Saturday morning, after cleaning up
the gite, Ann and I left to drive to the Dordogne, while Ghislaine
drove Cathy and Jim to Toulouse for their flight home to England.
Our drive to the Dordogne was very long, with quite a lot of
inclement weather along the way. We broke up the journey a couple of
times, the first one to visit Chateau Viella again and pick up some
more of their wine. Later on in the drive we stopped briefly in the
town of Praysass, and took a short stroll around the town.
Finally, we arrived at the medieval
village of Beynac et Cazenac, where we were spending the second week
of our trip. The village is full of winding, steep streets, and the
walk from the gite to our parking space, which we had to make several
times to unload our luggage, wine and cheese, was somewhat taxing.
But it was worth it just to see the view of the Dordogne River from
the terrace and the dining room. After unpacking, we took a stroll
down towards the river and to a small group of food shops on the
outskirts of the village. We picked up some provisions at the butcher
shop, bakery, and small grocery store, then headed back to our gite
where we sat on the terrace and had some sweet Jurancon wine as an
aperitif.
On Sunday morning we went to the
weekly market in the nearby town of St. Cyprien. We could see from
the parking situation that the center of town was very crowded, so we parked
well away from the center and walked towards the market. Although
St. Cyprien is just a modest sized town, the market was massive, with
well over 100 vendors spread out throughout the town. We spent a
couple of hours wandering around the market, picking up provisions
for the next couple of days, since many shops are closed on Mondays.
After leaving St. Cyprien, we drove back to our gite for lunch. The
weather was glorious, sunny and warm, so we had lunch on the terrace.
After lunch we decided to drive to the
Vezere Valley and stop at a couple of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France
(The Most Beautiful Villages in France): Saint-Leon-sur-Vezere and
Limeuil. Our first stop was St.-Leon-sur-Vezere, which, in addition
to having many beautiful old buildings, has a chateau, a magnificent church,
and a large manor house in the center of the village. We strolled
through the village and along the Vezere River, which runs along the
outskirts of the village.
Leaving St.-Leon-sur-Vezere, we drove
along the Vezere River to Limeuil, which is high above the confluence
of the Vezere and Dordogne Rivers. We parked away from the village,
and walked towards the Vezere and up towards the center of Limeuil.
We strolled around the beautiful village, and visited the botanical
park, which, among other things, has outstanding views of the
Dordogne and Vezere Rivers.Two Views of the Dordogne and Vezere Rivers |
Botanical Gardens |
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ReplyDeleteNice. Glad you got some nice weather.
ReplyDeleteHello Bob and Ann !
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that you know better France than most of french people.I'm happy to see that the weather is improving because I was afraid that your American friends thought that France was a rainy country with a grey sky.
Corinne from Lyon, France
This may be my favorite gîte yet. That view is fantastic!
ReplyDelete