France and the Fannies

(More time-manipulation, sorry - getting there......teach me to be a lazy-assed-sh!t...)  

Our next day’s driving was mainly on the motorway, so not much fun and we had to pay for the pleasure.  However, the roads in France are generally in much better condition than the UK and the toll roads usually quiet, and with a speed limit of 130KPH in dry weather Kitty Cate raced along and in a few hours with a brief stop at Le Mans for a look and an ice cream, we were at our next night’s accommodation.

Le Mans tram in the square

Chateau de Chambier - not too shabby at all

 We knew the first couple of days would be pretty boring driving until we reached the Dordogne where we would then only have an hour or two between accommodations and could take our time and explore, as we hadn’t been to this part of France before.  Our next stop was at the very pretty seaside town of La Rochelle, where the only thing to do, having been land-lubbed for a few days, was take a boat trip!!

The very pretty Old Port at La Rochelle

Fort Boyard

Entrance to the Old Port from the sea side

We both really liked La Rochelle, it’s a pretty town with a great waterfront and a nice ambience about it.  We agreed that it would be somewhere we wouldn’t mind living in or around even though it was on the Atlantic coast rather than the Med.  The next day was a shorter drive to the small town of St Jean de Blaignac so we went off the beaten track a bit and stopped off to visit St Emilion.  On arrival at our chateau late afternoon, we made use of the pool before heading off for dinner. Dinner was a first for me as the tiny village hosts a Michelin Starred Restaurant, “Auberg Saint Jean” and as it was only a five minute walk from our chateau, why not?  It was amazing.  I loved it.  I want to live there.  This was one of our favourite stops of the holiday, everything was just lovely; the chateau had one of the most tasteful renovations we’ve ever seen, merging the old with the new beautifully, a lovely pool, a room overlooking the Dordogne River and a great meal and wine a five minute walk away all in a really beautiful area.  Only an hour’s drive from Bordeaux, a little bit more to the coast and a couple of hours to skiing in the mountains, we decided we could also quite happily live there.  Our plans to eliminate areas for living were quickly going down the tube as we were now adding more on!!!

St Emilion - a pilgrimage for wine lovers

The gorgeous Chateau Courtebotte - or Corkbottle as Mike calls it.........

We continued to follow the Dordogne the next day passing through some glorious countryside and stunning little villages with their clifftop castles on our way to our most expensive accommodation of the holiday, thanks to Mike spotting it in the Guardian’s Top Ten Places to Stay in France.  Le Vieux Logis proved to be worth every penny, it’s gorgeous and we were very impressed when the receptionist excitedly told us we would be staying in the Arthur Millar room, named because he had come to stay three nights, once upon a time, and stayed a month!!  Mike was fantasising whether he had Marilyn there with him when we decided to check our receptionist’s facts and discovered that it was in fact the writer HENRY Millar, not Arthur that had stayed there……….

No trip to the Dordogne would be complete without dropping in to see Cyrano at Bergerac

Another lovely village with its Abbey

NOT Arthur Millar's bedroom.....

View down the garden from Henry Millar's room

Unfortunately dinner didn’t quite match up to our accommodation…. They did have a Michelin Starred Restaurant which was incredibly expensive and besides, we’d just had a Michelin Starred meal the night before, so hoped to eat at their Bistro, which was booked up.  We ended up having a burger at the little fast-food place across the street – and a bottle of wine.

We were spoiled for choice the next day where to go and what to do but settled on lunch at and a visit to Chateau des Milandes, once the home of Josephine Baker and now restored and run as a museum of her story.  Some of the rooms are as they were when she lived there, the bathrooms were absolutely amazing, and others house the museum which includes some of her costumes that were found in suitcases in the cellar!!!  The cellar had been flooded a few times over the years, so some of the costumes showed a bit of wear and tear, but amazing that they survived.  Her story is very interesting going from the slums of St Louis, Missouri, to top entertainer, to being active in the Civil Rights Movement, an agent for the French during WWII, creating a rainbow tribe family, to going bankrupt and losing everything.  She passed away in 1975 after a sell-out comeback show.

Unfortunately you're not allowed to take any photos at all inside the house.

But they have a great bird of prey team and display.

We spent that night in Sarlat le Caneda, a reasonably sized town which we wouldn’t mind having as our ‘bigger town nearby’ should we move to this area.

The next day, the sun beat down again and we were keen to get on the river.  We failed to find canoes at the first town we came to but headed on and soon crossed the river and saw a canoe sign.  We managed to canoe probably the prettiest stretch of the Dordogne, stopping off for a swim under the gaze of clifftop castles and dwellings.  The river was really clear and cool and quite fast-flowing in bits which made for a bit of fun.

Rapids!!!!

This could be Beynac, but I think it's the other village en route that I can't remember the name of and the maps are in the car, which is still in France - more about that later.....

THIS is definitely Beynac - can you spot me swimming??

Then it was back into the car for a couple of hours on the road to our next stop.  This seemed to be the longest two hours of the week as the tiny windy road climbed mountains and went down gorges.  All very nice, but we were getting quite tired and ready for a rest, so we were pleased when we finally reached our accommodation and its pool, near the historic village of Rocamadour.  We swam and read and then drove the 10 minutes to the nearest restaurant, La Troubadour, which was lovely.  Mike felt very French ordering just a half bottle of wine, as I was driving.  After breakfast the next day we made use of the internet and booked up the last of our hotels for our journey back up north to the Chunnel in a week’s time.  We were spending another night here so could take our time heading out to sightsee.  As we left at the hottest part of the day we decided to visit one of the caves the area is famous for, Gouffre de Padirac.  It was a good move as it was quiet cos it was lunchtime and it was deliciously cold!!

