A New Adventure in France

The weather has definitely calmed down thankfully and the we’ve enjoyed some warm October sunshine. We heard this week from our Dutch fisherman friend who was staying on for a few weeks at our favourite campsite on the Lot after we left and whom we had hoped to meet up with on market day. He was back in the Netherlands and told Joe that last Sunday the campsite had been evacuated when the river level rose rapidly in the space of a couple of hours. We remember reading the evacuation plan when we had stayed there but didn’t imagine that it was implemented very often during the open season.

It’s the season for picking cèpes – cep mushrooms – and we’ve been hoping we might find some as we keep being told we’re in the right place for them. Depending on who you talk to cèpes apparently grow near oak trees and sweet chestnut trees and we are surrounded by those so you would think we would have a good chance of finding some. I think the locals will know exactly where any grow and are probably out at the crack of dawn to gather them. We’ve been looking whenever we go out walking and think we (or Joe) finally found one, albeit a newly emerged one (champagne cork) if internet picture comparisons are to be believed. We’re hardly going to have any gourmet meals with one mushroom and we’re too afraid of poisoning ourself to try it anyway. Joe found that 87 people have already been admitted to hospital with mushroom poisoning this year so we really don’t need to risk that.

On a day that promised sunshine we set out on the motorbike to have a look at a couple of villages to add to our ‘Plus Beaux Villages..’ collection and in the hope of doing a boat trip. In the Lot it felt like there were stunning hilltop bastide towns around every corner but there seem to be fewer of them in the Dordogne, although plenty of other beautiful sights. There was low mist in the early morning which had cleared by the time we arrived at the first port of call, Belvès, to the south east of us. From there we headed back to La Roque-Gageac to check out boat timings and found one that would allow enough time to enjoy a quick lunch by the river. The trip on a gabare, the flat bottomed boats that used to ply the Dordogne, took us a little way upriver and then turned back to give great views of the medieval village of La Roque-Gageac which clings to the rock face. We then motored along the river, past the high cliffs at Marqueyssac (on the list for another day), until we came to the bridge at Château de Castelnaud which we had visited at the beginning of the week. It was great to get a different view of the castle from the river. The colours are changing here every day and look beautiful against the stone houses and towns.

Our final stop on the way back was at the hilltop village of Domme, The village has a beautiful esplanade and belvedere with stunning views over the Dordogne valley. Both Belvès and Domme are billed prominently in information about this region, have stunning locations and some beautiful architectural features, but again they were pretty much deserted and over half of the shops in both villages were for sale, rent or just vacant. Yes it’s a strange year and late season tourism has obviously been impacted, but it’s still hard to imagine they would be very much different on any other day and no signs of any industry other than tourism to keep the village alive outside the main season.

By contrast, market day on Saturday at Sarlat was very busy and it’s one of the largest markets we’ve visited. No doubt it is heaving with tourists of all nationalities in the high season but it felt very authentic and we heard only french voices from behind face masks. Gone are all the colourful summer fruit and veg and now the main products are walnuts (and anything you can make with them), chestnuts, grapes onions and garlic as well as anything duck related of course. Locals and non-locals (judging by car number plates) obviously have their favourite stalls for specific products and it’s fascinating to people watch from one of the many cafés.