advance don the internet or from an agency if you want to plan ahead; that is not necessary but might result in some savings. I think we paid about 70 Euro for First Class.

To finish out our arrival day in Paris:

We had reservations at Le Petit Pamhlet on rue St. Gilles in the Marais. This restaurant is located a few blocks north of Place de Vosges so we were easily able to walk there from our hotel on Ile St. Louis. This is one of the things I like best about staying on the Ile: It is a convenient location to access much of the Right and Left Banks. During the coming week, I walked from my hotel to The Louvre, to the Marais, to the Les Halles area, and to both the 6eme and parts of the 7eme.

We had intended to dine at Le Pamphlet, but that restaurant was closed due to a leak during our visit to Paris, so we booked its sister establishment. Since there were 6 of us and it was a Saturday night, I made reservations several weeks in advance by phone. I also asked my hotel to confirm the reservations the day before, which they did. Unfortunately, we had to move the time back three-quarters of an hour to accommodate our rather late arrival, and were told on the phone that we could, indeed, dine at 8:15 but that the restaurant was fully booked and we would have to vacate the table by 9:45. We agreed to this, although it meant that dinner was a bit rushed.

The restaurant is obviously a popular one, as it was packed when we arrived. Service is competent although due to the time constraints, we felt a bit of pressure to order quickly and not do our (my) usual dawdling over the menu. I doubt if this would have been a factor if we had not changed the time of our arrival with only one day's notice.

I began with a lovely tart of leeks and smoked salmon and went on to a duck confit. This was not the usual version of the dish but a deconstructed one, a kind of Gallic vision of shephard's pie in a good sense. The duck meat had been shredded and was served over a mound of lucious mashed potatoes with a dark green on the side. I was happy with both the presentation and the dish itself, although I was already longing for the simpler preparation I had enjoyed at the walnut oil mill two days before... Several of my friends ordered the Coquilles St. Jacques and were rewarded with scallops actually served with their roe in their original and not a decorative, shell like we see so often back home. Simple and good.
Dessert was a choclate confection, the details of which I do not recall except that it was wonderful.
Le Petit Pamphlet, like its sibling, has a Southwest orientation and the wines reflect this; we drank a Cahors as well as a Sancerre from the Loire.
This is a moderately priced restaurant with thre course dinners about, as I remember, 55 Euro per person with wine.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and slept, dreaming of the delights to come in the city of light.

Here is the information for Le Petit Pamphlet:

15, rue St. Gilles Telephone: 01-42-71-22-21

bringing to the top for everyone waiting on the edge of their seats...

ekscrunchy, our Europcar was a Scenic too. We were never charged for the slight scrape we incurred in Sarlat. Fortunately I have a standard car at home, by choice, so DH and I are used to shifting. In England we rent an automatic however because it's hard to shift gears with the wrong hand while trying to drive on the wrong side of the road!

I'm pretty sure that we stayed at the Deux Iles once too. I remember that it had a slightly more expensive sister hotel a little further along. There was no elevator and we were on the top floor. Once we got there the view of Parisian rooftops was very romantic.

Staying on Isle St. Louis was very convenient but I'm considering the Marais for the next time so am interested in how it worked for your friends in comparison.

Me too (ditto to moolyn's curiosity). Last time we rented an apartment on Ile Saint Louis; this next time we're staying at the very-mixed-reviews Hotel de la Place des Vosges. I probably sholdn't compare, but I know I will.

Thanks for continuing the report.

Moolyn, my friends liked the Marais a lot; they liked the hotel, too. But I still think the IleSL is a better option for location, although the rooms at the Deux Iles are not as nice as those, or at least the one I saw, at Caron de Beaumarchais. It was a room with street view. However, the Deux Iles will begin renovating their rooms after the first of the year. It does have an elevator, though; I did not need to use it because my room was on the first (European first) floor so I just walked up one flight.

The sister hotel is the Lutece, a few doors north. The Lutece has a fireplace in the lobby and the lobby is more welcoming because of that. The room I saw there was on the top floor with a view towards the back, which my friends wanted in order to ensure more quiet (not that it was noisy on the Ile). Their room, I wish I remember the number, had a lovely Parisian roofscape view. It was decorated a bit better than mine at the Deux Iles. And it also had a kind of sitting area in a small alcove, with a sofa in it which made it a lot more comfortable for two people than mine was. The price difference between the two hotels is pretty small; but they may change this when they renovate the Deux Iles.
Also, there is a third hotel on the Ile St. Louis which I think is part of the group..Henry something; this also looked very nice although I did not see the rooms, only the lobby. It is the most northerly (towards Notre Dame) of the three hotels.

Hope this helps you both! Let me know if I can answer anything else, please. I will get to the next stage of the report soon....

My first full day in Paris was a Sunday and the first destination on the agenda was the celebrated Marche aux Puces at St. Ouen on the northern edge of the city. From our hotel, we took the Metro from the Cite stop and soon arrived at the end of the line, Clignacourt. From the Metro stop, as has been written often here and elsewhere, one must walk along Avenue Michelet several blocks and under the highway overpass (follow the crowds). Once under the overpass, take a left at Rue Rosiers which bisects the market area.

The Marche aux Puces is actually comprised of more than a dozen individual markets: Paul Bert, Vernaisson, Cambo, Biron, and so on. Each market has its own personality and focus and it is impossible to even scratch the surface in one day, let alone one morning. After some research, we decided to confine our morning to the Marche Vernaisson , its twisiting lanes lined by stalls busting with temptations from Puiforcat sterling to posters to postcards to ormolu furniture to Sevres porcelain.. the list is too long to detail here. Some of the vendors preside over actual stalls; some over warrens of rooms as elegant as in any center city antiquaire. I was tempted by a pair of Deco club chairs, (said by the leather-clad, Harley-loving dealer to have originated in the Cotton Club and to have been reupholstered by leather from the maker used by Hermes), by some bundles of hotel silver, by a mercury glass lamp base, by a pair of Neopolitan cameo earring wrought in lava. Prices are high but dealers will offer "discounts" and will help arrange shipping for large items. In short, we really did not have the time to abandon ourselves to shopping for important items since we wanted to pay a visit to the Branly Museum that afternoon. So, with regret and longing, we left, emptyhanded and vowing to return on our next visit to Paris.
Although I brought along a print-out map of the market:


http://www.parispuces.com/FR/Default.asp?frame=centre_environ.html

you can pick one up at any stall; many dealers use the maps as their business cards, simply stamping on their market and stall number on the back of the map folder.

So..I would give very high marks to St. Ouen from a sightseeing and browsing perspective. I was very sorry that we had so little time. From a shopper's perspective, you will see many many tempting and fabulous items in one place but do not expect any "bargains;" these vendors are not naive elderly folk selling off their prized possessions to keep themselves warm in winter, but savvy professionals who have a good idea of the price each item will fetch. If possible, do some reading (see the web site posted above) and decide which of the many markets you will visit..the Paris edition of the Born to Shop series has some useful information on this...

By early afternoon, we boarded the Metro again and, with a change, were soon deposited a short distanct from the new Branly Museum of non-Western art in the 7eme. The exterior of the building, designed by Jean Nouvel, sports the famous "green wall" of vegetation; you can see it if you scroll down here:

http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3583

This being a Sunday, long lines snaked out from the entrance to the Museum; it is possible to buy advance tickets, however, something I do not often choose to do. Although the estimated waiting time was less than 30 minutes, we decided to enter immediately which we could do by limiting our visit to the special exhibition, Self and the Other, which proved to be fascinating. As with Bilbao, one of the delights of the Branly is the bulding itself, although this oone has a fabulous collection as well, by all accounts I have read. The Branly also has a reportedly excellent restaurant, which has a terrace affording a stellar view of the Eiffel Tower.

By this time the day was drawing to a close and we had one more essential stop to make; my friend, who was leaving the city the next day, wanted to stock up on Mariage Freres heavenly teas, so we headed to their outpost in the 6eme.

more soon...tea, an oyster sampling at the oldest cafe in Paris, and dinner at Le Reminet..

