Day 6
Skipped breakfast at the Bon Labourer and headed out before 9. As we were leaving, I had a conversation in Franglish with an older guy in the parking lot about the merits / faults of Japanese cars.
We were approaching Tours at 9:18 (Ed. Note: huh?), when I remembered that they did not give us back Jill’s passport when we checked out. Good thing! Although we wasted an hour going back to get it, it could have been much worse.
Filled up with gas ($5/gallon), went to Tours and bought slices of fresh ham, cheese, baguette; changed $500 of travelers’’ checks. By the time we hit the road it was 11:00.
After about 1 ½ hours of driving, we stopped for a stroll in the medieval town of Chauvigny.
Next stop was the quaint old town of Mortemart. It had just finished sprinkling rain, so we ate our picnic lunch in the car. Walked around for a minute, then hit the road again.
The next stop was the town of Oradour sur Glaine. The old town is a monument to the 600+ villagers who were killed by the Nazis in WWII as a reprisal for the killing of one of their officers. The people were rounded up and shot, and the whole town was burned.
Everything was left just as it had been the day of the atrocity. Each house was labeled with the names of the occupants and their occupations. The church was also burned, and the bell and clapper were a melted mass on the floor. The visit was very moving. It began to rain as we headed for the car. (Ed. Note: our car had German plates, and I remember hoping that it would not suffer any damage in the parking lot.)
After (too) much more driving, we finally reached our destination in the Dordogne valley. We had planned to stay in Sarlat or Beynac, but we stopped at a nice looking hotel just outside of Les Eyzies.
The place (Les Glycines) is very nice on the outside, has beautiful gardens, and very nice terraces, bar, sitting room, reception, etc. The room is ok, and we once again had to settle for 2 twin beds due to late (5:30) arrival.
The dinner menu looked good, so we made reservations. We were not disappointed. The food was superb, the best all-around meal we’ve ever had.
Jill had the 120F ($25) menu – she chose a salad, pork medallions, melted goat cheese on greens and raspberry sorbet. All excellent, except she doesn’t like goat cheese. (Ed. Note: She does now!)
I had a shrimp / avocado plate, Vol-au-Vent (puff pastry with mushrooms and sweetbreads), beef stuffed with duck, cheeses, and an apricot “passion”. All amazing. You could taste everything individually. The plates were immaculately prepared – little veggies, purees, etc. They looked so good I didn’t want to eat them. With a bottle of wine, it was overall superb – for about $85.
And so to bed.
Day 7 >>>
We were approaching Tours at 9:18 (Ed. Note: huh?), when I remembered that they did not give us back Jill’s passport when we checked out. Good thing! Although we wasted an hour going back to get it, it could have been much worse.
Filled up with gas ($5/gallon), went to Tours and bought slices of fresh ham, cheese, baguette; changed $500 of travelers’’ checks. By the time we hit the road it was 11:00.
After about 1 ½ hours of driving, we stopped for a stroll in the medieval town of Chauvigny.
Next stop was the quaint old town of Mortemart. It had just finished sprinkling rain, so we ate our picnic lunch in the car. Walked around for a minute, then hit the road again.
The next stop was the town of Oradour sur Glaine. The old town is a monument to the 600+ villagers who were killed by the Nazis in WWII as a reprisal for the killing of one of their officers. The people were rounded up and shot, and the whole town was burned.
Everything was left just as it had been the day of the atrocity. Each house was labeled with the names of the occupants and their occupations. The church was also burned, and the bell and clapper were a melted mass on the floor. The visit was very moving. It began to rain as we headed for the car. (Ed. Note: our car had German plates, and I remember hoping that it would not suffer any damage in the parking lot.)
After (too) much more driving, we finally reached our destination in the Dordogne valley. We had planned to stay in Sarlat or Beynac, but we stopped at a nice looking hotel just outside of Les Eyzies.
The place (Les Glycines) is very nice on the outside, has beautiful gardens, and very nice terraces, bar, sitting room, reception, etc. The room is ok, and we once again had to settle for 2 twin beds due to late (5:30) arrival.
The dinner menu looked good, so we made reservations. We were not disappointed. The food was superb, the best all-around meal we’ve ever had.
Jill had the 120F ($25) menu – she chose a salad, pork medallions, melted goat cheese on greens and raspberry sorbet. All excellent, except she doesn’t like goat cheese. (Ed. Note: She does now!)
I had a shrimp / avocado plate, Vol-au-Vent (puff pastry with mushrooms and sweetbreads), beef stuffed with duck, cheeses, and an apricot “passion”. All amazing. You could taste everything individually. The plates were immaculately prepared – little veggies, purees, etc. They looked so good I didn’t want to eat them. With a bottle of wine, it was overall superb – for about $85.
And so to bed.
Day 7 >>>
