Friday, March 16, 2012

Homework First, Then Lunch!


Busy morning doing my French language homework, while Honey finished reading "The Rum Diaries" by Hunter S. Thompson, sitting in the garden. 

At 12;30PM, he dragged me away for lunch at the Croque Note, a French/Vietnamese restaurant up a side lane from the main Boulevard.

Menu of the Day  12.50 Euros
Starter - Country pates
Main course - Fish with basil/rice/potatoes and vegetables
Dessert- Apple cake & Walnut Cake with whipping cream/creme anglais & caramel

Main Course


Dessert

A lovely way to the start the weekend..tomorrow off to Cahors for Market Day and a visit with friends.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Snakes and Ladders?


We’ve now walked the streets of Gourdon more than once; actually we walk everyday and more often than not two to three times a day.

First thing in the morning maybe a trip to the Boulangerie for Honey’s croissants and for some reason he likes the ones from the furthest bakery.
Later to the shops for our daily needs or further afield to the larger Supermarket, a walk to the local café and/ or a discovery walk in the town.  



And most days, we feel like Billy goats running up and down hills.  We have found that the boulevards, streets, alleys and lanes are like the game “Snakes and Ladders”.

There is a tiny, narrow street called – rue Zig Zag and we actually believe that all the streets, lanes and alleys do just that zig zag down from the Old Castle walls from one level to the next.

Think of a maypole with it ribbons or a tiered layer cake of varying sizes that wrap around the old historic part of town and then further layers down into the newer part of town.

Rue Marsis lies about in the middle tier of the layer cake in the old town. The main Boulevard where most of the shops are located lies two- three streets below our street; depending where we are heading to, it is either uphill for part of the journey or downhill.


When we are carrying our goods home, it always feels like we are mountain climbing. 

From the main Blvd. you can travel into the new part of town which also rambles up and down.
The large Supermarkets and Garden Centre are on the highway going out of town.

This week we’ve done two long sojourns out; Monday, we did a two-hour discovery walk into an area we had yet not seen and Wednesday afternoon we again trekked to the larger supermarket and also discovered Gamm-Vert, a large nursery/garden centre. We came home with a shopping bag full of plants and also one with some groceries. It was a hot, thirsty walk home.
Also, this week we needed potting soil for our containers and Graeme carried those 20L bags home from down below, another couple streets below the Blvd. from a store similar to a TSC back home.

Graeme says: Who needs “Zumba or aqua-jogging”? with all this walking…time will answer this question!

Monday, March 12, 2012

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!