If you are an aficionado/a of tea, you already know about Mariage Freres and if you are not, suffice to say that this store (there are three locations in Paris; we visited the Rive Gauche branch, 13, rue des Grands-Augustins, 6eme) is not only one of the city's most famous food purveyors, but the shops are among the most beautiful I have ever seen. And the teas! Oh, the teas! Their sale booklet runs 7 pages of tiny typeface; you don't simply ask for tea here, you specify if you will drink it in the morning, the afternoon, or before bed. Do you want flavored tea? Red tea? White tea? Ceylanese tea, well there is a wondrous choice of 35 blends from the island of Sri Lanka alone..... I purchased a two types: Marco Polo and Empereur Cheng-Nung and after my first sip of Marco Polo after I returned home, I kicked myself for not filling my suitcase... My partner, until now a confirmed Lipton man, is now a convert as well.

www.mariagefreres.com

There is a cafe upstairs in this location and we were starving for by this time it was close to 5pm; our cravings were, however, not for tea sandwiches or caviar but for oysters. On the advice of the Mariage Freres cashier, we walked a short few blocks to Le Procope. Founded in 1686, this is the oldest cafe in the city (La Tour d'Argent, founded 104 years earlier, takes the trophy for Paris' oldest restaurant) and the interior is awash in period grandeur as befitting the former stomping grounds of everyone from Voltaire to Marat to Benjamin Franklin. More important, they serve continuously from 11:30 until 11pm. While I would not advocate a full meal here, for our needs Le Procope was perfect and we happily downed two dozen oysters presented on a pair of sampler platters: Belons (out least favorite); two types of Claires; and St. Vaast's. With a half bottle of Sancerre, the bill for this indulgence came to about 70 Euro.

By this time it was after 6pm and we had a 7:30 dinner reservation at Le Reminet so we hustled back to the Ile St, Louis and our hotel, sated and happy.

to come..Sunday dinner at Le Reminet

Here is the address for Le Procope:
13, rue de l'Ancienne Comedie, 6eme. Metro: Odeon.
..I recommend the Cafe for oysters and the simplest dishes.

I've been enjoying your report a lot. Glad your trip to the puces was so enjoyable.

Thanks for a nice read on the first day of December. I stayed at the Caron for 15 days, loving the Marais. Years ago my first time to Paris, I dined on that wrought iron balcony at the Procope.

Glad you are following, and enjoying. I forgot to post the link for Le Procope:

www.procope.com

We each had the oyster tasting sampler. This is a good place to keep in mind if you want a simple meal or snack at an hour when other places are closed. (I would certainly recommend it over the nearby Lipp, for example, which is also open non-stop and which has a sign in English in the window stating something like.."no salads as a meal..." That strikes me as a little off-putting.)

..(continued)

that Sunday evening, after a full day at the flea market, Branly Museum, and other places, we had dinner reservations at Le Reminet, a restaurant which receives lots of praise here and on food message boards. We had made the reservation by phone from the US and were asked to confirm two days before, which we did. The look is quintessential Paris bistro.. stone walls, mirrors and flowers. The pretty, and tiny, downstairs dining room was packed; there are only about 8 tables; several were occupied by foreigners (it was early, as our dinner reservation was for 8pm). Le Reminet is a chef-owned restaurant; the chef, Hugues Gournay, is from Normandy and he is much in eveidence throughout the meal, chatting with guests and offering commentaries on his creations and their ingredients. The menu, with quite a few fish dishes appropriate for the kitchen of one from Normandy, I suppose, is inventive without being offensive to traditional tastes.

I began with a veloute of potimarron. Potimarron is an autumn squash originally from Japan. (In the US we kow it as hokkaido squash.) The Chef Gournay described as a combination of pumpkin and chestnut (hence the "marron" in its name)and I did detect a faint chestnut taste in the soup, which was a creamy essence of vegetable but was underseasoned for my taste.

Here is a photo of potimarron, and a recipe for soup:
http://cucinatestarossa.blogs.com/weblog/2005/01/le_petit_potima.html


Grosse crevettes (18 E) arrived next, large pink shrimp served, to my delight, with the heads on and resting on a bed of sauteed leeks (?) gently spiked with red curry.
Desserts revealed the Norman origins of the chef:
"Nougat glace aux Calva et Pommeau" served with apricot caramel in a sauce of Norman cider (quite a mouthful) closed my meal.
We drank Chateau Boucasse 2001 Madiran. A. Brumont Maumusson (23 E); Sancerre blanc, 2005, Pascal et Nicolas Reverdy (26 E) and an Alogote, Domaine Sorin-Defrance, 2004, Saint-Bris-le-Vineux (16 E).
The total damage here was about 60 Euro per person. Le Reminet is a lovely restaurant and the location, as well as the fact that it is open on Sundays, makes it a good address to remember:
Rue des Grand Degres, 3 (5eme) (a block from the Seine across the river from the Ile St. Louis). Having said that much, I will also say that to me the food is very good, but not of the exalted quality that I had been expecting based on the many rave reviews I had read here. By the end of the week, the memory of the meal here would fade somewhat in comparison with the delights to come.....

After dinner we walked back along rain-slicked streets to the Deux Iles, a walk of about 10 minutes.

....tomorrow, Monday, Picasso Museum, exploring the Ile, and NO dinner reservation!!

ekscrunchy, I did a little research and am almost certain it was the Deux Iles where we stayed but it didn't have an elevator then unless it was hidden. Small world!

I was very interested in your report of Le Reminet too because I've read elsewhere that the wife of the chef is a celiac so he is very knowledgeable about gluten proofing meals. It was already on my list for the next time we are in Paris and now it's at the top!

Bookmarking this wonderful report to read later!

Thanks, Tara. I responded to your related post just recently..

Moolyn: Yes, the elevator was tucked in behind the staircase. When you enter the lobby, the desk is on the right, close to the door. And further on, also on the right, are the steps with the elevator behind and not visible if you do not search for it. To the left of the elevator is a kind of glassed in atrium area with plantings..they dressed up an air shaft from the looks of it....this is something you might never have noticed if you took the stairs..

I thought the hotel was just fine and certainly the location cannot be beat. One could undoubtedly do better pricewise somewhere else but to me, the location is paramount. Having previously stayed in the Marais (three different locations) ,once near Les Halles, at various hotels in the 5 eme and the 6 eme, and once in the Intercontinental (that last one was not on my centime) I think the Ile St. Louis is probably the most central, for my own needs.

One factor in the Deux Iles that might be an issue for some people is that there is only a shower; and stepping into the shower enclosure meant stepping over a barrier that might present a problem for someone with, for example, bad knees. this may change when they complete therenovation scheduled to begin in early 2007.

Glad you are enjoying. That is most interesting about Le Reminet and Madame Gournay. They are both very on-the-scene and easy to approach during mealtimes. It reminds me of a talented chef here in NYC that based the menu of his restaurant around healthful recipes; the impetus for this was that his son has diabetes. He also wrote a cookbook on that subject..

This report seems to be lasting longer than the actual trip, so I will get it moving with a brief report on my second day in Paris, Monday 23 October:

I was up very early that morning, as the friend who was sharing my room for two nights had to depart for the airport; she left the hotel for the nearby RER about 7am. I did some guidebook reading for an hour or so and then took breakfast in the basement area set aside for that purpose; there is no breakfast room, just sofas and a few small tables in a pair of snug, book-lined rooms. There is also a computer with Internet access; cards are sold at the front desk; an hour of access costs 7 Euro. (I bought a card and never had time to use it during my stay; the helpful Josiane refunded my money when I checked out) The hotel will bring breakfast to your room if you so choose. As far as hotel breakfasts go, this one for 12 Euro is not great although it did include fresh orange juice. I had a chance to see the breakfast served at the Caron de Beaumarchais later that morning and thought it superior (better confiture; pan au chocolate and croissants and baguette traditional; handsome white porcelain; Mariage Freres tea). But for convenience breakfast at one's hotel cannot be improved upon...and since cafe's on Ile St. Louis are pricey, the difference in price would not have been more than a few euro.

