L’Ecurie at Le Fournil – Carlux – Dordogne

We drove from Paris in mostly rain to our gite in the Dordogne. The highways are wonderful and we love the numerous “aires”, rest stops, along the way. Some are fully serviced with fuel, food, washrooms and picnic areas. Others have only washroom facilities and picnic tables.
Our home for four weeks is an apartment attached to the residence of two former Canadians. Located in the town of Carlux (pronounced “Carloo”), it is about 20 minutes from Sarlat and central to most of the desired villages, chateaux and activities in the Dordogne.
Moolyn had visited this particular place, had taken pictures and had emailed me about it, when she knew that we were considering a month in Dordogne. Fodorites are great sources of valuable information!
This apartment was, at one time, the stable for the main residence. The owners lived in it while they fixed up the main house. This was and is a labour of love as they have lived here for thirteen years. Photos of before and after reveal the amount of change that this property has endured.
The word “attached” is misleading as the two separate residences are really quite private and attached only by a shared furnace room and laundry facility. The gite enjoys its own entrance as well as a private, hidden patio with table and chairs.
The apartment is open concept with a sitting room, blending into a computer-dining area. This, in turn, leads into a tiny kitchen. The loft contains a very comfortable queen bed, dressing area, sink and separate, enclosed toilet and shower stall.
I was not prepared for the quality and extent of the furnishings. It seems as if, when the owners moved to the “big house”, they left everything as is and furnished that place as new. There is anything and everything you could possibly want. It is decorated perfectly. There are plentiful top-notch linens, towels, robes, washcloths and a good beginning supply of soaps, paper products, etc.
The kitchen has the usual appliances plus food processor, pots and pans galore, bowls and sieves and whisks and serving utensils, flatware, dishes, wine glasses, etc. The stove has gas and electric elements. There is a coffee maker, kettle, French press (two in fact) and so on. We were provided olive oil, vinegars, fresh gourmet coffee, milk and two bottles of wine as well as spices, sugar, flour.
Internet access, availability of a phone, cell phone, satellite TV with several English news channels and English movie channels are part of the deal.
The sleeping and washroom arrangements make this place suitable for one couple or a single person. Children would be out of the question. The village of Carlux is 300 metres down a steep hill and hosts a bakery, cafe and butcher and convenience store. A car is a necessity in the Dordogne. Really you are on the outskirts of Carlux and it has the feel of a country home do to the private nature and large grounds surrounding.
Although the owners are on the premises, we have found that more of a help than an imposition. They are very respectful of our privacy. A place like this might not work for someone accustomed to a more boisterous, active life. It is quiet at night... and that suits us fine.
This gite is perfect France for us... everything we could imagine.
The owners also manage other properties. I haven’t seen them, but have no reason to believe that they are not similar in quality.
I think we are spoiled, though. This and our apartment rental in Paris have been so positive that they will be our standard for future rentals.
I have no connection with the owners other than renting their gite. I will be happy to answer any questions from my perspective. The rental terms are available at
www.yourfriendsinfrance.org

Once again if you want to see pictures, you must go to my blog.
http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=208537

hi, robjame,

what a lovely introduction to your stay. First impressions are very important and your gite clearly presses all the buttons. I hope that it continues to please as much.

the longest we spent in the dordogne was about a week - 4 weeks is such a luxury.

I'm really looknig forward to "hearing" how you spend your time.

regards, ann

Thanks ann
This the first time that we have stayed so long (4 weeks) in one place and it has changed the way we do things.
It is much more relaxing. We don't seem to have that panicky, "We must be site seeing every minute of the time."
We have lingered longer. We have been heading out each day but not hurrying through a site. As an example we completed the walking tour of Sarlat on two successive Mondays when the shops are closed and we could appreciate the architecture without hoards of people about.
We have been eating more (bad thing!). We usually don't snack when we are in a hotel. We seem to be stopping "home" for a late afternoon drink and a bite.

I have looked at these properties many times and am glad to hear that you are happy with it. My only problem has been that they like a two week or longer rental.

We just returned from nine days in the Dordogne and loved it and would definately return for two weeks or longer, there is just so much to do and see ( I am slowly working on a trip report) but I thought I would give you a heads up on two things.

Our absolutely best meal was in Domme at Cabanoix et Chataigne, which was recommended here. Run by a young couple, only about ten tables inside but also with an outdoor patio which wasn't open, it was the absolute best foie gros, and we ate plenty everywhere. They have a good size menu of which you can choose one, two or three courses, nice wine selection and I think that our dinner came to about 50E! If they weren't closed on tues/wed we would have eaten there then next two nights before we left.

