Time to be brief.....well at least I tried!

So far I have been trying to do the blog the way I would like to do it....talking about the quirky things that happen as well as describing where we have been going but it gets too hard when you're out and about most of the day, so you will have to excuse my brevity about the past few days.

The town hall

Limoges is a bit of a mixed town architecturally speaking: some beautiful old buildings mixed with some stark ugly plain ones.
We spent some time planning our day as a visit to the Laundromat and some shoe shopping were high on our ( Liz and I) list of priorities! We managed to combine that with breakfast at a local boulangerie so all good ...but no success with the shoe shopping (very sad!).

I have come to the conclusion that working out how each laundromat (laverie here) works is a sort of Mensa test. How long does it take for three reasonably intelligent human beings to actually get the machines to work.....far too long! And just to add insult to injury we discovered that regardless of the amount of Euros carefully inserted into the correct slot, and the right number being pressed, the dryers only worked for 10 minutes - full stop Very frustrating when you're trying to shop in between!

Finally prepared to resume our roles as tourists we headed for the Musee de Beaux Arts to see their historical collection of porcelain and enameling which was very interesting as you can see.

Then it was the usual test to see if we could find somewhere to eat that was traditional Limousine (local) and not overly expensive. And we managed to find a cute simple restaurant called Chez Mr. Edouard (61 avenue Garibaldi) which provided a beautiful fish dish on cauliflower puree and, as we couldn't resist dessert, creme brulee and coconut creme caramel were required!

Not only were the meals delicious but the owner gave us lots of advice about where to go in the Dordogne. It is nice to support people who actually provide a service!

Sunday 23rd April
The next morning we headed off for a mysterious location which even the GPS devices (too numerous to mention!) had difficulty pinning down . We'd booked a stone cottage in the middle of nowhere near a small town called St Cyprien (Airbnb: called Saint Andre-d'Allas).

But before we left Limoges we visited the Musee de La Resistance which provided lots of food for thought, and lots of information about the impact of WWII on France and the response from the French. Well-presented and worth a visit.
Many kilometres were covered with Liz navigating beautifully and me lying around in the back seat, doing nothing except offering words of encouragement. I think this might be a marriage saving strategy as trying to cope with the multiple devices that Ewan seems to think is essential nearly did me in completely!! The scenery has changed considerably from the flat open plains of the north to lots of  woods and forests and hills, wiht nay flat land cleared for agriculture. very green and beaitiful.








The latest accommodation is in Malartigue which seems to be a collection of a few houses and that's it - but beautiful country - and a view from the upstairs terrace for drinks and nibbles at the end of a hard day - which is perfect. We'd stocked up on food at the Limoges market before we left so we were set for a few days.

The local donkey: not happy
with me when I didn't offer any food as payment
for this photo!

For future reference - Airbnb - La Grange/The Barn, Malartigue, Saint Andre d'Allas, Vendee - the host is Jacqueline

Our abode: a renovated barn, With Jacqueline, the owner

We were greeted by the owner Pascal who stayed for drinks and dinner (pasta with beautiful fresh marinara with huge scallops, tuna and salmon)  and although protesting that his English wasn't good managed to advise us about the area and even discuss politics with Ewan (the French voted the following day). Finally we managed to get Ewan to keep quiet and Pascal went home to his stone cottage next door which he shares with his wife Jacqueline who was away.

Monday 23rd April

The next day we were well prepared for a hectic days sightseeing.

The small cheese stall where we bought rounds of local
goat's cheese called cabuchon

Firstly we had to explore the local St Cyprien market whilst the locals queued to vote in the local Hotel de Ville (town hall). On Pascal's advice we bought roast chicken, carrots and potatoes: Liz bought an extra lot of potatoes just in case (as in her mind you can never have too many potatoes).


Then it was tourist time for sure: we headed for Chateau des Milandes, famous, not only for being a superb chateau, but because it was owned by Josephine Baker the dancer and singer.

Her life was fascinating: poor girl from Missouri married at 13 who ended up as a French star, fought in the resistance, adopted 12 children and married /partnered quite a few wealthy men. The gardens were lovely, and the chateau although originally very old (15th century), has been beautifully modernised  for her including having two of the bathrooms designed to matchthe packaging from her favourite perfumes: Arpege by Lanvin ( black and gold wiht a touch of jade green) and Dior ( pink and blue). No photos allowed inside unfortunately.

After a picnic lunch by the side of the road (verdict on the roast chicken etc very good) we ventured up a very steep hill to walk up into the castle perched on the top.

Castelnaud-la-Chapelle was a great example of a defensive fortress. being so high up was quite an advantage for defence, but it also had some trebuchet's set up so you could see how they contributed to the defence.

A multi-barrelled cannon

Beautiful panoramic views of the Dordogne ,,,,and I would think if an enemy was going to attack you , you would definitely see them coming!!

Trebuchets are basically enormous slingshots or stone-throwing devices used to knock down walls. Although, according to the film we watched, they could only do two stones per hour so it wasn't a fast process! The fortress had been added to and modified over many centuries from it's beginnings in the 12th Century and was a base for the Cathars, an important religious Christian group in these parts.

We had a cold drink after climbing up and down lots of stairs and before summoning up enough energy to go back up the hill to the car. After a lovely drive home we had nibbles on our terrace . Liz and I decided to go for a walk to the local hamlet Allas, as it was only a couple of kilometres away. We knew there was a track somewhere but we soon lost it and trekked through the undergrowth for a while before deciding we would head for the road and circle back. The sun was going down but the forest was dappled and all shades of green. And we didn't get attacked by any wild boar, although we did see some suspicious looking caves and holes dug by some type of unknown animal!

Leftovers for dinner as Liz and I had over catered a bit: never happened before (!!!???)

 Tuesday 24th April

Old market building

Fabulous entree: smoked salmon

After dealing with the mundane aspects of life -shopping and laundry- we headed for Martel to have lunch with Chris,the brother-in-law of a  friend of Liz's.

Martel is another lovely old medieval town with lots of high 3 and 4 story houses many of them with attics. They have been well-preserved and it was lovely to walk around the ancient market building and the streets after lunch. Lunch was fantastic: see photos. A set menu with three courses which turned into five! And it included a particularly beautiful creme brulee.

So, to offset the effects of a long lunch, we headed for Les Jardins du Manoir d'Eyrignac as we knew it was a garden and would take some walking! So for an hour and a half we traipsed around the 7 linear kilometres of linear garden admiring the skill of the 6 full-time gardeners. In a nutshell it was topiary heaven and explained the number of topiary designed trees that have appeared in private gardens, outside town halls etc. The property has been owned by the same family for 500 years , and there was a tiny chapel with only a couple of chairs still used for their baptisms.It was a beautiful balmy 26 degrees Celsius and light breeze as we wandered slowly around: so perfect for enjoying a large garden .

But some of the topiary was downright weird!!

We drove home and encountered Jacqueline , Pascal's partner. She and a couple of friends came for drinks and fortunately she speaks excellent English - actually taught English at one point - so she could interpret. She was very entertaining and informative.

After our huge lunch we had an omelette for dinner bemoaning the fact that we have all put weight on!!

your ever increasing correspondent

Dianne