After breakfast, I set off for the Hotel Caron de Beaumarchais in the Marais, a 10 minute walk away, where I met two of my friends (and examined the remains of their breakfast!). Two more friends joined us and the 5 of us set off for the short walk to the Picasso Museum, housed in a 17th Century mansion built for a former salt-tax collector and thus bearing the name Hotel Sale. The building, and the gardens, are fabulous and provide a striking and unexpected backdrop for Picasso's art.
The permanent collection of the museum was given to the state by Picasso's heirs in lieu of inheritance tax. We spent about two hours viewing both the permanent collection and the special Heinz Berggruen exhibit; the tour was much enhanced by the (free) audioguide. I would consider this museum to be a must site for visitors to the city.
Upon exiting the Museum, we wandered a bit in the Marais and stopped for lunch at:

Les Philosophes, 28 Rue Vielle du Temple.

This is one of a few cute cafe/restos lining this block and sharing, I believe, the same owner. It appears to be a popular place for both locals on lunch break, and tourists. They offer a couple of formule options, noted on the blackboard, as well as a la carte choices. I had the 20 Euro menu:
For the entree, a tomato tarte, which was unusual and quite delicious, the compressed essence of the fruit served in a shell of flaky pastry. The portion was large. The main course was rather less successful: the fish of the day, rouget had been filleted and sat atop a bed of leeks. While the fish was fresh, the preparation was a little mundane for my taste. With the meal I drank a Bandol rose. The carte also offered a range of salads, croques, and lighter fare. I would recommend this place for convenience, if not for fine dining.

After lunch, I ambled back to the Ile St. Louis, getting there in time to see a fellow member of our group take off on a rented bike, brought to his hotel by the owner of one of the bike touring companies, for a jaunt through Paris. I spent the remainder of this drizzly but warm afternoon wandering around the Ile St. Louis and checking out a few of the island's shops, which include a branch of the popular Pylones, stocked to the brim with colorful, not-too-pricey gift items. For 12 Euro I bought a very cute shocking pink eyeglass case, which would become home to a pair of bright scarlett drugstore glasses I discovered a few days later. Also on the Ile St. Louis are a fois gras shop: a branch of oil merchant L'Olivier: a clutch of cafes and restaurants including one or two interesting addresses; assorted food merchants; Berthillon ice cream and its competitor, Amorino; and many shops and galleries offering a range of gifts and antiques.

After a brief rest back at the hotel it was time to turn my attention to dinner. This was a Monday night and many restaurants were closed. More important, this was the only night of my week in Paris for which I did not have a dinner reservation. Fortunately, I did not wait until the evening to address this issue, but asked the front desk woman at the hotel to make a phone call. As it turned out, she had to make a few phone calls, because my first few choices for dinner (Ze Kitchen Galerie was one; I booked here for later that week) were booked that evening for the early dinner hours and I did not want to dine at 10pm that night. I finally secured a table at Allard for 8pm, with the understanding that I would vacate by 10pm to make way for the next party. Since I was dining solo, I knew this would not be a problem. So with visions of theri celebrated duck with olives dancing in my head, I prepared myself for the walk to this vintage bistro in the 6eme.

..dinner will be served shortly...

On Monday night I dined at Allard, a classic bistro in the 6eme that was recommended by Patricia Wells, located about a 20 minute walk from my hotel. When I arrived, I was pointed toward a table in the back room. The room to be in at Allard is obviously the cozy space in the front, with its "zinc" bar, wood paneling, mirrors, framed drawings, and lace-curtained windows facing the street, instead of the plainer back room which even at 8pm was already crowded with non-French speaking diners. And so I declined the table in the back and was led, instead, to one in the front room where, at 8pm, only one of about 8 other tables was filled.

The surroundings look as if they have been lifted from every movie in the last 50 years that features a bistro scene. I was quite pleased that I had called for a reservation for, during the two hours that I sat there, I could hear several groups of hopeful diners enter the restaurant without reservations and be turned away, even though there were obviously vacant tables. Some of these people were quite persistant and actually argued with the staff, questioning why they could not sit down even though the place was not full. (I hate to write this, but these arguers were obviously foreigners) Well I soon understood the reason that they had been turned away, as one by one, all of the tables in the front room filled up with diners. From eavesdropping at the conversation at the adjacent table, I learned that there was a food fair in town which drew attendees from around the world.

The service at Allard was congenial and professional and the menu features many classic bistro dishes. I was disappointed to learn the their famed duck with olives was only available for two diners; I looked on enviously as two men sitting nearb devoured their portions. But not to worry; the menu promised other tempting fare. I began with a dozen escargots which sizzled with butter and garlic. For a change, the escargot were served in the shells in which they were born, and not placed decoratively inside all-purpose shells which would be used again and again. Next course was, yes, again, confit de canard. Good but I wished for a dining partner if only because I could have then tried the duck with olives! With the meal, a half bottle of Pouilly Fume. And for dessert, a fromage blanc. The bill totaled 50 euro (three courses from the formule menu for 32 euro; 18 Euro for the wine).

The zinc bar at Allard was so beautiful that I did a bit of reading on the subject and learned that the reason for this tradition was that many of the early proprietors of bistros hailed from the Auvergne, a region rich in tin. Most of the bars today that we think of as being zinc, an alloy of tin similar to pewter, are actually tin.

Allard, 41, rue St. Andre des Arts, 6 eme

I don't remember much of my chemistry class, but I do remember that zinc is an element (Zn) rather than an alloy. Tin is a different element (Sn). I always have wondered about the zinc bars, and wondered what else might be made of zinc, something we don't seem to use decoratively so much in the US.

I would have failed chemistry had not my uncle, who taught the subject, tutored me. From what I understand, in the past many bars were crafted from zinc and the establishments became known as "le zincs." Today there is one remaining manufacturer of zinc-like bars in the Paris area and the bars they make are actually made from tin and not zinc.

Here is their site:

http://www.atelier-nectoux.fr/uk/references/tin-pewter-counter-tops-supplier-manufacturer-and-retailer-usa-canada-from-france.php

..continued..

After breakfast at the hotel the next morning, Tuesday, I headed to the Right Bank and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs on the Rue du Rivoli. This museum, adjacent to The Louvre, had recently reopened and I had been looking forward very much to my first visit in many years.

http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/

After waiting on line a few minutes, I paid my admission and received a free audioguide. For the next four hours, I was enraptured! From Renaissance arms chests to Ruhlmann cabinets, the history of decorative arts of every form and to fit every function unfolds on nine floors presented in chronological order. A few of the items exhibited brought tears to my eyes with their overwhelming beauty. Among the awe-inspiting room settings are a bedroom and bathroom from the Paris apartment of Jeanne Lanvin:


http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/fr/01museeartsdeco/03visite/01parcours/oeuvre04-51.html

There is a separate exhibition devoted to jewelery and to tableware. After hours and hours here, the biggest headliner of the season still awaited: The Balenciaga exhibit in the Musee de la Mode et du Textile, where two decades of the master's designs are presented, followed by the clothing of his successor Ghesquiere.

I finally stumbled out into the sunshine after 2pm, too late to contmplate a restaurant lunch. So from the Museum, I walked through the Tuileries and across the Concorde Bridge to the 7eme and eventually to the Bon Marche food halls, the Grande Epicerie.

www.lagrandeepicerie.fr

Packed with goodies from everycorner of France and beyond, the Grande Epicerie is a museum in its own right and I spent an hour or so wandering and inspecting the temptations before purchasing a ripe Epoisses to enjoy in my room later that day. Next a dashed into nearby Monoprix for a half dozen wash gloves, rectangles of cotton terry cloth sewn together to form a sort of glove that has a loop attached for easy hanging in the bath or shower. These are such great bath accessories, I've always wondered why they are not popular in the US.

I had passed up the shelves of cooking oils at the Bon Marche because I had other oils in mind and I next made my way on foot to one of my favorite shops on the Left Bank and the source of some of the city's finest oils, Huilerie J. LeBlanc, 6 rue Jacob.
This tiny shop sells oils pressed at the LeBlanc family's mill in Iguerande in SouthWest Burgundy..olive, walnut, hazlenut, pistachio, almond, pine nut, and quite a few others..in addition to vinegars, olive oil soaps and shampoos and other enticements. I had already purchased my walnut oil at the mill near Martel but I could not resist bottles of LeBlanc olive oil, Champagne vinegar, and argan oil made from Moroccan nuts pressed by the family. Only the fact that I would have to lug the bottles home in my suitcase prevented me from buying more, because LeBlanc oils are among the freshest and most delicious I have ever sampled.

www.huile-leblanc.com

By this time my arms were getting tired so I reluctantly continued my walk towards the Ile St. Louis and my hotel........en route I stopped at a boulangerie that Madame LeBlanc had recommended on Rue de Buci, Carton (??) where I picked up a traditional baguette to snack on with my Epoisses.