More horrible accommodation

Getting cooler the deeper you go

And then a boat takes you right into the caves - where you're not allowed to take any photos so we bought the tacky souvenir one!

Rocamadour clinging to the cliff side

We then headed into Rocamadour for a wander before heading back for a swim and a short drive out to another restaurant for dinner.  It was another hot night, but a different story in the morning, as I looked out at the drizzle remembering last night’s conversation as we came back from dinner, “Should we put the hood on the car?”, “No.  I mean, it’s not going to rain, is it???”  (My part of the conversation was the latter……).  Not only was it very wet, it was quite cool, so I put a jumper on and we dried the wet seats and put the hood on the car.  It’s not a great car in wet weather but at least we had the hood and the heating to keep us warm.  We were heading into real rural France today, so filled up with petrol and checked our emergency stash of wine in the car was intact – you never know.  We cheered ourselves up with a visit to a laundrette and finished off the bag of M&S toffees I found in my handbag.  I can’t remember the town we did the laundry in, but it was quite nice, though wet, but one thing was the same as most towns in France.  When you park in a car park where you have to pay, the hours to pay are 8-12 and 14-19.  Yep, even the carparks in France have a lunch hour!!!  We arrived at 11.45, and you got 30 minutes free anyway, so we were able to stay until 14.15 free!!!  Love France.  By 14.15 the sky was beginning to clear and we were able to take the hood down for the afternoon’s drive.  Our checking in time was 17.00 so we stopped off at Maurs for a wander and then headed on past our accommodation to Le Rouget, the biggest town near our Chateau.  We found the local Cave there and bought a bottle of white before seeing their little kegs which you could fill with Merlot, Rose or Muscat.  We took the Merlot, a keg for 8 euros – our cheapest wine yet!!  Gregoire greeted us at his lovely chateau, showed us around and although he hadn’t received our email asking if we could have dinner at the chateau (sometimes when they are very rural you can book an evening meal), he was delighted to provide a spread for us.  His mother bought the chateau fifteen years ago, and when they opened it up, it was the first time it had been opened in 65 years, when it was locked up after WWII.  French resistance had been housed there as the area was used to drop English agents in as it was so remote, and there was still a picture of Hitler pinned to one of the mirrors with little marks on it where they’d thrown things at him.  The restoration they had done was amazing, having to remove much of the floor, treat it, then re-lay it, and re-build some of the walls.  He and his wife were lovely, inviting us to join them for some amazing pizza before dinner that he had made in the outdoor oven.  Another bonus was the lovely bathroom with a large bath – perfect to chase away the chills of the earlier day.

War time secrets went on in this chateau - fascinating.

We were up and away sharp the next morning, well, as sharp as we get, as we had arranged to be at our next accommodation by lunchtime.  Mike had discovered a while back that Teenage Fanclub were playing at a Festival in France, so we had planned our route so we could take this in.  We knew it would be a late night so felt it only fair to check in a bit earlier so they wouldn’t have to wait up for us.  Benjamin was incredibly accommodating and showed us round the transformed cheese farm that he now runs as a B&B, then handed us the keys and left us to head off to the Heart of Gold, Heart of Glass Festival at St Amans des Cot – yes, we’d never heard of it either.  The festival was being held at a holiday camp, on a lakeside, so a beautiful setting, and with hindsight, we should really just have booked one of the bungalows for the night.  We arrived too early for non-stayers, who wouldn’t be admitted until 5pm, but it wasn’t a problem for the French.  We were told to take a seat for 15/20 minutes and they’d sort it out.  They did.  The girl came back with our wristbands and said we could make use of the pool, bars, food stations etc.  And we did!!  The festival was a completely different experience from those in the UK.  No one started drinking til about 7pm, no one was drunk, no one was being sick, weeing against trees, pushing to the front of the venue – it was all incredibly civilised and we really enjoyed it.  The weirdest thing was, like all festivals in France apparently, it was a cash-free zone.  You buy Jetons (little plastic discs, 1 jeton = 1.36euros) and you then buy anything you want with them.  This does make it very expensive as a large beer was 4 jetons!!!  Mike was getting very excited as the time for the Fannies to come on got closer as having inspected the venue, realised how close and personal this gig would be.  Then we spotted Norman Blake.  Then he was suddenly walking behind us and Mike turned and said, “All right??”  Norman chatted with us as if we were old friends – what a lovely, lovely man and Mike managed to have a conversation without crying or getting tongue tied.  They came on at 9pm and were brilliant.  What a great gig.  Mike started crying round about the second song and I think Norman clocked him as he kind of smirked at one point………  Afterwards we hung around but as they had a flight back to the UK the next morning I think they must have decided on a quiet night.  We had a really good time; the people were nice, the pool was great, music fantastic, just a really nice experience and I’d highly recommend taking in a French festival if you get the chance.  I then drove us back to the B&B along pitchblack winding lanes and slept like a log once there.  The following day would take us back on to familiar territory as we headed South towards Carcassone.

It's Festival time!!!!

Mike dreaming about being in the mosh pit

Personally I prefer Quaintrelle

The Fannies!!!