A Day Out, Continued

Dear Friends and Family, When I last wrote, I was relating the experiences on our day out last Friday. After touring the Josephine Baker house and having a lovely lunch in the sunshine (amazing how many others chose the shade on such a beautiful day, at a time of the year when sunshine is becoming rarer), we strolled the ground of the Chateau de Milandes. And most surprisingly, we came across some birds of prey, mostly some lovely owls

In addition to this fellow and some others, there was a rare white owl

They were magnificient birds, but the best thing about them was how close up you could get. These birds seemed to enjoy the company of people. So often, the birds at the zoo are tucked in some back corner. Here the cages were relatively small and you could get up close. The most impressive of the birds was the Eagle

There were actually a couple of them and, as you can see, there was no screen between us and the bird. They were, instead, chained. This allowed us to get a nice clear shot of each of them. After some more strolling, we bid adieu to this most wonderful of places.

I know that I shall return to the States and look into more about Josephine Baker and perhaps get a CD or two. From there, is was back into the car for a short drive the very nice village of Belvès. We got out of the car just took a short walk through the town. It had a lovely church

And a lovely main street that looked down over the valley

From there, just out of the village, we stopped at preserved spinning mill, used up until the 1990s for carding and spinning the wool of the area for blankets, and the stuffing of mattresses. It was fascinating to tour the old factory

Just the ingenuity to arrive at these complex machines that did the work that was for so long done by hand. Currently, there was also a exhibition of fabric designs made from felt. They were absolutely beautiful and took felt to a whole new dimension

So many of them had a wonderful lacey quality that I didn’t realize was even possible

After following the colored footsteps through the factory and the exhibit, we again took advantage of the lovely weather and strolled their garden and wetland preserve.

It was so peaceful and, while it was still relatively new, it had begun to draw birds, butterflies, dragonflies and other native species of the area. A tour of their gift shop and a new wool sweater for me and we headed home, tired, but also enriched by the new discoveries Ann had revealed. It is one of the real joys of coming to Ann’s. She knows every féte, every marché, every restaurant and village. Any time with her is always a peek further into French village life.

A Lovely Day Out

Dear Friends and Family, Not busy and a bit busy, that is life here in Puy L’Eveque. This morning we are actually down to one week here before making our way back to Lyon and on to Paris. Thursday was a kind of quiet day. Ann was out all day and the weather was cool. We did manage a drive back out to Libos where there is a very nice Marché that featured quite a number of clothing vendors. Polley was still looking to increase her inventory of warm clothes as the weather continues to cool here and will, doubtless, be cooler in Paris. Dressing for such different climates (Greece, Crete) and over such a period of time (August-October) proved to be a challenge. Consequently, we packed rather light, concentrating on warm weather gear, feeling that we could pick up some warmer clothing along the way; that is now the focus. So we had a lovely morning in Libos. Polley found a very nice black, wool sweater for 4 euro. She, of course, later discovered that every bargain has its price, because when she wore it that evening, it itched like crazy! She also found another bargain top, although this one required 10 euro. She also got some socks and we bargained for 12 emory boards! Anyway, it was a very nice morning and you do find that you must use your French in the marketplaces and it is good practice. We stopped at a little bistro/brasserie for some wine and I took a photo of this this quirky little fountain, with the figures seemingly ducking to avoid the water.

On our way back home, at Ann’s recommendation, we stopped at this amazing chocolate shop. Very fancy concoctions, along with this chocolate sculpture.

I apparently had underestimated the erotic power of chocolate. We picked up a couple delicacies and retired for lunch and, of course, siesta That evening we retired to our little wine bar to watch the sun set on the River Lot.