....to be continued. Dinner that night will be at Chez L'Ami Jean.

Here is the update on the rental car problem we incurred in Domme:

I had used my card to pay for the car in full with Autoeurope. Since my friend ws to be the principal driver of this manual Renault, she gave her Mastercard for the damage deposit when we picked up the car at Europecar in Perigueux. Due to the unfortunate incident with the clutch on the last night in Domme, my friend is now being billed for about 1200 USD in charges. She disputed the charges and just received word that Mastercard has ruled against her. The reason was that the cost of the entire rental was not billed to her credit card (remember I paid for the car). So here is a lesson: The person who pays for the car must be the one to present his or her card at the pick-up location; both charges must be on the same card, or at least this is true in this particular case. The important thing is that we are all back home safe and sound and no one was hurt! The rest of my report to come, soon, thanks for bearing with me.....

topping for recent poster's query

"The reason was that the cost of the entire rental was not billed to her credit card (remember I paid for the car)."

Good to know, although very unfortunate.

It's still early where I am, but I'm ready L'Ami Jean. Thanks for continuing your report.

Yes, Leely, this sounds like an excuse for not covering the charges....but we really have no choice here but to pay. And this comes on top of my recent receipt in the mail of a traffic ticket for an offense committed 11 months ago in Florence!

Anyway, this report is taking far too long. I LOVED Chez L"Ami Jean and will write my report of dinner there very soon.....the report is taking longer than the actual trip...again!

...that evening, a Tuesday, the five members of our group remaining in France had dinner at Chez L'Ami Jean, Rue Malar, 27 in the 7eme close to the river. Three of us shared a taxi from the Ile St. Louis, and the ride afforded us a spectacular view of the city, including a close up of the Eiffel Tower which is dramatically lit at night.

Chez L'Ami Jean dates from 1931 and for most of its life was a popular neighborhood Basque bistro. Posters and photos of Basque sporting heros adorn the walls in the dining room, outfitted with long wooden trestle tables which are set with handsome red-striped Basque linens. The place was packed when we arrived for our 8pm reservation and people were jammed hopefully into the small bar area, under the hanging rows of Spanish jamones, waiting for tables.

The restaurant was taken over a few years ago by Stephane Jago who had been sous chef of the celebrated La Regalade. There is some talk that he will soon receive a Michelin star and he is considered among the city's best bistro chefs at this moment.

The printed menu runs many pages, too many to allow me to comprehend what was on offer. There are also specials listed on the blackboard, and additional dishes of the day written on the slate tablets that we received shortly after taking our seats. How to choose? I immediately realized that this would not be my last visit to this place!

The offerings reflect a southwestern orientation; there are Basque dishes and southwestern staples such as duck confit and Pyrenees lamb. There were also several lobster dishes that evening, as well as seasonal game meats and cepes. Truly I needed an hour just to read the menu and blackboards! The service felt a bit rushed to me, because I generally need lots of time to read my menu and ask questions. This was a bit difficult since a few of my fellow diners spoke no French, so I needed to help with translation, and also because there were so many people clamoring for tables that we did not have the luxury of lignering, or so I felt...

The restaurant offers a 30 Euro formule which includes entree, plat and dessert. This proved to be an amazing value. We received a few amuse bouches which included a brandade of cod and a couple of other small plates. My dinner, the 30 formule, began with an entree of crayfish. I was presented with a rectangular wood plank, atop which sat a large glass bowl cupping a row of large heads-on crayfish dusted with flavors that might sound discordant but which would prove to be sublime and included ventreche (bacon) and vanilla. The waitress then poured, from a white porcelain teapot, an intense beef bouillon with a few exotic spices. Heaven.
For the main I chose the lamb two ways which was a double chop of Pyrenees lamb and a shoulder of lamb braised and served as a sort of deconstructed shepherd's pie, in a large white bowl over decadent mashed potatoes.
We were given two sides for the table: Pureed potatoes "Charlotte" and excellent roasted cauliflower..both terrific.
The desserts were out-of-this-world great. Mine was a "Marbre" of vanilla and chocolate served with a capuccino sauce and a foam of Tonka (??) beans...
Did I say this was outrageous? And my friends were equally happy with their dessert choices.
We drank white Gaillac and a Loire red, served properly chilled. With 5 coffees, the total bill for 5 of us totaled Euro 214; as I mentioned, an excellent value.

Along with the bill, we were each presented with a tiny burlap bag trimmed in Basque red linen which contained 5 madeleines.

The restaurant phoned taxis for us and we were off, bound for the hotels and already thinking of the next day....(my friends would be leaving but I had two more full days in the city before I had to head back to the US)....to be continued...

..tomorrow...Laduree, Deyrolle, and Atelier de Joel Robuchon...

ekscrunchy, I'm still following your delicious report and copying your restaurant recomendations for my next trip to Paris. Thanks!

Moolyn, thanks. It is lovely to read your comments and I apologize for taking so long to finish this report! I need to concentrate on my trip to Rome in January so must get to this very soon...

By the next morning, Wednesday, I was tired of the intertia that was causing me to spend 11 Euro each morning for a mundane hotel breakfast. I decided to strike out for something that, if not more economical, would be at least more exciting.

What better place than the famed Laduree? I decided on the Rue Bonaparte location since I wanted to do some exploring in that area on that day. (Laduree has three other locations, on the Right Bank)
To arrive at the Tea Room, you must walk through the bakery area where a rainbow of luscious macaroons ("macarons" in French) beckon like precious jewels from the glass cases. The pastel tea room evokes an Oriental fantasy with painted murals on the walls...quite lovely and quintessentially "Parisian.". One can order from the carte here or choose the set breakfast for 17 euro. I chose the set menu, which includes a glass of fresh orange juice; a plate of croissant and pastries (NOT macaroons); and a pot of tea of your choosing. Not being a tea conoisseur, I chose the Rose tea, because it sounded so great; I guess it is a specialty of the house because the waitress nodded with approval at my choice. The two standouts for me were, surprisingly, not the pastries, but the amazing jams, made for Laduree (I wish I had inquired whether I could buy some, for I have never tasted a jam that was so perfect an essence of fruit and nothing more, with just the right amount of sugar. Worth seeking out to bring home.) and the rose tea. All I can say is WOW! At this point (I had not yet tasted my Mariage Freres teas) this tea was the best I had tasted. Ever. Again, worth seeking out and purchasing to bring home..not sure if they sell retail but I would suspect they do.
I felt like a total hedonist luxuriating with my pastires and pot of tea, attended by a crisply starched female server and eavedropping on the conversations going on around me. After an hour or so, however, I wanted to be off exploring so I paid the 17, which included service, and planted myself in front of the macaroon-filled cases and tried my best not to ask for one of each. Due to weight concerns, I held myself back from ordering a huge box to take home (also I knew that these would not be at their best 2 days later when I was due to leave). Next time, however, I would visit the shop on the day of departure, if possible, and have a party of it with all the flavors. For an additional charge, the shop offers beautiful gift boxes. So I purchased a measly 4 specimens..chesnut, caramel, chocolate, and rose. Perhaps someone here knows the price of each one; I remember they are available in two sizes. In a word (I sampled them later that day and the next) Unforgettable. And just my style of pastry. On my next trip I must do more of a sample tasting at the other specialists such as J. Paul Hevin and Pierre Herme who, I believe, are considered by some to be rivals of Laduree....
And I might return here for breakfast but would order a sampler of macaroons with a pot of tea and forgo the set breakfast....

more later..

Wow! All I can say is I can't wait for your Rome report. Terrific descriptions.

Thanks, Leely..it is gratifying when readers comment...

