A New Adventure in France

Well the week seems to have flown by and we’ve spent our time getting ship-shape, exploring locally on foot and exploring further afield. Another week of dire weather predictions, but just about every day seems to clear up in the morning to bring us Some dry weather and even sunshine. Still, it seems like we made the right decision as to when to move under a solid roof…

We’ve discovered more reminders of resistance activity in the area, with small roadside memorials detailing activity at certain locations, including parachute activity in a nearby field.

On the day with the best forecast we set out on the motorbike to do a circular tour to the east. Travelling through lovely countryside and villages our first destination was Collonges-la-Rouge in the Corrèze. Another one of the ‘Plus Beaux Villages….’ this is the one that actually got the whole accreditation system underway, with the former mayor devising the association back in 1982. And it’s an impressive village/hamlet to have kicked it all off, built entirely in a very distinctive dark red, iron oxide-rich stone, apparently from a local quarry but there aren’t any other houses of the same colour in the immediate vicinity – the last time we did see some was in the Aveyron. The village is rather fairytale-like with numerous turrets or towers and most of the village buildings covered in wisteria and vines. It’s another village that depends on tourism to survive, so it’s full of restaurants and artisan shops.

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We carried on to Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne, which we have passed once before but didn’t have time to stop. The medieval centre was deserted with nothing open but there were some beautiful buildings to admire including La Maison Renaissance. We found a lovely lunch spot on the opposite side of the river at Altillac – beautiful views in the autumn sun.

Whilst out we saw a number of signs outside farms advertising ‘vin paillé’ – straw wine? It wasn’t something we’d heard of, but apparently is a sweet aperitif wine made from grapes that have been dried (on straw trays) to concentrate the sweetness. It’s a speciality of the Corrèze but there’s a similarly named vin de paille in the Jura. We fancy trying some but not sure we’ll find it nearby so we may need to cross department borders again to buy some.

We’ve also had a first foray into Sarlat-la-Canéda, a major town in the Périgord and a place Claire had seen before but not Joe. We had a chuckle when our satnav, an English lady with the most terrible french accent, suddenly pronounced the town’s name in a very posh accent, rhyming the last syllables with ‘lah-di-da-dah’. Not sure where that came from! Sarlat is very attractive, with the record of having the highest density of listed buildings – 66 historical and classified monuments – and more foie gras shops than you can imagine. The Église Sainte-Marie in the centre of town was converted in 2001 into a covered market by the well known French architect Jean Nouvel, with the bell tower now a lookout point reached via a lift, unfortunately closed due to a Covid. The church had been deconsecrated many years before the work. The restoration work included installing two huge steel doors, over 15 metres high, contrasting with the original gothic stone building, which has of course caused a lot of debate over the years. We really like the courage of the architect and the striking contrast, in an area where everything is almost ‘chocolate-box’ pretty. But what do we know?!

One afternoon we popped out quite locally to have a look at a small gallery in a former train station, dedicated to the photography of Robert Doisneau, a celebrated French photographer and known internationally for 1930s photos of street scenes in his native Paris, and best known perhaps for his photograph, The Kiss. When paid holidays were introduced in the late 1930s, he and his friends spent summer holidays in the Dordogne and he took lots of photos in the region, including one taken at the station where the exhibition is held. By coincidence, we spotted a photo taken in Sarlat market where you can see the blocked up end of the church as it was before the contentious new doors were installed.