Following the wine bar, we tried another Puy L’Eveque restraurant, Le Medievale. It is right on the main street (La Grande Rue). It was a very quiet evening inside. Only another man and Polley and I. The food was good, however. We had a nice salad and shared an entrée of a moroue (a kind of very tender cod) that was swimming in olive oil, along with a side of ratatouille. Very satisfying and not huge portions. We returned home to find the cats making the most of our home

Friday was a day for an outing with Ann. About 9:30 in the morning we headed for the Dordogne region which is just north of Ann. We stopped and had a coffee in a lovely little village and as we drove passed chateau after chateau

before heading to the former home (Chateau de Milandes) of famous chantreuse, Josephine Baker. While I knew the name of Ms. Baker, I didn’t know very much about her. She was born in St. Louis in 1906, but achieved her stardom in France, eventually being a headliner at the Folies de Bergère. She performed for more than 50 years, dying in virtual poverty in 1975, while doing a 50th anniversary tour. It is quite a place.

While the chateau is now privately owned, they have brought back as many souvenirs of the performer as possible. The place was filled with show posters, private correspondences, costumes and other personal belongings that traced to history of this famous performer. Unfortunately, no photographs were allowed, but as we walked through the private quarters, there were recordings of her as a singer and in private interviews. It is a fascinating showplace.

The chateau, as you might expect, sits on beautiful grounds

From which you can see the whole Dordogne valley

And there is a private chapel that is yet to be restored.

It also has a very good café. As the day was beautiful, Ann, Polley and I had a delicious lunch in the gardens

And, of course, no trip to such a place would be complete without browsing the gift shop. With the sun shining I managed to capture Ann and Polley coming out without having spent a euro!

It was a lovely morning and early afternoon.

But it was not the end of the day and I will continue more tomorrow.

C-est Bon Weekend

Dear Friends and Family, Well obviously lording over a manor robbed me of my duties as a blogger. Well, rest assured that are elevation as landed gentry was only temporary. Ann has returned and we are simply serfs once again! We really have not been doing a lot. We had a nice weekend, however. On Saturday, after Polley’s expressed admiration of Ann’s haircut, Polley went to the same woman, Christine, in a little village of Luzech. So, we headed off early thinking we might have a little lunch prior to arrival at the salon de beauté. As it was after 12:30, siesta time had kicked in and we had only one choice, a little bar/brasserie on the main street. We asked for half litre of wine and then I went back in and ask for a menu. The barman, who had no English, rattled off something in French which I took to mean that they did not have a menu and were not serving. However, everytime we went into the bar (as we were outside) someone seemed to be eating a delicious looking salad. Finally, it went back in and in my best French, and point to three people chowing down at an inside table, asked if it was not possible to get a salad. The barman, in a classic French expression, said, “Bien Sur!” But, of course! It turned out that they do not do their “menu” in the daytime, only in the evening. They do, however, offer salads at lunch time. He escorted me to a signboard that had a variety of salad offerings. We choice the Quercynoise. Quercy is the region we are in and this was a salad representative of the best of the region. When it arrived, it was fabulous. It had fried gizzards and bacon with lettuce, tomato, hard-boiled eggs, etc. It was to die for. Even before we finished , we were planning a return. Polley got her hair done and we headed home with a new philosophy. From now on, we were going to explore more of the little villages in the surrounding area. Saturday evening, we decided to just eat in and watch a film. Ann has a fabulous collection of books and DVDs. Since we never watch movies, this was a chance to catch up, a little. We watched The Help. We had read the book and did enjoy the moving as well. Seemed very well cast. Sunday we headed to yet another marché (outdoor market). We drove for about 40 minutes to Montcuq. As I have mentioned before, each marché has its own individual personality. Montcoq has a nice mixture of food and clothings.

We didn’t buy a lot, but Polley did find some nectarines

And we also bought some delicious cheese, called Dome de Chevre, a very sharp, but quite runny goat cheese. Terrific! We then stopped at a café located right in the heart of the marché

and just enjoyed watching it all unfold in front of us. It, however, did become quite windy and several of the vendors began picking up early. You can get some sense of the wind as I caught this picture of a statue featuring the French flag blowing in the breeze

Sunday evening, thinking we would eat out, we searched Puy L’Eveque for a place. A real challenge! We ended up at Astrolabe, the little wine bar on the river. We so enjoy Charlotte, the owner, but must admit that the food does not live up to the little bar in Luzech! On Monday, with our new approach to exploring, we headed to a little village called Albas, about half an hour from us. Years ago we had gone with Ann to the Albas Wine Fète and had had a wonderful time. The village had discontinued it a couple of year ago, but we still thought it would be nice to revisit this charming town. That wasa mistake. It seemed almost completely abandoned. There were cars about, but almost no people. Nothing was open as we drove through the town. We turned around and went back through, catching this giant tribute to Cahors wine as we passed into the village.

