Chateau du Bastit Souillac

This village clings to the side of a cliff. We first saw it in an articule in the TNT magazine in London.

It is another stop on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compestela. It has a famed image of a Black Madonna which is reputed to be responsible for many miracles.

From a distance this village is spectacular. We ...

... and a ruin of an old church which lit up at night.
Wednesday 4 Nov
Some blue skies finally appeared about 9am this morning so we set out to have a last wander through the village, take some more photos and more importantly buy some quiches for lunch - yum!

Another pretty little village this time famous for its red brick houses. A little more life than the last few villages and even a few shops open, one of which specialised in foie gras. As this is foie gras territory we did as the locals do and bought ourselves some which we will enjoy one night with one of the remaining bottle of champagne we still have in Scooby.

We left the bordeaux region today for the dordogne valley - the ancient town of Sarlat - waaaay medieval-
I've determined that there is not enough of france to walk in to justify the amount of food we've been eating...oof. We havent even had any pastries or creme brulee we're so full from lunch and dinner!
we"ll post more in the matin!
Bonne Nuit!

We spent the entire afternoon canoeing down the Dordogne. We packed a lunch and found a nice spot along the river to enjoy some wine and cheese. It was so peaceful and beautiful. Every couple of Kilometers was anothe castle overlooking the river. The river was so flat that we could just float along and enjoy the view.

From the cousins house we moved further west to Neils parents house. They have a place in a beautiful old town. It is an old walled vilage on the hilltop overlooking the valley. The village is full of cobblestone streets, windy narrow alleys and cute little homes. We ate great meals, enjoyed excellent wine and spent time with Neils parents. thank you again for hosting us!

... time for a late lunch. You can see why he eventually wants to live here, because the region is gorgeous, and the food so divine. It truly is the good life, here in this part of France.

Shuttle back to Vitrac, where I started today, and got a ride from the girl that was supposed to pick me up this morning. Seeing her car, I recognized it from this morning just outside the garden at the castle - I apologized for missing her this morning. Surprisingly, we were ...

... see blog entry entitled "A mix of Disney, baguette, fromage, and *****!" http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-en tries/pwong/europe_2006/1153739220/tpod .html )

Two local couples, or perhaps French tourists, sitting next to me nodded in approval when it was delivered to my table. Their words and gestures seemed to indicate "Good choice, this is very French!" ... but then they nearly freaked out when I poured way too much water into it "NON!!! C'est ...

... drank in a beautiful Frenchy countryside setting and learnt heaps including that if you eat a heap of oysters with champagne and champagne sauce followed by foi gras and then duck confit and some lovely French wine your body really does not appreciate it although I think it should. It really was a fantastic week and I now enjoy making on a regular basis French foccacia with my ...

... foreigners can spend on a credit card without first getting frisked. We packed the car, had some emergency yoghurt, as the last meal we had was toast for breakfast and turned the Audi right smack into peak hour traffic. Thankfully by this stage we had gone past caring. By the time we got home it was after 9pm. The original plan for today ended with an early night; let's just say that along with not getting any internet time that too didn't happen.