After breakfast at Laduree, I walked the few blocks to 46 Rue du Bac. I had passed Deyrolle many times on previous visits but it was Adam Gopnik's excellent memoir about living in the city, Paris to the Moon, that sparked my desire to visit this historic artifact, in business since 1831.

CAUTION, THE FOLLOWING MAY OFFEND SOME READERS:

Deyrolle is unforgettable. The ground floor of the two story premises is devoted mostly to garden ware..good-looking clothing at decent prices; handsome pots; watering cans; botanical note cards and the like; and other plant-related merchandise.

Walk up the stairs to the second floor, though, and Deyrolle's raison d'etre quicly becomes apparent. Smiling down at you from their perches and peering up at you from their seats on the floor are the members of the menagerie: tigers, polar bears, rabbits, birds, and myriad other creatures, each looking pristine and full of life. Deyrolle's speciality, of course, is taxidermy. They began in the 19th century by preserving the bounty of big game and recreational hunters for private homes and, later, for natural history museums. Soon people were bringing in their recently expired domestic pets. These amazingly life-like animals fill every niche, wall shelf, and vitrine in the pale, llight-flooded paneled rooms with soaring ceilings.
After walking around, stunned, for a few minutes, I
walked into the back room where the real reason for my visit awaited. In addition to taxidermy, Deyrolle specializes in maps and charts for teaching. There are botanical posters and charts; maps of France and their former colonies imprinted with, for example, the vegetables grown in the various provinces and regions. Many of the maps bear Arabic writing, as they were used in schools in Algeria and other parts of French North and West Africa. There are posters of the steps of olive oil manugacture and of wine making. There are charts depicting the various breeds of goats and cows. And on and on. My quest was quickly realized when I spotted, for 27 Euro, a giant map of France showing the fruits and vegetables grown in each region of the country. The extremely amiable salesman packed it for me for the plane, rolled into a "tube de carton," while telling me about the shop's history and how they no longer like to preserve domestic pets. The reason: Many patrons bring in the recently departed animal intent on having them remain life-like for eternity. But weeks later, when the shop calls with the news that Fluffy is ready to go home, the no-longer-distraught owner is happily ensconced with the "new" Fluffy and no longer wants his predecessor. So Fluffy #1 joins the menagerie at the shop.

My poster made it home just fine and, once I get it framed, will have pride of place on the wall in my kitchen, a reminder of an amazing and unforgettable corner of Paris.

Here is the website for Deyrolle:

www.deyrolle.fr

And here is the fruit poster I purchased:

http://www.deyrolle.com/boutique/fiche/525/carte-de-geographie-les-fruits.html

I'm still with you. Love the fruit poster. And Chez l'Ami Jean sounds like a keeper.

Thanks, Niki.

After my visit to Deyrolle, which was one of the highlights of the week, I spent much of the rest of the day wandering around the upscale 6eme and 7eme. I halfheartedly tried to find a bookstore that stocked the Pudlo restaurant guide but gave up after I realized I had only one more full day on my trip and had a good idea of where I would be eating. (The English version is scheduled for publication in May).
So I confined myself to window shopping along the Rue de Grenelle, Rue de St. Peres and the usual boutique-heavy byways. Surprisingly, I did not buy anything else that day; I just cannot get up the energy to begin trying on clothing when on vacation and, of course, I don't "need" anything. Prices in the shops in that area are high, of course, sky-high in many instances, but still a bit less than one would pay for the identical item back home in the US, assuming you could find it. (Later that afternoon I bought a cute shocking pink eyeglass case at the ubiquitous Pylones; I paid 12 Euro. Last night I checked the price of this item at one of the Pylones shops in New York (Spring Street); it was $17.00 plus tax. So, yes, there is some advantage to buying in Europefor Americans; I mention this because this subject has been discussed quite often here). One of the better buys in Paris, for anyone who is interested, are Mephisto shoes; for some reason these cost much less than they do at home (a bit more than half, as I remember) although I believe that many of their designs are no longer made in France. I did not need any Mephisto shoes, however.

I gradually made my way back to the Ile St. Louis and dropped off my poster in the hotel before venturing out again to have a look at a few of the shops on the Ile, including the aforementioned Pylones. Here is the eyeglass case I bought; you can also get an idea of the somewhat fun and goofy things they sell at their many shops:

http://www.pylones-usa.com/item.php?osCsid=ce7fc30767890997137deb2de304d7a2&item=PY-GLE


After wandering around a bit, and making a fast foray to one of the supermarkets located near the St. Paul metro stop in the Marais (a ten minute walk from my hotel; I cannot resist supermarkets when I travel; this one was not worth much time), I returned to the hotel and relaxed over a glass of wine and a couple of pieces of the Epoisses. I was very much looking forward to my dinner that evening at Atelier de Joel Robuchon, where I had a reservation for 6:30. This is the only time that dinner reservations are accepted at this celebrated eatery and I preferred to have a set dining time than having to perhaps face a line at a later hour.

Shortly before 6pm, I set out once again, bound for 5 rue de Montalambert and Atelier JR. (Here you get an idea of how convenient the Ile St. Louis is for visitors who are not adverse to doing some wallking....I was able do most of my touring on foot)..more soon..

ttt

I was so glad to read about your trip to Deyrolle, one of our favourite places too, thanks to Adam Gopnik. One Christmas we went past the shop and realized that there was a proper 'creche' in the window, with a donkey, several sheep, etc.

Then the last time we were in Paris, I don't know what happened, but we couldn't find it - must have been on the wrong end of the street. I thought perhaps with all those expensive stores on the Rue du Bac they could no longer afford the rent. But now that we know it is still there, we'll be sure to look out for it next time.

Still waiting for the grand finale...

Again with my apologies for taking so very long..here is more:

Wednesday evening, I had reservations at the much-lauded L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, in the Hotel Pont Royal. At that time, and probably still, reservations at dinner are only taken for the first seatings so I had booked 6:30 and arrived a few minutes before that time. There was already a knot of eager diners waiting outside the entrance. Most were foreign, as in not French. A Portuguese-speaking couple with a baby in a stroller (!); two Italians; two American couples; a Japanese man accompanied by two younger women; and me. When 6:30 came and went and they still had not opened the doors, I began to feel a bit annoyed, as it seemed contrived perhaps to heighten the suspense. Finally the doors opened, revealing a slick and handsome dining room like a gleaming red and black lacquered jewel box. You are not at the Woolworth's lunch counter anymore!!

L'Atelier has no tables; seating is on tall chairs that ring the counter, a configuration reminiscent of a sushi bar. Here though, while the open kitchen is visible from the seats, you are attended not by a sushi chef but by a corps of young and friendly waiters.

http://www.hotel-pont-royal.com/hotel-Pont-Royal-restaurant-bar.html



We were ushered to our assigned seats and I felt as if I were in a theatre, waiting for the performance to begin. I chose the tasting menu and immediately the parade of dishes began arriving. After a few amuse, here is the lineup, taken from the menu with apologies for errors in transcription and lack of appropriate accent marks:

La tomate en gaspacho aux croutons dores
Le homard en carpaccio aux fins aromates
Les Palourdes farcies a l'ail violet et aux champignons (spectacular)
L'oeuf cocotte et sa creme legere de girolles (spectacular; one of the signature dishes and the best egg you will ever taste!)

Followed by: Le saumon mi-fume avec tortillons de concombre croquants

Then there was a choice of entree, either sweetbreads (ris de veau) or milk-fed lamb shoulder; I chose the lamb,
L'agneau de lait son epaule confite au cumin, served with semolina (sorry for mixing French and English so shamelessly here)

And for dessert:

Les fruits exotiques with basil sorbet
Le chocolat "sensation" avec un sorbet ivoire sur un cremeux Araguani

It has been tiring to type this but I can assure you it was not in the least bit fatiguing to eat it. All. A few of the dishes were wondrous; the lamb entree and the salmon that preceeded it were merely excellent.

With the meal, I chose three wines offered by the glass, a pineau Charentes; a Domaine Valette Perigord white; and a Domaine Charvin Cote du Rhone.