Gouffre de Padirac was on stike and closed and they thought it would be for the rest of the season, so call ahead before going. We visited Lacave which was just wonderful.

For my husbands birthday we did the hot air balloon ride, amazing is all I can tell you, a definate highlight, including champagne in the fields after we landed.
Volez en Montgolfiere (Patric)
06 83 26 47 66

Rob:
Sounds like paradise. I'll just re-iterate the point about extended stays in one area - once you try it, you won't travel any other way.

Monday is our favrite day in Sarlat for the same reasons you noted.

Stu Dudley

Here are the first of the Food Reports for Dordogne.

Le Metairie – outside Les Eyzies near Font de Gaume
This was a revisit for us. Eighteen months ago this restaurant was nearly empty for lunch. This time they opened the second dining room to accommodate. I am sure it was unexpected as the hostess pitched in and she, the regular waitress and a server handled all the tables. Most of the tables were people from the UK and one even had a young girl about four who was amazingly well-behaved. We were all given individual attention. It is a wonder to see this happen and in France larger numbers than expected don’t seem to fluster anyone. Now at home....
We were given those puffy little appetizer things to start. Frankly I am getting tired of those things. They are usually tasteless, cold and flake all over the place when you eat them. Pleasantly it was followed up with a tiny bowl of blanché ail (garlic) soup. This had lost a little of its shock value as it is the same amuse bouche that we were served last time. Having said that, I am glad that they hadn’t changed as it is delicious.
My entreé was ris d’agneau braised in a red wine sauce with a little salad aux noix and a few marinated asparagus (interesting considering the time of year). The sweetbreads, the main attraction, were rich and sublime and I appreciated that it wasn’t a cream sauce. Good choice but a lot.
Sandra had an escargot entreé which were served around a compote of little onions, “gesiers” and a mousseaux of foie gras. Now the escargots were secondary to this layered concoction served in a cone-shaped glass. Each spoonful revealed a slightly different taste and we enjoyed every bit of it.
My plat was saddle of rabbit with a tapenade farci (stuffing) served with a mille feuille provençale and a carrot and a couple of those anachronistic asparagus. Le rable du lapin was tender and delicious and the presentation of the tomatoes provençale was neat. The sauce was an appropriate light broth.
Sandra’s magret de canard sauté aux morilles was her first choice of Dordogne duck for this year. The heavier meat choice was paired appropriately with more robust vegetables – a potato hollowed and filled with cepes and tomato and a samosa package of vegetables and tomme fraiche. The vegetables were superb and Sandy always looks for different vegs on each of our plates as a sign of a competent chef. The duck was tougher than I would have expected, but tasty.
Sandra’s choice of crème brulé with pistachios on a bed of chocolate ganache was more spectacular than it was in taste. It was flambéed at the table and the young server really layed on the almond flaming alcohol. That didn’t spoil anything except it went on so long that she left to clear a few tables until it finished blazing. I do admit to having a bias against fiddling with anything as simplistically delicious as crème brulé. Just try to make it normally, perfectly. Oh well.
I had a meringue with vanilla frais, strawberry ice cream and a berry coulis. Now why would you serve a separate little container of whipped crème frais if you already put some on the dessert?
The meal was delicious and I am being overly critical. I like this restaurant but for whatever reason it is a notch below wow. The portions are more than sufficient.



Dordogne Take Away or St Cyprien’s Answer to KFC
OK...not strictly a restaurant review but I couldn’t resist.
We don’t eat at restaurants all the time. One of the lovely things you can do is but “take away” at the markets.
St Cyprien market on Sundays has this wonderful fowl man who roasts all manner of birds. In the lower part of the huge roasting oven are the potatoes, being marinated by the juices of the birds cooking above them. Deux caille (quail), pdt pour deux personnes, some of those scrumptious, crunchy green beans, a small salad with bleu Auvergne and walnut oil dressing. Voila!