I stopped briefly and caught this little picture of a statue of the Virgin Mary,

But needed to move on in search of the perfect café so we headed to a little village called Bélaye. I had caught a glimpse of it on our way to Montcuq, so we set out to follow the road signs. And, “Voila!” After climbing to the top of the world, we were there . . . and what I find. It does sit at the top of a hill and has the most marvelous view of the Valley of the Lot (the Lot is the river that runs through this region.

You can see this wonderful patchwork of rich farmland

It was breezy up there, but the sun was beginning to shine

and we found this little converted convent school that was now a little café and art gallery. It was run by a delightful English couple that have moved to the village and are photographers dedicated to the flora and fauna of the region. They had hundreds of color photos and we had to purchase the one of the Praying Mantis for Ann, as the morning she left for England, she had discovered one on a leaf and shared it with us. We will return Wednesday to get the copy of the print. We are looking forward to revisiting the two once again. And of course life with the cats continues

Yesterday, the weather turned cool. It is definitely fall here in the valley. We did manage to take in the Puy L’Eveque marché and had a very traditional French dinner at the Henry, a restaurant that just seems to have that olf French feel. A good weekend, but you will have to stay tuned for what we manage to accomplish as the rain has fallen all night and does not look promising for the next few days.

Lord and Lady of the Manor

Dear Friends and Family, The days have somehow gotten away from me. Believe me, that can happen. There are days when I can’t seem to remember which day of week it is. Fortunately a kind of paranoia sets in and I reset the calendar of my mind. On Friday afternoon, our hostess, Ann, took off to England for friends’ 40th wedding anniversary. It sounded very swanky with dinners, and concerts, etc. She does not return until Tuesday, September 25th. So, for 4 days, Polley and I got to pretend that we were the owners of our very own French farm. It was all ours, at least until Tueday. Having said that for a brief period of time we were the lord and lady of the manor, I thought it might be nice to revisit the various buildings of the place. We have had two sets of friends, Jeff Gauthier and Noelle Guest and Herman and Susan Asarnow (Baillet) stay here. But there are, no doubt, others of you out there who would love a week or two in this idyllic setting. Ann and her husband, Malcolm, bought the crumbling 12-acre farm about 1992. They completely redid it. Unfortunately Malcolm passed away in about 2003 and Ann has stayed on. Their daughter, who is married to a French man, lives a short distance away. However, one of the great joys, when you stay here, is going through the very detailed photo scrapbooks of the complete process of resurrecting it. Fascinating! First, you see the complete farm (minus some of the fields not pictured) from the long drive as you come off the main road

The gravel drive leads you up to a place to park the car, nearly hidden between the barn and bakery. Ann likes having the cars stashed away, so as to not tarnish the look of the place. And who could blame her. Ann lives in the main house

It has a small kitchen, a dining room and a lovely, warm living room. Up stairs is an office and bedroom that has the feeling of a sort of loft. One of the best features is at the far left end of the house. There is an old sort of wagon or coach barn. Ann has made that into an outdoor living/dining room and for a good part of the year, she takes all her meals in this covered, yet airy addition. Across the way is the old barn. It is now considered a place for family and friends.

As you might expect, it is huge and has at the far right end a complete apartment with bed, kitchen, dining table, siting area and bathroom. One the left end is a whole sort of family room. It is a spacious area that could be used for another family to sleep in or for children to have a separate area. It is also a great place to sit and watch movies on the DVD player in the evening. In Ann’s opinion, we must have moved up in the world as we now stay, when available, in the barn. Just outside the barn is the swimming pool area

It can get very warm in summer here and the pool is an ideal gathering spot and sits just outside our door. The third building is the bakery.