The whole evening was theatre, and in addition to the food, I loved watching the staff in the open kitchen and around the counters, and loved seeing the many plates that I did not sample, destined for other diners like the trio next to me who ordered what seemed like everything on the menu. (The tasting menu is one option, you can also order from the carte, which I will do if there is a next time)

So, in sum, that was my dinner. The waiter was most pleasant and I had lots of fun that night. It is a great place to dine solo, if your budget allows. There is no stuffiness and I did not feel in the least bit self-conscious being alone. As you might imagine, it is expensive.

After dinner, I walked back to the hotel and stopped awhile to admire Notre Dame which is dramatically illuminated at night.

Forgot to write that L'Atelier's Menu Decouverte, or tasting menu, is priced at 110 Euro. The total for my dinner, including three glasses of wine and 19.6% service, was 139.00.

Very soon I will conclude with a morning in the Marais and two of the best meals of the trip, at Chez Denise and Ze Kitchen Galerie.

Moving along here....Thursday would be my last full day in Paris and I decided to devote the morning to the Marais. Before leaving the island, I walked the few steps from my hotel and turned north on the Rue de Deux Ponts to the house bearing a plaque memorzlizing the 112 inhabitants, including 40 children, who were taken from this building and deported and killed in 1942. Chilling reminders like this one can be found throughout the city.

From there, I walked the ten minutes or so to the Marias and the Musee Carnavalet, the Museum of the City of Paris, which occupies a magnificent mansion, a hotel particulier, built in 1548 and amended by Francois Mansart (who unwittingly lent his name to the ubiquitous Mansard roof) in the next century. Unlike many other of the city's museums, the Carnavalet charges no fee for its permanent collections. The bulding itself is worth a visit for its magnificent architecture and interiors. Exhibits detail the history of the city through paintings and applied arts; I particularly liked the array of vintage shop signs for locksmiths, vintners, and the like. The museum reportedly houses a replica of Proust's bedroom but somehow I managed to miss it although I walked through twice.

http://www.v1.paris.fr/en/Visiting/SITE.ASP?SITE=02005

After spending about an hour in the Carnavalet, I wandered around the Marais, along the Rue de Rosiers, the main artery of the Jewish quarter, and the narrow neighboring streets lined with lots of interesting small shops. There are lots of tiny boutiques and a few big name designer shops and outlets of chain stores. I spent a few minutes in the Paris-Musees shop at 29bis rue des Francs-Bourgeois, which sells reproductions from the city's museums and might be a good source of moderately priced gifts.

After a stop at a gorgeous old pharmacy, where I was drawn in by, of all things, the shaving equipement in the window and where I splurged on an outrageously priced gift of a nickel-plated razor with stand (that, incidentally, remains unused by its recipient two months later), I continued my walk west toward the Les Halles area........

Hello Ekscrunchy,

"Unlike many other of the city's museums, the Carnavalet charges no fee for its permanent collections

Museums operated by the city of Paris are free, curtesy of Mr Delanoë , such as the Musée d'art moderne, the Grand Palais... see ww.paris.fr/portail/Culture/Portal.lut?page_id=4693. The national ones are not.

The plaques you saw are actually on school buildings.

Trudaine, thank you for the information about the museums.

I thought that the building with the memorial plaque on the Rue des Deux Ponts had been an apartment house, so thank you for the correction;

I believe the plaque reads, in translation,

"To the memory of the 112 inhabitants of this building, including 40 children, deported and killed in the concentration camps in 1942."

I remember seeing another plaque on a building in the Marais that had been a school..I think on rue Geoffroy l'Asnier where the Shoah Memorial is located.

..next on the day's agenda was a visit to the church of St. Eustache, (where Madame de Pompadour and Moliere were baptized) and one of the city's most important churches and boasts an 8000-pipe organ. Unlike Notre Dame, St. Eustache is virtually free of tourists.

Directly north of St. Eustache lie the remnants of the Les Halles food market which was relocated in 1969 with much controversy to a site outside the city at Rungis. The area around Rue Etienne Marcel, rue Tiquetonne and the market street of rue
Montorgueil still bursts with food and restaurant supply shops. I passed up the famous E. Dehillerin, among the finest cookware shops in the world, because my needs were more modest on this trip. I found what I was looking for at G. Detou. This tiny jumbled shop on rue Tiquetonne is crammed with all manner of sweet and savory treats at prices more reasonable than those charged by the Bon Marche food halls. Since my suitcase, the albatross around my neck, was already jam packed (see details above), I limited myself to just a few purchases, with great difficulty:
Moutarde Violette de Brive (violet mustard)
Caramel Buerre sale (bag of salted Breton caramels)
Gift Box of assorted Valrhona chocolates
3 bars Michel Cluizel chocolates (various plantations of origin..)

My total here was 23 Euro. If only there remained more room in my bag! As it turned out, the mustard would not make it back to the US. (I phoned Air France later that day and was assured that I could take it on the plane; that was NOT the case and it was seized by airport security who curtly informed me that "Air France does not make the rules..we do..."

But I did not know that then. By now I was ready for my last lunch in Paris. I walked south through the park stretching between Les Halles and the Bourse and onto the rue des Prouvaires where, at #5, one of the best meals of my trip awaited at Chez Denise. I arrived shortly after 2pm with no reservation and was relieved to see that there were plenty of tables available.

more soon.....

Having read so much about chez Denise, aka A La Tour de Montlhery, and having been unsuccessful on a previous trip to secure reservations, my expectations were high. Upon being shown to my table in the unprepossessing room, and taking a look around at my fellow diners, I could feel almost instinctively that I would not be disappointed. This is an old-school bistro with no pretense: Zinc bar up front (this one just might be true zinc; see Allard, above); beamed ceilings; walls hung with yellowing posters and cartoons; tables set with red-checked linens; specials scribbled on blackboards; no-nonsense waiters in long white aprons..all under the watchful eye of Denise herself, who tends the register up front.

Most reviews of this place mention the meat dishes, in particular the cote de boeuf and, indeed, this was on offer but it was for two people. (Cote de boeuf grille (pour 2 a la moelle)..60 Euro) Frankly I was not disappointed since it seemed a bit heavy for lunch. There are two blackboards hanging on the wall listing the regular menu and the daily specials which together cover most of the quintessential bistro classics, from escargots (6 for 11 Euro) to steak tartare (22 E.) and haricot de mouton (22). The wine list is as unpretentious as the menu; the most expensive bottles were 60 Euro and there were several choices on the short list for under 25 Euro including the house drink, a 2005 Brouilly for 24 a litre and a Muscadet for 18. I ordered a glass of Rouilly, a white from the Loire.
Tempted to order half of the menu, I managed to decide on a salad of frissee lettuce with bacon and croutons (10 Euro) and the skate with capers (24 E).
The salad was tremendous and could have been a meal in itself. The skate was, simply, one of the best fish dishes I have eaten in a very long time. Positively swimming in brown butter, the beautifully browned wing covered the entire plate. The pair of well-padded local men at the next table took one look at my order and told the waiter to bring them the same lunch. Absolutely wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. The meal was perfect; service was congenial and professional without being fawning and the food was sublime. After I paid, I met the chef who was chatting with Denise (his wife?) in the front; after I complimented him on the fish, the waiter pointed to a magazine article hanging on the wall that lauds the chef as one of Paris' notable fish cooks. All in all, a great price/quality value for 40 Euro, and a meal I will remember for a long time.

ooops..here is the information for Chez Denise, also known as La Tour de Montlhery:

5, rue des Prouvaires, 1er

Open Monday through Friday, 24 hours..until 6:30 am Saturday). (The hours are a relic of the restaurant's days as a canteen for workers in the Les Halles market.)
Tel: 01-42-36-21-82.

If you want to sample similar down-home atmosphere and food and you cannot snag a table at Chez Denise, walk a few steps north, toward the park, to Chez Clovis on the same street. Although I have not eaten here, I've heard good things about it and it appears welcoming and popular with locals, judging from the crowd I saw on the afternoon I was in the area.

coming soon..my last dinner in Paris and the conclusion, at last, of this report..

On the subject of hedonism in Paris, here is the review of a new book:

Paris: The Secret History. Sounds good!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/books/21ridi.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin

This report is really making me rethink my next trip to France. I read your latest installments and then start asking myself if I should just stay in Paris the whole time. So much I still haven't done. So much I still haven't eaten.