Le Meynardie


Salignac 24590
Tel. 05 53 28 85 98
This was a restaurant that we wanted to try last time, but missed it because of their Tuesday and Wednesday closings.
It is out in the country and combines well with a visit to the nearby gardens of Le Manoir d'Eyrignac. You felt as if you had made a wrong turn as you drive down narrow roads passing farms. Suddenly you enter a long tree-flanked lane which ends at a beautiful stone farmhouse.
The fire was lit and we chose a table quite close to the large open fireplace.
Our decisions were from the E37 menu.
The appetizers were toast with spread and garnish.
The amuse bouche was a small bowl of vegetable soup with tiny croutons, a welcome addition on this cool September day and quite tasty.
Sandra began with a terrine terre et mer, which was a nice combination of foie gras canard and scallops accompanied by a small salad in a phylo basket. Remembering that you eat with your eyes first, it was quite impressive looking.
My entré was a slice of classic homemade foie gras (mi-cuit) with wonderful confitures, salt, and garnishes. As expected!
Sandra’s encroute of half a pigeon, stuffed with cepes was served with a deck of scalloped potatoes, a plop of squash and a spray of pea pods. It was carefully put together and tasted amazing.
I had opted for a Limousin beef filet and béarnaise sauce served with the same vegetables but presented altogether differently. It is interesting that many French restaurants are carefully describing the type of beef. I think that this is partly to reassure the consumer that he is getting French beef and not some other offering from another EU country, particularly England. Of course it was done as ordered. They always seem to get it right.
Sandra loves chocolate and knew she couldn’t go wrong with this triple offering of chocolate ice cream, chocolate brownie and chocolate cookie. She always says that she will order the chocolate dessert and that I am to order something else and we will split it. The split never happens!
Last year I enjoyed the nougat ice cream which seems to be very popular in this area. I even saw it in the frozen food section of E.LeClerc. So I ordered it and wasn’t disappointed with this coulis and fruit surrounded dessert, topped with a butter-almond wafer.
The delices were special here and included chocolate macrons, a small jar serving of rhubarb-applesauce and a fruit bar.
We chose a bottle of 2000 Cahors called “The New Black Wine” that did not live up to expectation (or price). It should have been superb, but we have had better, younger and much cheaper Cahors.
If you said that this is the best restaurant in the area you probably wouldn’t get too much of an argument. The food is inventive, uses local and fresh produce, and is artistically presented. The wait staff are young but seem to kept on a short leash by madam who supervises unobtrusively.
We are returning to this restaurant for Canadian Thanksgiving lunch with our gite owners so I will be able to give you a second opinion!

If you want to see the pictures that accompany these reports, please check my blog:
http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=208492

I shouldn't be reading this when hungry.

Perfect, robjame, just perfect.

Anselm

You dined at two of my favorites !!!

You didn't mention the price of the meal at Le Metairie , but as I recall it was a real bargain - especialy at lunch. We also dined twice at Le Meynardie - once with Ira, Loiscon & spouses (Fodorites). I would call it one of the best in the region. Really an idyllic setting out in the middle of nowhere, down a long woodland road. Ira thought we were lost when we was following us to the restaurant in his car.

Stu Dudley

hi, robjame,

your description of your meal at le maynardie borught bakc memories of dining there, but with both our kids in tow, one then about 11, the other 15. She was no trouble but the 11 year old was very teasy - [it was the first night we were in our gite, we had driven all day to get there, it was the only place open, and there had been no shops open, it being monday, to buy food we could prepare inddors - not a good start].

the owners were charming, but looks from other diners were not faviourable.

not surprisingly, I don't remember the food!

looking forward to more,

regards, ann

robjame, I'm so pleased that you are happy at Le Fournil! Since you've shared its wonders with everyone, however, I hope it's available when we want to stay there! Now I understand exactly why Stu doesn't share his gite locations with anyone.

We enjoyed La Metairie but also weren't totally blown away. But I still think about La Meynardie longingly. Such a wonderful combination of location, atmosphere and great food.

Your landlady can recommend some little rustic country eating places north of Sarlat where you simply eat whatever is prepared that day. I hope you try at least one of them and report about your experience to us.

Dordogne Food Reports Continued
La Belle Etoile
Hôtel La Belle Etoile
Le Bourg
24250 - LA ROQUE GAGEAC - FRANCE
Tél. : (+33) (0)5 53 29 51 44
Fax : (+33) (0)5 53 29 45 63

