Sunday in the Dordogne

11 March 2012

Today, friends arrived with a surprise assortment of spring box plants for our temporary garden. In addition, one of our friends, kindly lent us a garden fork and donated some flower pots for our plantings.

They drove us thru the scenic countryside and beautiful villages with fantastic vistas to the Perigord Noir / Dordogne Valley.

Gourdon is situated in the Lot Valley but is very near the Dordogne border; an area that we have never previously visited.

We arrived at our first destination in Beynac….a charming restaurant that was very familiar to one of our friends.

 

The restaurant was warm and inviting, company delightful and food was absolutely delicious and great value for four courses.

The server brought a tureen of piping hot Mushroom soup to the table and the basket of bread.

Followed by the next courses:

Starters: choice of smoked salmon & salad or a traditional “Quercy” salad with “gesiers”.  

Main: choice of Duck Confit or Sturgeon fish in a white wine butter sauce.

Dessert: choices were plentiful, Dark Chocolate Ganache with oranges; Tart Tatin (apple pie) and a Nougat Ice Cream with raspberry coulis.

Our taste buds were tantalized, but the salmon was the highlight.

Absolutely delicious!

From Beynac, we took a different route home and stopped quickly to look up at a  village built in the cliffs (not sure of the name but think it was La Roque- Gageac, (where starting in April you can also take a boat tour along the river- a must do activity) then continued on to the village of Domme.

We leisurely wandered the streets of Domme, and went “Wow!”

Words can not express the magnificence of these villages. 

There are five villages within an hour of each other that have been designated as one of “Les plus Beaux Villages de France de la Vallee Dordogne” (the most beautiful villages of France in the Valley of the Dordogne).

Thank you to our friends for a wonderful day!

The Wine Merchant

On the main Boulevard which encircles the old part of town there are various businesses, cafes, restaurants and shops.

It was here we discovered “Le Domaine des vins “, a shop well stocked with some very wonderful tasting wines and a helpful, knowledgeable Monsieur.

On our first visit, we purchased a couple of bottles that M.Thierry- his first name (Terry in English) recommended; both from the Cahors region famously known for the Black wines.

We purchased a 2006 Chateau Pineraie L‘Authentique’ and also a 2009 from the same winery.  The Chateau is located in the village of Puy- L- Eveque, which is near our friends in Prayssac. We have not yet tasted these; we have reserved them for a special occasion.

Monsieur also presented us with an invitation to a “Degustation de Chablis” to be held at his shop on the 7^th of April.

On another visit, we purchased a pre-packaged trio of Cahors’ red wines for fewer than 20 Euros. One which we tasted and especially liked was Cahors Mercures Douelle

As a token of our appreciation; Graeme presented Thierry with one of the “Canadian Flag pins” that he brought with him courtesy of our local Federal MP.

Yesterday, we needed to buy some “Vin Blanc” and purchased a box of 5 liters of Bergerac Blanc Sec for 10.70 Euros that the friendly proprietor highly recommended.  Hopefully, this will carry us through for a few weeks?

We’ve been looking to buy a box/basket to store our books and odds and sods to keep everything in it’s’ place rather than just using every horizontal surface for storage.

We haven’t been able to find a basket/box anywhere in Gourdon, even the Monsieur at the Droguerie (hardware store) looked high and low to find us something suitable and was unable to find anything much to his dismay. He is a very congenial, helpful gentleman and we have made a few purchases here, one being a lovely Limoges bowl painted with poppies to hold our Sel de Mer.

Today, Saturday 10 March 2012, we visited the other Wine Store/ Merchant in town just to check it out. It is a larger operation or seems to be, it has a larger space, however it’s all very overwhelming at first.

At this store you can buy wine by the vrac (in bulk). (Think of the red plastic can that you use to purchase gas for your lawn mower)

It was here, we saw the empty wooden wine boxes which we thought would be the perfect solution to our storage and decorating dilemma.

So, we revisited our favorite wine merchant to see if we could purchase one of the empty wooden boxes used to store the bottles of wine.

We arrived as M.Thierry was having a “degustation “(tasting) of wine from the Chateau de Chambert – the wine in question is called Chambert Gourmand, Cahors AOC – Fruite Intense 2008.

We were asked and offered a glass to taste….this wine is 90% Malbec/10% Merlot. 

What we tasted we liked, so we bought a bottle for our “Cave” (the French would laugh at we call a Cave, but we can pretend)…at a not unreasonable price of 7.50 Euros.

There is a lot of history about this vineyard, created in 1690AD; it covers the best lands at the highest part of the Cahors region, in the South-West of France.

