TDudette

Nice shots and fun report. Must say you aren't smiling in some of the pix. Please share the name of your Dordogne house.

kerouac

I like the pictures. I often meet friends at the St. André when I'm in that part of town, because it is small enough not to spend 20 minutes searching the tables.

aussiefive

Interesting you say I am not smiling TDudette. I really just picked the scenic shots. I would like to think I do smile a lot. Maybe not as much as I thought. Now you have me worried.

Here is a link to the house we stayed in.


http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/Fra...oir/p17802.htm

annhig

ttt 4 later

aussiefive

Kerouac, I can't take credit for the photos. DH is the main photographer.

Of course he has nothing like your great eye.

I have been admiring your photos of Asia as I am planning a trip to Vietnam and Laos.

lincasanova

Thanks for posting such a wonderful report. I enjoyed travelling alongside your family and am quite impresed your husband was able to talk down the price of a hotel room that much!

You certainly had a great trip!

aussie_10

Hi Aussiefive your rental property looked great. I did not see it when we were looking but there are sooo many! We are staying in Sarlat.

I'm really enjoying your trip report as being Aussies I can relate to a lot you are saying.

We leave in 1 week so I'm hoping to read more of your trip.
We have not booked any tours in The Dordogne so hope to free wheel it. We definitely want to canoe.
Any hints are appreciated.

cathies

HI Aussiefive and Aussie_10, maybe I should change my name to Aussietwo???? Aussiefive your report is lovely, loved the little joke about the seat belts and extra kids at home. My hb and I were in the same position as your family when we tried to find Albas in The Lot (a little further north than the Dordogne). Honestly, after 32 years of happy marriage, a divorce lawyer was the next phone call I was going to make!!

So, aussie_10 - no presure of course, but we will be waiting for your trip report, Aussiefive has set quite a high standard for you to maintain!! Just kidding of course, but I will be keen to hear about your trip. I hope you have a fabulous time, and Aussiefive I'm looking forward to the next instalment.

annhig

hi aussiefive - what a great report.

i want to go to Pamplona.

now. [though that won't do me much good of course]. I was really there with you - you painted the picture brilliantly.

looking forward to much, much more

regards, ann

rowdytxgirl

I loved your reports! I did have a nightmare after reading the Spain report but I am sure it was just the prescription anti-inflammitories I am taking! lol

Loved the pictures too! Thanks for sharing wiht us!

aussiefive

Slowly but surely I will finish this report. Here are some more photos in the mean time.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4269038...7622469482952/

rosetravels

Wonderful! And funny! I've been longing to go to Spain AND the Dordogne so this is perfect.

rowdytxgirl

aussiefive,

Did you forget us?

aussiefive

I haven't forgotten you. Just can't seem to get anything written! I will I promise very soon.

Ozziez

Hi aussiefive

What a treat to read your trip report. Thank you!

Like you, we also didn't enjoy the Musee Carnavalet as much as we had thought we would. It was interesting but none of the signs were in English when we were there in December so I was the only person in our family who could understand what was going on. Even the "Do not touch" signs were in French and one American family got into terrible trouble because they had not understood one of the signs and had transgressed.

I have never been to Spain, or to the Dordogne, but you write so well that I feel as though I've just had a little trip with you.

Hoping you have time to write some more soon!

aussiefive

I am finally able to get some time to write more. Sorry for being so slow.

Ozziez, it is nice to know you are aboard and glad that you are back writing up your trip. Race you to the finish! (although I predict you will win).

Here we go with more of the report.

<i>Fireworks over the Dordogne</i>

I had forgotten to mention that we actually ate last night at “our local”. Our hosts book of words stated that it would be hard to go past “Le Marais” on the shore of the lake for menu, service and ambience. We ate there and were suitably impressed with the menu and in particular the outdoor setting by the lake. So after our dramatic thunderstorm from the previous night we awoke to a gloomy Bastille Day morning. Unsure of what the French did on Bastille day 5 of us took the bikes down to Grolejac, discovered the boulangerie open for business until 12 noon and bought the daily supply of bread. We then went for a cycle around the lake. On the lake is a rather odd camping ground, which even for this holiday weekend was empty. It does have a rather nice boardwalk through a forest which we rode along, much to the shock of a young couple pushing their baby along in a pram. After a while we felt we had seen all there was to see (ie not much) and made our way back up the hill. It was a little easier this time and I made it up in one hit. Phew!

We spent a lazy day around the house. Well this Type A personality has a problem with lazy days sometimes, especially when I feel I could/should be doing something. Added to this I was feeling guilty because I had only booked 5 tickets to the visit to Font de Gaume planned for the next day. And into the melting point add the fact that DD and I had spent a full 2 weeks 24/7 together after 6 months apart. A recipe for disaster you might say. And it was. I managed to pick a fight with DD that progressed through screaming and yelling to tears. A lot was said that we both probably should regret. I have to say I learnt something though. I finally woke up to the fact that I was treating my 21 year old adult daughter like a child. Some might have seen this already but I can be pretty dim sometimes. So just like the thunderstorm the night before once it the fight was over, the air was clear and clean.

Much later we went into Sarlat for the evening celebrations and real fireworks. This was our first trip into Sarlat proper and I regretted not visiting sooner. As many would know it is a stunning town, almost fairy tale like. We arranged for my young nephew to practice his French and book us a table at a restaurant that took his fancy. Well they could take us but for some reason that never became apparent we were forced to sit at two different tables, despite there being plenty of tables available. We sat the two young boys together and they had a marvelous time thinking that they were quite grown up. We then followed the music and the crowds to the top of the hill to watch the fireworks.