Leely, I know the feeling. From tomorrow's New York times, here is an article about Paris that mentions L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, where I had dinner. I will try to finish the report (only one dinner remaining and it was a great one) soon.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/12/24/travel/24hours.html?ref=travel

So finally, I will wrap this very long and drawn out report, in time to begin packing for my trip to Rome in two weeks.

Four days earlier, I made reservations for my last dinner in Paris at Ze Kitchen Galerie, so shortly before my 8pm dinner reservation time, I set out from the Ile St. Louis for the short walk to Rue de Grands Augustins in the 6eme, close to the river.

Chef William Ledeuil has gotten heaps of praise for his innovative cuisine which is heavily influenced by his stints in SouthEast Asia. The room, which you can see on the website posted below, is sleekly contemporary with walls adorned with large modern canvases and an open kitchen which allows you to see Ledeuil and his team at work. At my request, I was seated at one of the leather banquettes along the back wall near the kitchen.
The restaurant was nearly filled when I arrived at 8pm; most of the diners were French but there was a sprinkling of tourists including one table with small children. It became packed with diners as the evening wore on.
If I have any complaint about the restaurant I would say that the service is not warm. My waiter was actually quite pleasant and took the time to answer a few questions (he spoke English, which I found to be the case in most of the places I dined at that week). But the waiter serving the couple next to me actually reprimanded the French man for lounging on the banquette! They do not coddle their patrons here.

Any minor complaint vanished when the food began arriving. I am the first one to shun a "fusion" restaurant, but here the innovation and borrowing of flavors was a smashing success. The food is light, intensely flavored, and based on the availability of seasonal ingredients. I only wish I had had more time in order to dine here again..and again. I began with thon rouge, which was slices of raw tuna served with a tuna tartar over mandolined slices of what I think were two different Asian radishes flavored with ginger and coriander (and citronelle??) and set beside pools of mango puree. It was heavenly.
Next: Lobster and mussels and a tiny white Paimpol beans dressed with a foamy broth scented with galangal and other Thai flavors...a really amazing dish which was not pretentious or overdone depite the complexity of the flavors and the foam.
Dessert was the weakest course. I chose, on the advice of the waiter, the Pomme Rotie, roasted apple embellished with pupmkin emulsion and cramel puree and servied beside a mound of coconut ice cream topped with toasted coconut. Very good but not heavenly.

With (only one) glass of Picpoul (6.40), the bill totaled 62.40.

If this restaurant were in any city in the US, it would be very, very difficult to book a table. I would put Ze Kitchen Galerie in the "mandatory" column for visitors to Paris who have an interest in interesting, and more important, absolutely scrumptious, cuisine. They are open for lunch as well, and I believe they offer a set menu for that meal.

www.zekitchengalerie.fr

Here is an update on the unfortunate incident with our rental car:

EuropCar billed us $1200. USD for a wrecked clutch in Domme. As I mentioned above, we attempted to dispute this and were turned down. The person who was driving the car at the time of the incident graciously insisted on assuming full responsibility and has paid the charges. Several lessons were learned here, to be applied when renting, and when signing for, a rental car (discussed above) so we are chalking the whole thing up to experience and are thankful that we all (with the exception of the Renault Scenic) remain unscathed and uninjured.

The next day, a Friday, I checked out of the Hotel Deux Iles. My double room was 170 Euro per night (less expensive single rooms are available but I decided to remain in the room I had shared with my friend earlier) which represents a decent value considering the central and quiet location of the hotel on the Ile St. Louis, and the helpfulness of the English-speaking staff. I should mention, if I did not already, that the hotel offers Internet service through a computer in the downstairs sitting room; they sell access cards for this. Because I had not used the card I had purchsed earlier in the week, they kindly refunded the charge.

After checkout, I took a radio taxi from the hotel to CDG; this cost 42 Euro and was painless and simple.

Unfortunately, I had to leave behind at the airport my long-sought Violet mustard from Brive because the TSA persons deemed it a paste, or some such thing. I put up a half-hearted dispute with the TSA agent and the supervisor, to no avail. I was a bit annoyed, as I had phoned AirFrance the night before and had been told that I could certainly take mustard in my carry on bags. This, unfortunately, turned out not to be true. Let me say here that TSA enforcement is haphazard. Again, we learn from experience. And happily I have even found violet mustard here in the US, so my larder is stocked.

And here ends my long and drawn out report..thanks for reading!

Coming next....On the pajata trail in Rome.

Here is the violet mustard I found in the US to replace the one that was so cruelly torn from me at the airport; they also sell a similar product at the L'Olivier stores here in the US:


http://www.zingermans.com/Product.pasp?Category=&ProductID=P%2DVIO

topping for recent poster...

Here is a great new piece from the New York Times about Stephane Jego and Chez L'Ami Jean, where we enjoyed the wonderful dinner described above:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28food.t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin

Thank you, thank you for this report!! I was so delighted we have book a stay in Paris for October staying in the 6th, but now I know our week will not be long enough to eat in your suggestions. I guess we will need to stay longer. Thanks also for the shopping ideas! Deijrolle we see me for sure. Thanks also for including the websites.

.....topping in response to recent poster's query about small plates in Paris. Scroll down toward the end of the report to reach the Paris section..

I notice that you mention Le Petit Pamphlet in this revived post. This restaurant has changed names, cuisine and owners since you dined there. It is now called Le Carré des Vosges and has the same phone number. It is no longer serving Southwestern food and the style is somewhat more upscale than previously.

Having made a phone reservation without being told about the changes, we were surprised to say the least to arrive at a totally different restaurant at the same address. The food however was quite good.

Thanks for mentioning that...it is good to know.

Topping for information on Le Reminet, which is someplace below in the beginning of the Paris section.

I've read that Le Reminet has changed hands and is no longer the very special place it once was. I too would love to hear about any recent experiences there.

Yes, I read the same...there may be some newer reviews on chowhound.com

I was remiss a couple of days ago in not thanking you for this GREAT trip report. It was especially meaningful because we spent a week at Les Rosiers back in 2002 (I reviewed it at SlowTrav), and because we're returning to the area to spend a week in La Roque-Gageac in October. I'm especially looking forward to lunch at the walnut mill near Martel. Thanks again!

Aloha...perhaps I should thank you because it may have been your review on SlowTrav that led me to Les Rosiers! Anyway I am glad you enjoyed this very long report!

bkm

Here is an addendum to the Dordogne food section. I drove through the region a few months ago en route to the Albi area from Cognac. We were set on having lunch at Le Barreil but, although we arrived at 1:50, the proprietress would not seat us. She admonished us for not calling to reserve..something I failed to do in this case and I could have kicked myself.

Happily, lunch was salvaged!

We ducked into Le Table du Terroir further along the same road just in the nick of time. I recommend this place for excellent regional food in a flowery, ruffly room with a fireplace; the nearby hamlet of La Chapelle Aubereil is a real gem and we would have spent some time there had it not been pouring rain and had we not been bound for points further south. La Table du Terroir makes an excellent lunch stop for anyone touring Lascaux or visiting Montignac.


http://www.tableduterroir.com/restaurant.htm

topping for recent poster.....the Dordogne part of this report is after the Bayonne/San Sebastian section, in the center of the report

topping for Aussie 10; details of the Dordogne rental are in the middle section, after San Sebastian..

topping for poster looking for Bayonne information...Bayonne was the first stop so it will be early in the report; San Sebastian comes next..

Book Marking

Adding the article from the NY Daily News that resulted from our stripped clutch in Domme (regarding rental cars in Europe):


http://tinyurl.com/7kbpub

How can I have this tagged as a trip report? Can I do it myself? (I did send the request to Forums, but it remains untagged..)

Thanks!

anyone? Thanks!!

Ek...

Maybe it just got lost in the shuffle on an editor's desk. I had one of my trip reports that wasn't tagged and I copied the thread from my brower and pasted it into an email to the editors, a few days later it was tagged as a report.

Thanks, Low Country! I've already sent it to them twice but will try again!

Hi Ekscrunchy,

I just throroughly enjoyed your report, beginning to end, with my morning tea!
Loved your Paris restaurant and shopping info -- took lots of notes!!

