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.