The following is taken from an info sheet that M.Thierry provided.

“For over 300 years, its’ wine is a delight to the Popes in Avignon, tsars in Russia, and officers in Bordeaux: it is exported all over Europe.”

“The vineyard of 145 acres of vines (90% Malbec, 10% Merlot) soil made from limestone, clay with red iron oxide producing wines of exceptional refinement. Viticultural techniques entirely based on natural products, no chemical weed-killer, Chambert really cares about the environment.”

“The wine – silky tannins, dark berries aromas with spices. Aged one year in oak barrels, (this wine can age 20 years or more if stored in a good cellar), this wine deserves exquisite meals|: red meat and spicy foods.

Open few hours before tasting to unleash all its complexity”

For more information:   http://www.chambert.com/

                                  

In addition, we purchased a bottle of “Terre Bleue” a 2010 white wine that received a Silver Medal – concours de Bordeaux 2011.

We left the store with our wine purchases and a gift from M. Thierry; a wonderful wooden box that already has found a useful place and is keeping order in our little cottage in Gourdon.

Sante ..to your good health.

Back to School and Trekking to the Supermarket

Today, I (Pat) went to school, in actual fact, a language school….L’Atelier des Langues on Rue Danglars, only a short walk from the cottage. (5 minutes walk around the

Church Square

and down probably one of the steepest streets/lanes – Rue Jean Jaures)

The following are the websites for the language schools - which are operated by Giles Murray

http://www.atelierdeslangues.com/

http://www.frenchresidential.com/

This is an introductory course offered on Wednesday mornings – a 1.5 hour class per week of French for beginners and very rusty students and I believe I fall in the latter category.

Today, there were only three students, myself and a lovely Dutch couple who are fluent in English.

I studied French in Canada throughout High School Grades 9 -13 and my mother who was born in Belgium was more Walloon (French-speaking) than Flemish; she was  one of five girls and she spoke French quite regularly at home when her other two immigrated sisters, Anny and Georgette visited or on the telephone … when I was growing up. The French language was never foreign when I was a young girl.

But like many things if you don’t use it, you lose it.

Every time, we travel to France it takes time for me to feel comfortable using the French language. I want to feel confident when I am conversing with the locals and also avoid any mistakes due to the language barrier or misinterpretation of the written word.

It hasn’t happened for me yet on this trip, but in 2005 while in Agde at a restaurant in the square with some dear friends, Doug & Shari…I ordered “les petites Poisson frites”, which I literally interpreted as “small fish fry” i.e. A small order of fried fish which sounded delicious and I didn’t want a large portion…that was not the case…the waitress delivered our orders and my eyes couldn’t believe what I had ordered. It was a large platter piled high with over a 100 small fish (whole), the size of minnows/ sardines deep fried with their little eyes staring at me. We enjoyed a good laugh at my mistranslation.

So, I’m hoping my teacher can help me remember the words and how to use and pronounce them correctly in the right context.

My first class was very informative and I came away with homework; so it is really like school …does this make sense at my age?

In addition to being able to converse while in France; I hope to be able to have conversations with my oldest grandchild, Chloe (7) soon to be (8) who is in French Immersion at her school.

Just before we left Canada, we had a visit with the girls; Chloe and Sydney… Chloe spoke in French so innocently without apprehension and she sounded so francais. Oh, to be young again!!

I was at school from 10:30 AM to 12:00 Noon today …arrived home to the aroma of homemade chicken soup for lunch…my honey was busy this morning.

After lunch, we ventured out to the larger Supermarket –Inter Marché on the Route de Fumel on foot; which we estimate to be about 3 ½ km there and back, plus the extra steps in the store and our mantra was we will only buy light things …do you believe that?  

You may ask,”Why did we go there?” flyer specials of course …one of the offers this week; Sandeman Ruby Porto at 5.70 Euros (what a deal!).

We walked every aisle in the store to orientate ourselves, and tried to only purchase light weight items because we knew we had to carry them back to Rue Marsis.Before heading back home, we had a most delicious Café Crème at the café.

Then, we trudged back home with some complaint because of the weight of the shopping bags and distance.

Finally, at home we prepared a delicious dinner of Toulouse sausage, roasted potatoes, and white beans in tomato sauce.

I completed my assigned homework…and am now enjoying a glass of wine…Chateau Pineraie (Cuvee des Dames Maison fondee en 1836) 2009 Cahors, Puy-L-Eveque).

We were going to head to the Promenade Café (our Wi-Fi connection to the world) to post our entries and check emails…but it will wait until tomorrow! 

Have a good evening everyone!