Paris- Dordogne-Paris March/April 2022
After lunch we took the metro up to Arc de Triomphe
past the Petit Palace
and finally across the Pont Alexander III bridge.
We walked home passing Invalides. WHEW!! We were exhausted after a full day of travel followed by 6 miles of walking. Time for bed! Hopefully jet lag won't kick in tomorrow.
The next day we
visited San Chappelle I made reservations the night before- (off season
you can do this- on season book weeks in advance) Next time I will book a concert here!
Walking
more…next up… the outside of Notre Dame. I can’t wait to see it
finished.
Then the Deportation Martyrs Memorial Museum. This is a super well done holocaust memorial
museum dedicated to the 200,000 French people who were deported to
concentration camps. The museum is mostly underground and hard to find. (It is super close to Notre Dame)
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| one light for every Jew deported |
Strolling
through the neighborhoods stopping in churches, photographing oddities, passing
by large museums, like the Pompidou (which was closed that day- I knew
this-but I was a bit sad not to be able to go into the lobby, because it is
fantastic.
Stopping for
lunch in a bakery, I couldn’t resist a baguette sandwich and a pain au chocolat
to share with my sweetheart. (though truth be told, I ate most of the croissant).
Meandering our way over to the Louvre- didn’t want to go in- too big- too crowded- and the Mona Lisa is disappointing at best (my opinion).
So we just continued our
walk to the Tulleries Gardens and took a seat around the beautiful
fountain- our “feeties” needed a rest!!
After the rest,
it is onto my favorite museum the D’Orsay. I bought the tickets from my phone as we had
our feet up in the Tulleries (again, the joys of off season- March 29th)
We just walked right up and right into the museum. This museum has so much wonderful art, but
the building itself, is the largest best piece of art.
We took the metro
back to our hotel, stopping at the grocery store to pick up some beer, for a
shoes off, late afternoon, hotel room happy hour.
Our next day’s
adventure was a trip out to Versailles.
At this time of year (March 30th) the gardens are free for
everyone, so we took the RER C train out with the intention of just touring the
gardens. There was no line to get into the palace and no line at the ticket
booth, so we bought our tickets and went into the palace. The hall of mirrors was my favorite room.
Then we went out to tour the gardens and saw they had golf carts for rent- the slowest moving golf carts ever….we rented one and enjoyed the narration and the chamber music. It was a hoot, Versailles in a golf cart!!
We returned the cart and then walked
down to the lake and rented a rowboat- my favorite thing to do!!
Tired but not
that tired, that evening, we strolled down to the Eiffel tower to watch
it twinkle- and then it was off to bed.
The next day we caught a 4 hour train to Brive-la-Gailliard and picked up a rental car and headed to Sarlat-le-Caneda (our first town with the “beau village” designation- google it) in the Dordogne Region of France. We LOVED LOVED LOVED this town.
We had an excellent apartment rented with an
incredible host. We dropped our things and went out to explore the town. Many
shops were closed because it was off season- but we had an excellent dinner and
went for an evening walk.
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| the door to our apartment |
Hopping in our
car the next morning we went to the village of La Roque-Gageac (beau village). We had the place all to ourselves, it was cold
out that day, but wonderful.
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| up up and more up |
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| this town sits on the Dordogne River |
Next we drove
onto Domme (beau village)- a hot bed of Knights Templar activity.
I loved driving along and seeing bright yellow fields of
rapeseed, castles, cemeteries and chateaus.
Arriving back to
our apt in the evening, it started to SNOW- it was a glorious evening walk in
the snow on April 1. Sarlat you have my heart!
Yay, finally, my
first market day. The vendors were all
so pleasant despite the cold temperatures. Using my amazing pantomime skills, (because
I speak no French) and a big smile and a lot of BONJOURS and MERCIS and AU
VOIRS, I was able to buy all I needed to
cook an amazing meal that evening.
Oh and the
strawberries were the best….red all the way through.
Our first
chateau visit was to Josephine Baker’s Chateau Milandes. I can’t say enough good things about this
place. Great headset tour, great history and great gardens.
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| The gardens were amazing |
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| Chateau Melandes |
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| Josephine Baker in her famous banana skirt |
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| her wardrobe!! |
Next we drove
onto the highly fortified Castelnaud la-Chapelle (beau village). Great
place to see cool weapons- and a crazy great view of the Dordogne River.
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| view from the castle to the Dordogne River We canoe this river later in the trip |
Cold continued the next day, but we preservered and rented electric bikes. We rode the Sarlat Voie Vert bike path.
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| so cold I wrapped a scarf around my face and we bought garden gloves for our hands |
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| great path |
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| fun tunnel |
We stopped in at a local coffee shop to warm up
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| a wonderful capuccino for me |
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| This was truly a local spot |
and then ate at a great restaurant for lunch.
Despite the cold we lasted 5 hours biking outside. We slept well the
last of our 4 nights in Sarlat.
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| Farewell Sarlat!! |
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| I will miss your alleyways |
We left Sarlat
and stopped in Grotte de Font de Gaume- one of the few places where you
can actually see real, not replica ancient cave paintings. They only allow 13
visitors in at a time and there are only 78 people allowed in a day. We just
stopped in and voila! there were actually 2 tickets left for a tour that was
beginning in 20 minutes- what luck (off-season travel rocks)
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| entering the cave |
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| no backpacks or purses allowed it is a tight squeese |
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| this pic and the one below were taken off the internet because they don't allow photos |
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| There were a bunch of paintings- well worth it |
We continued on
to Cahors for our next 4 night stay in another apartment. Ahh! Cahors,
birthplace of Malbec..some amazing wine was had in this town!