This was, in fact, the old bakery for the group of farms in this area dubbed “Poujoulou.” It was a sort of communal oven for the daily baking of bread. It is now a delightful apartment just perfect for two people or a couple and a child.

Ann has decorated it in absolutely charming fashion, as she has all the accommodations. When you arrive you can always expect lovely Fren-milled soap, a stocked refrigerator and a good bottle of Cahors wine waiting for you. So, that’s it! Oh, I did leave out the cats that come with the place: Pepper and Pumpkin. Pepper is a bit shy and certainly does not like to be in a room that her brother, Pumpkin, is already occupying. Pumpkin, on the other hand, loves to just move on it

Polley obviously has a god friend in Pumpkin

Hopefully, you get some sense of why we come back here again and again. It is a great place and Ann is the perfect host. She knows every restaurant, every market, every site. A perfect delight. You should try it sometime.

Days Drifting By

Dear Friends and Family, I have sort of gotten out of the regular blog routine. I am not sure when I last wrote, but I have a feeling that a day got away from me. Sorry! It certainly has not been that we have been very busy. We have enjoyed the still mainly sunny weather except for that one day of rain. Wednesday night we went down to the winebar: Astrolabe

We had been once before and had a nice conversation with the young couple who recently purchased the place. We had promised to return for a meal and thus we did. We had also, in the meantime, learned that the woman (young, rather “punkish” young woman), Charlotte, had worked at our favorite restaurant in the area, “La Recreation,” where Ann’s daughter, Jane, is currently working as the entrée chef. Charlotte had worked there as the pastry chef. Astrolabe was their new venture and from the looks of the cliental, it should be a success. As I may have mentioned before, it is a lovely setting, right on the river at the foot of the village. It may be the best location in the town.

It sits slightly above and gives you a great view of the river and is a great place to be for sunset

We looked the menu over. They have a fascinating way of displaying it, as they have cut grooves into a stool and then suspend the day’s offerings.

We ordered a half litre of wine and just relaxed and watched the river float by.

We then ordered their Mediterranean Salad. They display It looked to be amazing. It had greens, tomato, cucumber, chorizo, tuna, corn, rice and anchovies. It was huge, though Charlotte was convinced that it would not be enough for two. It was more than enough. However, it was one of those salads that sounds better than it is. It just didn’t seem to harmonize. It was a though there were all these interesting ingredients, but nothing to bring them together. Polley was convinced that the problem was with the dressing. A dressing’s function, my wife tells me, is to harmonize the ingredients. This one did not fulfill its function! However, the problems with the salad could not spoil a beautiful night. We did, in fact, enjoy the suset

And, as dusk turned to darkness, the lights along the river came on and as if on cue the a tiny silver slipper of a moon popped up

This is what traveling and vacation should be! Thursday morning I got up early for my walk. It was actually still dark when I set out. And when I say dark in this very rural setting, I mean dark! Like Crete, there are not lights where we are and the sky is amazing, perhaps even more intense than Crete where you did get a bit of village light. Here there is nothing! I got the early start because Ann was taking us with her to the marché (outdoor market) in the village of Libos. The thing I find fascinating is that despite the number of marches, each one is distinctive. Libos has quite an immigrant population, so there are booths of hardware, rolls of fabrics, industrial underwear. They even have live animals for breeding. There was this adorable little bunny

And some varieties of chickens that I have never seen

And, of course, there were endless food stands and places to buy clothes.

Polley, pictured here with Ann, is seen in her new sort of black knitted poncho

It was quite chilly Thursday morning, so when Polley bought the sweater, she just kept it on. She also got a kind of knitted dress as well and Ann found a great deal on a pair of jeans. We rounded it off with some coffee at a local café, before taking the long way back to Poujoulou, enjoying a variety of wonderful country homes, churches and monument. It was a most enjoyable morning.