St Cyprien, Sarlat, Bordeaux, Brocante, Benac

Kurt and I have been busy exploring the local towns and getting our bearings.  We arrived in St. Cyprien just in time for the local open air market to be closing up.  I was able to purchase some sheer fabric with little blue poppies on it from a fabric truck.                                                                                                         

The stores were closed so we just wandered around in amazement at the beautiful architecture. 

One of the churches was open so we quietly went inside and had a prayer on the altar. I am so incredibly thankful for this experience.  

                                                                                                                           

                                   St. Cyprien is a town full of rose draped doorways.

          We came across the cutest little cat.

                                        

            He looked and even acted French!                                                   Laundry day

            

Every time we come across a realty office, we stop to look at pictures of all the homes for sale. Then dream aloud about buying a fixer upper, down to calculating the monthly payment, and discussing whether we would we rent it out or run it ourselves. But that will never happen.  I would miss my family and my home way too much.

  

One of the towns close to us is Sarlat.  This town was in the Drew Barrymore film, "Ever After" .  It is one of the oldest medieval towns in Europe, lined with cobblestone streets, arched tunnels and turrets.  There are many restaurants with outdoor seating and always some tourist friendly activity going on.  We went to an art exhibit in one of the turrets, having to climb several sets of tiny spiral staircases.  Sarlat is also the Foie Gras capital of the world.  Kurt tried it.  Me? No thanks.

                                                       Sarlat, golden gas lights at night

French Wine Country

Today, we went to Bordeaux, driving through the French countryside, watching it slowly turn from

                                                      castle country to wine country.  

We left without a plan or a map and arrived in a questionable area that surprised us. Frankly, it was a little scary so we kept driving. We knew this couldn't be Bordeaux!  Finally we came to an ornate bridge that took us across the river to the real Bordeaux. 
  

              

Kurt and I have allowed ourselves to start the days out, having no plans made and allowing ourselves to just get "wonderfully lost".  It has been fun to just happen upon one surprise thing after another. There is just something magical and dreamlike about it.  But it does have a down side.  Not planing has nearly left us on the side of the road because we almost ran out of diesel for the car. Not planning has caused us to have to eat ham sandwiches for 3 meals in a row because we forget that grocery stores aren't open around the clock in France.  And, once again, forgetting that lunch is only served between 12 and 2, we almost missed lunch again. We walked the streets and lost track of time until most all the restaurants were closed.  So, at a couple of minutes til 2, we noticed the clock and stopped in the next Boulangerie we saw. We asked for the only sandwich they had left.  We shared it back and forth while walking back to our car.  Turned out it was tuna.  And they say the French are famous for their food!  Seriously, though, it really was good.  It wasn't mixed together into a tuna salad, like we are familiar with.  It was all layered, so we actually tasted the individual ingredients.  First a layer of tuna, then layers of tomato slices, lettuce leaves, onion, and pickle slices, of course, served on crunchy crusted, soft centered french bread.  Delicious!

On the way home, we stopped at one of the many roadside family vineyards and purchased some of their wine. It was another wonderful inpromptu experience. We pulled off the main road onto a gravel driveway which led to a very large barn.  The large doors were open so we walked right in. The barn was filled with bottles of wine, oak wine barrels, and other wine accessories for sale to whomever might stop by.  There was a makeshift tasting bar set up to try their family wines.  We liked them all so we chose a crate package, hoping, naively so, to be able to ship some home.  They actually laughed out loud at us in the Post Office.  Oh, well, I guess we'll just have to drink them here. 

On down the road,we stopped at our first Brocante (junk store).  This is one of the main things I wanted to do in France.  I soon saw that I could get myself into some serious trouble.  I’m so glad I have other people’s money to spend.  So much junk... so little time...

We entered with great excitement and were soon greeted by a very tall Frenchman, who, of course, welcomed us with his gravelly voice in his native language.  We greeted back in French,  "Bon Jour"
. 
 "Parlez-vous Anglais?" I asked.  

"NON!" came his gruff response, followed by a mouthful of French "blah blah blah".

My eyes must have shown my feelings, because he started laughing and said very plainly, "Just kidding, what ya lookin' for?" Relief and laughter.  I appreciate the french sense of humor.  He was wonderful.  He stayed back from us but was actively listening and when we would wonder about something we picked up, he would chime in and tell us all about whatever it was.  If we seemed interested in any thing in particular, he would show us similar items around the brocante.  We shopped until we had seen almost everything...twice. This exact day is what I have dreamed about.

  The second lid is what they all looked like "before".

Stopped at Benac Castle just as it was closing, but we will be back.

                                               The Dordogne River running by Benac

Back at home in the evening, Kurt made us pizzas with goat cheese.  I ate every crumb.

When I heard that the house didn’t have air conditioning, I was a little worried about being uncomfortably hot here. Tonight, I would give anything for a snuggie and footie pajamas.  Hope it warms up soon.