This is another one of those restaurants that we missed last year because of days of closing, timing and so on. It is located right along the road and a window table can be favourable. It is more formal and I would guess that the clientele tends to be older. We were there on a Saturday for lunch and most of the other patrons were French.
We opted for a menu which included an entré, plat and dessert for €25 per person.
The amuse bouche was a small veloute aux cepes. This is a soup made thick with the addition of egg yolks and cream. It was superb even with the foam on top (the foam thing has been overdone and is tiresome). I have eaten so much Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup that any other is such a surprise with an intense mushroomy flavour.
Sandra’s entré was oeufs cocottes en tasse aux morilles à la crème de la chicorees moulette de pain de campagne. Doesn’t it sound wonderful in French ! It is a soft-boiled egg in a creamy morel mushroom/chicory sauce with toast. Probably she would not have ordered it had she known of the mushroom soup but not ordering it would have been a mistake. Delicious. Can you imagine keeping an egg soft in such a mixture?
Mine was foie gras pressed around an artichoke, which was a wonderful combination of flavours, and a small mesculin salad. It had coarse salt sprinkled on the foie gras which goes so well... and I am a guy who does not even put salt on corn on the cob.
Sandra’s plat of chicken a la fermiere (in the style of the farmer’s wife) in a choice stew of vegetables and morels (again), is the type of thing that I never order and then regret. She loves these home cooking type things and they are usually amazing. This one was.
However, I wasn’t displeased by my perfectly cooked slices of roast duckling with a bit of juice and olives accompanied by cheese dumplings. I still don’t like dumplings but the duck....
She doesn’t choose a chocolate dessert! However she said that the mara de bois strawberries and mango sorbet with vanilla cream was more than OK. Sorbets in France seem closer to ice cream than the water ice that we associate with sorbet and are usually homemade and smooth.
My crème brulé was perfect. It wasn’t ruined by the addition of marc or odd flavours or layers of pudding and the few berries on the top hardly got in the way of my spoon. The sign of a confident chef!
The delices were two of those caramel cakey things in the shape of a mini bundt cake. What are those things called? No loss if you don’t tell me ‘cause I don’t much like them anyway. Somebody must ! Every restaurant serves them.

Dordogne Rural Cafes
These can be really good or simply awful. The prices are usually good value. Often they are combined with Pizzerias as we know them in North America and the pizza can be quite good.
I show these pictures for a couple of reasons. Firstly it is quite common to get an egg in the middle of your pizza. I don’t think it really adds much. It’s just different.
Secondly, this is probably the second time in our travels in France when we got inedible food. Note the burned croque monsieur.
Thirdly, I have found that there is a tendency to over dress the salad in some of these small places so you might decide to try and order the salad dressing on the side.

Le Bistro de L’Octroi
111 av Selves
24200 Sarlat
Tél: 05 53 30 83 40 Fax: 05 53 28 36 43
This restaurant is owned and run by the same people who do La Meynardie (see previous posting). I say restaurant because the term bistro is misleading in the description of the food of this place. The meals are not simple though the tables, bar setting inside, bustling wait staff are bistro-like. Upstairs at L’Octroi is more formal and quiet.
We both had the €26 menu complet – entré, plat principal and dessert.
Sandra began with a choice that surprised me again. Sometimes I think that I don’t know her as well as I think. She chose the scrambled eggs with cepes. This simple dish is usually one of the best ways to taste something that you wouldn’t necessarily eat alone – cepes, truffles. This is the area of cepes and we enjoy them often.
I had the starter of carpaccio de boef Limousin marine aux huile de noix. Again, this is a common French dish that is becoming more evident at home. It was tasty but if the beef wasn’t yet dead (carpaccio is very thin slices of raw beef) it was drowned by the walnut oil. If you look at the picture closely you can see the puddles. This is a shame because the beef is delicate and needn’t be overpowered.
Sandra’s plat of Limousin rumsteak was swimming in the three pepper sauce. The vegs – pea pods, grilled tomato, cepe soufflé, mashed potatoes and lentils were the same on both plates and fine. I do wish that the sauce man had a little more delicate hand.
My plat was excellent! Perhaps one of the best I have tasted in this sort of place. It was grilled monkfish with a langoustine coulis. The coulis was ladled, rather than spooned, on but it was easier to deal with than with the carpaccio. Very tasty combination! It makes me wish that lotte (monkfish) were more commonly found on menus.
The desserts are fabulous here. Sandra had a moelleux au chocolat (surprise, surprise) with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a little English cream. This is one of those chocolate cupcake things with the molten inside. She keeps threatening to make one at home but it hasn’t happened yet. Come to think of it, I don’t recall being offered a taste.
I had a soufflé aux glace de noix et sa liquor. It was frozen more solid than I had hoped as I had to wait until it thawed a little... and waiting was difficult. This was a common dessert this noon hour as I saw a number being dropped off at various tables. It was worth waiting for.
I had expected better of this bistro because of reputation. However we did eat here again the next week and it was much improved. Sometimes it is the mood you are in when you dine, n’est-ce pas?

Again if you want to see food pictures:

http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=209524

robjame, add me to the list of lotte lovers. I can still recollect my first encounter in the tiny village of Minerve. The fish was served with a saffron sauce. Interesting texture, too, that reminded me of lobster tails.

Anselm

Enjoying all your food reports..although I should wait until after lunch to read them as I'm not looking forward to the frozen dinner I brought.

Lotte/monkfish is often called "poor man's Lobster". It's one of the things we usually cook a the Gite - Lotte Risotto.

Stu Dudley