Doors of Domme

While we walked around Domme on Sunday, we really enjoyed seeing all the different details on the doors and gates … and we got a little carried away taking pictures of them…. hope you enjoy the variety!

Domme

Sunday dawned bright and sunny – what a pleasant surprise! We gave the Sunday Chicken a pass this week and had Sunday Duck instead. Sautéed peppered duck breasts in a red wine sauce -yum! And we’ve really come to enjoy mashed potatoes with celeriac (celery root) in them. We’d never had celeriac at home, where […]

Saturday in Sarlat

You can get anything you want at … the Saturday marché. Hmm, it doesn’t quite have the same ring as the Guthrie original, but it’s true! The nearest large town, Sarlat-la-Canéda, has a small market on Wednesday and a larger one on Saturday. Having gone to the Wednesday one, which had a dozen or so […]

Hiking Périgord: La Roque-Gageac

The weather finally cleared enough on Friday for us to take a long hike (well, long for us – three hours). We’d managed to sneak in a shorter walk between the rain showers on Thursday, where we got to see some localized flooding along the Dordogne: On Friday, though, we were excited to see some […]

Welcome to the Dordogne

On Saturday, we bid Lézargol a very fond farewell and headed south. While at dawn the sky was quite clear, it almost immediately clouded up and the wind was blowing a gale – as seen below at the Plage de Pentrez. Definitely the most surf we’ve seen in France! We thought, “Phew, getting out of […]

The GR 34

What’s the best sign in Brittany? This one: Why? Because it means you’re on the Grande Randonnée (GR) 34, the hiking trail that goes all the way around the coast of Brittany. It’s 1800 kilometers long. We’ve only hiked a fraction of those kilometers, but we’ve enjoyed them all. There’s something for everyone: stark natural […]

Happy All Saints’ Day

All Saints’ Day (November 1) is a national holiday here. School children have been on vacation for the last two weeks; today their parents get the day off too. We’ve been seeing a big sign on a greenhouse nursery for weeks – “Ici Fleurs de Toussaint” (All Saints’ Flowers Here). The French tradition is to […]

The Sea Wind

The wind blows pretty strongly almost every day here near the coast. It’s delightful while we hike and, when it blows hard, invigorating. There’s quite an updraft when you walk up to the edge of a cliff – a hat-keeper is an essential wardrobe element. But what’s most impressive about the wind is what everyone […]

Lunch and a Show

Today we had an outstanding lunch at a restaurant in Le Fret, the Hostellerie de la Mer. It had been on our to-do list for a while – we had tried to eat here for J’s birthday, but they were full. So first, since J’s into that sort of thing, let’s talk about the lunch… […]

Some Things Are Different in France: Flu Shots

On an earlier trip to the local pharmacy, we had seen a sign saying flu vaccines were available. When we inquired, however, they said they wouldn’t be there until 15 October. When we returned on Saturday, they had the vaccines in stock. We’ve gotten many flu shots over the years, both in a long cattle-like […]