The fireworks began with a poop rather than a bang. My wag of a son immediately named them the “recession” fireworks. Sydney Harbour on New Year’s Eve they were not, although things improved after the initial few minutes and in the end we were ooohhing and aahhing with the best of them. In the square afterwards a pretty decent covers band was playing music that we all could sing along to and DD and DS cut a swath through the crowd much to the amusement of everyone else.

Wednesday morning dawned with a decision to be made. How do you cut 5 into 8. I have a degree in maths but when real people are involved fractions do not work. As I mentioned earlier, I had managed to bag 5 tickets to Font de Gaume, but this meant that 3 people had to miss out. The young boys were happy not to go but everyone else was pretty keen. Finally my sister agreed to stay behind. It was a shame for her because this tour was one of my highlights for the trip. I still get tingles when I think of the drawings in that cave. We were all overawed. We followed the visit to the cave with a visit to the museum of Prehistory in Les Eyzies. I quite enjoyed this but I think I overstepped the mark forcing everyone else to see it. And several people were feeling guilty about leaving the others behind (especially my sister).

That afternoon we decided that we would like to play tennis. This involved booking the court down by the lake in Grolejac- over the phone – in French. And it also required hiring rackets. The booking process kept my sister and myself (the only (rough) French speakers) busy for quite some time but finally we managed to book the court. We also decided to book the restaurant by the lake for dinner again, since we had enjoyed it so much a couple of nights before. Since there were 8 of us we took the bikes for some people to ride and the others would play tennis. When we arrived at the court we discovered that there were in fact only 3 rackets. Not only that, but the booking had been made at 7pm instead of 6pm (as we thought we had asked for). It was pretty hard to argue since we had exhausted our vocabulary so after a lot of mucking around we attempted to play a sort of game. Our attempts were pretty pitiful but we provided quite a bit of amusement for the passersby though. Finally after an hour felt we could stop the farce and go to dinner where we ate and drank too much as usual.

aussiefive

Look at this - I am getting a roll on with the writing.

<i>Last days together</i>

Our farewell was to be extended as my brother in law had to leave early (like 4am early) on the Friday morning so that he could be back in Sydney and ready to start work on the following Monday. So he was keen to make his last day count. DH and BIL set off early for a “he-man’s” bike ride. A couple of hours later BIL arrived in a lather of sweat bemoaning that DH beat him as “he-man” (nothing new there)since DH kept riding past the house and further up the hill. Another hour later DH finally returned with a story of how he made it to the top and a French farm woman came out and offered him some water. While he was bragging about how great it was to have cycled to the top he mentioned that actually he thinks that the French woman wanted him to have lunch there.
“But I said no”.
Stop right there. “why would you say no?”
“Well I wasn’t really sure what she was saying since she could not speak a word of English” (that would be right; DH is appalling at languages other than English. In fact sometimes his English is not that great. But he is a communicator!)

I agreed to go back with DH to the farm and investigate. The farm offered a 3 course meal in the courtyard. I agreed at once and booked a table for 1pm. We returned to the house to find my sister pushing for a visit to Roccamadour that day. Do you think we could do lunch and then go to Roccamadour after that? Why not we said. It should be a perfect final day for BIL.

Lunch turned out to be wonderful. We were given a table in the courtyard and one other couple were also there. The owners were very friendly. The woman served and the husband cooked. Their daughter also helped out in the kitchen. They also had their baby grandchild with them who provided plenty of amusement an photo opportunities.

Lunch was a set menu – soup, steak with potatoes, salad, crème fraiche and apple cake. We were also offered an aperitif of vin de peche and wine was served with the meal. Everything was grown on their farm, made by them and it was all delicious. The conversation (in French) was fun and we managed to learn a surprising amount about them considering that neither my sister nor I had really spoken much French since our high school days (a scarily long time ago).

After our lunch we piled into our truck and headed off to Roccamadour. We took the scenic route and arrived at about 5pm. We caught the train up to the town ready for our walk up the stairs. Well DS and nephew had to do it on their knees saying Hail Mary’s of course. We had a very pleasant few hours in Roccamadour and returned home just before dark (and another thunder storm). We cooked at home that night – duck breasts on the barbecue, omelettes, salad. BIL had to go to bed early for his early start ahead of a 26 hour flight and the rest of us followed suit.

BIL got away easily and caught his train from Brive to Paris where he was met by a driver who boarded him on his flight home. For our last day I wanted to take a walk, so DD, DH and myself headed to Le Rocque Gageac where we took a walk up behind the town (and then back down again). There was a market in the town which we visited before returning home for lunch.

We decided that we would all like to go back to Domme for our last night. We went there and took our photos from the lookout (which we had failed to do on our previous visit). We also shopped. The jewelry store did particularly well out of us, as did a few souvenir stores. Our final dinner in the Dordogne was a resounding failure. We ate at the tourist café which has an excellent view but terrible food and even worse service. One example of the dreadful serviced was that DS and nephew wanted to share an omelette and the chicken dish. The chicken dish arrived with a couple of the other orders, and about half an hour later more of the other dishes arrived and then finally after much prompting of the waitress the omelette arrived. Needless to say it posed a perfect opportunity to ask “which comes first, the chicken or the egg?” Chuckles all round except from DS and nephew. After dinner we felt like we needed something more to get the bad taste out. So we headed down the hill to a bar in Cenac that we had noticed often on our drives past. Here we ordered drinks and edible desert.

When we returned home we spent the rest of the evening packing up as we all needed to get away fairly early the next day. My sister, niece and nephew were driving to Brive to catch the train to Paris for a few days and the rest of us were heading south back to Spain. It was sad to say good bye, especially for DD who would really miss her cousin. But we had experienced yet another great holiday together. And the great news for us was that we were off to Barcelona.

Mahya2

bookmarking

aussiefive

That was quick!