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| drinking a good Malbec on our apt balcony Cahors the original Malbec vines |
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| back entrance to our apt |
Up the next
morning we drove to the town of Bouzies. We did an 8 mile round trip
hike to the village of St.-Cirque-Lapopie (beau village). This was the
best hike we did on the trip (I had so many photos of this hike, it was hard to choose)
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| cool artwork done by a local carving artist |
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| La Cirque-de Popie town |
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| cemetery in Cirque |
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| cool moss growing on trees |
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| canal boat after going through a river lock |
Cahors
brought another great market day, for me to gather food to cook for dinner.
That afternoon we toured the town and lucked into organ practice recital at the cathedral. The cathedral and its cloister was stunning.
The town had so many sights to see. I loved
the Pont Valentre (bridge)
The next day
threatened rain all day, so rather than another hike we settled on journeying
to two wineries. On the way stopped at a cute village St Vincent Rive d’Oit.
Our first winery
was Chateau Eugenie- we had tasted this wine in Cahors at dinner- so we
wanted more!! The wine tasting was free
if you bought a bottle- well we bought 6 bottles- they didn’t last very long!
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| walnuts came with the wine tasting This is walnut terrior |
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| this is a terrine NOT a tureen (of soup) ewww The dipping jam was delicious |
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| thank goodness for the fries |
Continuing on, we
went to our second vineyard La Berangerie This is the kind of vineyard you are supposed
to make a reservation for- but we didn’t know this. All we knew is that we had
a bottle of their wine in Cahors and LOVED it- so we were seeking it from the
source. The woman whose family owns the
vineyard was so wonderful. She invited
us into HER ACTUAL HOME and did a tasting for us. This was another highlight of
the trip- connecting with a local. We bought another 6 bottles of wine- which
didn’t last long either!
On our way home we found an outdoor chapel Le Lourdou, There were stations of the cross going up and over the hill- but it was super wet and muddy, so we just crossed the bridge to see the altar
on our way to Belcastel,
yet another “beau villages”.
In the morning we headed out for 1 night in Conques
(beau village). Conques was an amazing town whose history dates back to the
year 500. The Church of St Foy has
modern shades of gray stained glass windows
Our next day was
a driving day. We stopped in Capdenac (beau village) and strolled though
town stretching our legs and stopping in at their little history museum
carefully assembled by the locals- it was well done.
We ended our
journey that day in the 12th Century, beau village, of Martel. We had a great apartment that would be home
to us for the next 4 nights. Martel has a great town square where a market day
takes place- unfortunately we missed it so it was Bon Marche for the food for
dinner.
The next day we
were in the car again driving to see Rocamadour (14th
century). It is breathtaking in more ways than just being beautiful- you park
at the bottom and walked up and up and up (breath-taking). We were glad it
wasn’t crowded, so we could stop and rest as we pleased. There was a village and a castle and a
cathedral and stations of the cross. It
was one stop shopping for all things old and it is a Unesco World Heritage site.
We came home and had a nice dinner and strolled our village of Martel-home of 7 towers one which contains a "Charlotte" spider ,
In the morning we did a hike to a tiny town of Murel.
It was a beautiful 7 mile round trip hike along well trodded paths, mostly
through the woods.
Glorious warmer
weather, finally. We actually drove back
to La Roque Gageac to go canoeing on the Dordogne river. When we were in
this town at the beginning of the trip, it was close to freezing temps- so glad
we waited for a great weather day to canoe! It was so fun passing chateaus and
castles and little towns.
Gouffre de
Padriac (caves) was on the itinerary for the next day. This was a highlight for both of us. Stairs
down, cool cave stuff, a boat ride to get to another part of the cave- so well
done- AND traveling off season, so few people there!!
We had a picnic
lunch of peanut butter and jelly on a croissant- omg delicious!! And then on to
a hike to see a waterfall before going into the beau village of Autoire.
I fell in love with this village and saw a chateau I would love to escape to!
I think husband
Sid was at his saturation point of beau villages so when we hit the town of Carennac,
he found a parking space in the shade and let me wander, while he took a nap!-
a win for both of us.
In the morning we toured more of Martel and got our daily baguette.
We had a fabulous lunch at Le Maraicher- I had a
duck burger that I still dream about.
Sniff!! This
morning we were on our way back to Brive La Gaillarde to turn in our
rental car but on the way we couldn’t help but stop in the (you guessed it) the
beau village of Turenne. It was yet another spectacular top of a hill “get
your exercise” town. We explored all the streets and toured the castle at the
top.
After a delay of
train, due to a track issue, we were on our way back to Paris. This time
we were staying in the Montmartre area. We did Annie Sargeant’s (Join Us
in France podcast) using Voice Map app
and sharing blue tooth earbuds to do a tour of this section of town. I loved
learning about this area.
We stopped at a sidewalk café and I had a few
gin and tonics and a crepes and took Emily in Paris pictures.
You can see
from my pictures at Sacre Coeur that the weather had improved and the
crowds were getting bigger because it is now April 14th and it was Spring Break. We
were not used to the crowds- it took a few hours to acclimate. I walked up all
the stairs (foregoing the funicular) to Sacre Coeur to get the
evening glow photo. Well worth the effort!
Our last day in France adventure was out to Pere Lachaise Cemetery. I love a good cemetery.
Au Voir France- until next we meet.
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