Thanks so much for sharing.
I'm curious, do you take a little notebook with you into the restaurant?

dina

Dina: Yes I usually have a notebook. If I am eating with other people, sometimes I leave the notebook in the hotel and try to write a few notes before I go to sleep. Sometimes I write the notes on a scrap of paper, or on the bill; sometimes I cannot find that scrap or paper or bill!
The bill is good because it often details each item..

For Low Country Islander...

Ek...Thank you! I have to admit I'm slightly embarrassed because it looks like I replied to this thread back in early 2009....I need to re-read it! Thanks again!

ekscrunchy-
Thanks for sending me this link on another post. Incredible reading....so much better than work!

bookmarking

bookmarking

Ekscrunchy, great report. I am trying to figure out an itinerary for a trip next May. Right now battling between Piemonte area in Italy or Dordogne region of France with maybe a bit of southwestern France thrown in. If you were going to visit Dordogne area for 3 or 4 days (without car) where would you base yourself? Thanks for any insight.

I think you have to look into the public transportation options and, also, tell us what you want to do while there--markets, relaxing, etc etc.(??) I don't know much about the public transport because I've had a car the three times I've been in that area. Is there any way at all that you could change your mind and consider renting a car for a few days? The driving is easy; I know this because I actually drove there and I do not often do this in Europe.

I do know that from Alba, inn Piemonte, there are various tours offered by the tourist office and others that would allow you to gat around and see some of the nearby region..this was discussed in Marija's recent thread with "Naples and Piedmont" in the title....

http://www.langheroero.it/default.asp?language=UK

Visiting the Dordogne you really need a car. You could stay in Sarlat for a few days without one, but you'd certainly want to get around to chateaux, markets, villages, etc., and there is virtually no public transportation here.

About the only alternative is to hire a taxi to take you around, but that would obviously be expensive, and limiting.

It's not difficult to drive on country road - windy, but not difficult.

I was reading the Spanish part of your trip report, Ekscrunchy, and this caught my eye-

if you love Cal Pep in Barcelona as I do, you need to make a beeline for La Cuchara de San Telmo. We ate and drank standing but there are tables in the back outside that may be difficult to snag but worth a try.

we love Cal Pep and have stayed in an apt right around the corner from there in 2008 and 2009. Perhaps I should think about Spain and dordogne and rent a car for the days we are in France.

You mentioned Le Vieux Logis as a nice place to stay. How is location?

We will be ending up in Paris for a week (business conference for my husband) and will be renting an apt in the Marais. Will need to try some of the restaurants you mentioned in your report. Someone said Le petit pamphlet is no longer? We ate at chez janou last year and they seem to be very close to each other.

Macdogmom: The Dordogne and San Sebastian make a good combination. But do not forget the Pays Basque--the Basque area of France, especially the rural villages inland from Bayonne.

We once did a week-long trip that gave us a taste of this area (flying into Bayonne and home from Bordeaux) Although it was rushed, we did get a taste of all three areas. ( We spent the first night in St. Jean de Luz, then drove to St. Jean Pied de Port; then to Sarlat for three nights, and finally, two nights in the wine country outside Bordeaux (visiting the Medoc one day and St. Emilion the other; dining in Bordeaux one night) before flying home. This was partly a business trip so it did cover rather a lot of ground but it still worked out really well..

)I am only mentioning that for you to keep in mind...let me know how many days you have before you get to Paris and where you will fly to. If you did something like this, you might think of flying into Bilbao, or whatever the closest airport is to San Sebastian, and staying in San Sebastian without a car. And yes, you must get to Cuchara de San Telmo and the other top places in the old quarter and in the Gros quarter (we did not have time to visit that area,, alas).

Then you could take the train to Hendaye and get the car there..travel to the Pays Basque and maybe spend a night in St. Jean de Luz and two nights in St. Jean Pied de Port.

We had an invite at Les Pyrenees (known for their restaurant):

http://www.hotel-les-pyrenees.com/

which I would highly recommend, but there are lots of options in and around that town and hopefully someone else can give additional tips..

http://www.hotel-les-pyrenees.com/



From there, it is an easy drive of a few hours to the Dordogne.....

This is just one of many options and might cover too much ground for your taste; I am just mentioning it to give you an idea. I took this trip around 2004, just before I discovered Fodor's, so there is no trip report, but I am always happy to "talk travel" with you!

Thanks for the feedback. We are flying from Ca. And I am hoping to get non stop tickets to Paris. Probably would train down to dordogne region, maybe pick up car and then explore down to San Sebastian and Bilbao and drive back into France and drop car and train back to Paris. Or train all the way to spain and then get a car for last 1/2 of trip-the pays basque regin sounds interesting. I was there when i was 12, so not much memory of it all. We would have 9 or 10 days before we had to be back in Paris. I would love to use public transport, we love taking trains, but realize we need to probably get a car for at least the dordogne segment. We drove through Provence 3 years ago and I know how necessary a car was there. We did manage to tour a wide swath of Italy this spring without a car-even explored some hilltop towns by bus in Tuscany.

What do you think of Le Vieux Logis as a place to stay?

Sorry for all the typos. New iPad is not easy to keyboard on.

My son reminded me that San Sebastian is one of Anthony Bourdain's favorite food spots. Sold!!!!

Le Vieux Logis is absolutely gorgeous, and while it is a bit to the west of some of the other towns popular with tourists in the Sarlat vicinity, it is located in a beautiful part of the region.

I would not hesitate to stay there. Hopefully, however, you will get some further input from those that know the area better than I do...


http://www.vieux-logis.com/

Macdogmom-
I, too, have stayed at Le Vieux Logis. It's a lovely hotel.
I didn't think the restaurant was as wonderful as the hotel but there were other options in town.
At the time we were there, a few years ago, they had for sale in the lobby a few amazing quilt pieces done by a local woman.
I visited her home where her daughter was able to translate.
The daughter traveled with Cirque du Soleil and brought fabrics from all all over the world for her mother to sew.
Quite remarkable.
I bought a few pieces and had one framed.
Should you come upon anymore of this fantastic quilting would you possibly let me know how to find the artist again?!

Cannot thank you enough for your amazing report!!! Your research, your recall,your patience, your love of France and FOOD is remarkable! You have whetted our appetite for our trip in September & October (as well as creating a long list of must do's and must eats) Merci beaucoup!

bookmarking!! i'm going to both SS and Dordogne soon!

another bookmark so I can read later

Bev: Many thanks. I am truly happy when these reports are useful.

eks - how did I miss this the first time - what a treat to read as I sit in the Frankfurt Airport! On the way home

Great report. Will make notes and use this in the Dordogne in June.

I hope this will revive this thread,because I had such a great time reading the back and forth by a bunch of foodies.........and great suggestions as well.How about an update??I have not been able to find recent posts listing many eating/food options:favorite restaurants;fermes;local cheeses;local wines to search out;favored epiceries.I hope some of the Fodorites who were part of the dialog then will come back on and share their latest finds.We will be in the Dordogne for 12 days in mid-April,and will carry all your finds with us.

Having followed eks on her foodie journeys in Piemonte, Italian Lakes and elsewhere, I cannot imagine how I missed this the first time around. Having it resurrected just as I am planning a May trip to Dordogne is perfect. Thanks for bringing it back up--and thanks, eks, for writing it in the first place.

Julie, thanks again. I thought of you while in Barcelona earlier this month.....I now fully understand why you have spent so much time there in the past few years. Without a doubt, it ranks with the best food cities on the planet!

I will be on the edge of my seat waiting for word of your adventures in FRance, and in Asia, later this year! Happy eating!

Great trip.
I am only going to be able to spend about 4 nights in Basque
country. Where you suggest to stay, so we could maybe do day
trips in the area.? Suggestions for Hotels, restaurants, sights.
Keeping your review.
Thanks

Great trip.
I am only going to be able to spend about 4 nights in Basque
country. Where you suggest to stay, so we could maybe do day
trips in the area.? Suggestions for Hotels, restaurants, sights.
Keeping your review.
Thanks

HI!

Please give the rest of your itinerary, and a price range, so we can offer useful suggestions on hotels and restaurants. Will you be driving?