Habitation Grande Anse Deshaies

Set upon the River Vezere and quite pretty due to its 15th and 16th century Maisons a Tourelles, which looks like miniture castles due to their turrets. The rain had stopped for our little walk around the village but started again when we got back to the car - great timing!<br>

Stayed last night in a pretty little medieval village of Solignac, right on the town square next to the villages 11th century church, which is on the pilgirmage route - Santiago de Compostela. It had rained last night and was still raining so our wander around was brief! Our plan today was to stop at several little villages in the area, of which they got progressively prettier.

... our time here, I couldn&#8217;t help but feel grateful that I was born in the time, and the country, that I was. It made me pensive and gave me cause to appreciate what I have had in the past, and what I have now. I have never had to experience such terrible actions, and I hope that I never do. This memorial made me realize that I have been very lucky in my lifetime to have the experiences that I ...

... haughty French. These are genuinely open, friendly people who have given my folks a huge amount of practical help in setting themselves up and are great craic into the bargain- Jean Louis, for example, fond of dragging my dad out of bed at an unearthly hour to take him fishing in the lakes, sneaked over on the sly and painted a prominent tomato yellow, to confuse ...

... out that this nerd palace holds days where nerd meet up and play 'real life' games (they all had pretend shotguns and machine guns). Whats worse is that they walked around with such confidence it would seem that they actually thought they were mercenaries........ it made me sympathetic towards bullies.<br><br>After leaving nerd palace we sat outside for lunch and observed a young 'gangster' type character leave a ...

... conciousness. Then she started freaking out because I was speaking English. I left her to the crowd of people. She seemed fine.<br><br>At the bike shop it was obvious that I would need a new wheel, which requires a new gearing cassette, tyre, and innertube. 80 euros has seriously hurt the budget. Only 200 pounds left to get to Africa. Whats worse is the chain doesn't fit properly.<br><br>MST<br>

... found new loves after parting. Shacked up again, getting on with their lives as if nothing earth shattering happened.<br>Seems like I'm the only one still trying to figure things out, but hey, good luck to them, really and truly. I'll just have to get the new names right and pray they will last for a while.<br><br>Nico has owned a famous restaurant for decades and I was dying to taste his gourmet dishes, only Bernadette popped in ...

Just a quickie before we leave for St. Leon-sur-Vézère. Another puzzle. Ants again.<br><br>I left a cup of orange juice on the table outside and noticed some ants making their way towards it. Well, it was hot and I thought they were either thirsty or fancied a swim, and forgot all about it. Till we sat down for dinner and I saw what looked like the mesh of very fine tealeaves in the cup. There must have been thousands and thousands of them ...

We had obviously arrived at an inappropriate time. The staff was just sitting down to start their own meal, but we were still graciously escorted to a small, wobbly table in the middle of the empty restaurant and advised to take our time over the aperitifs. Our lovely French waitress spoke excellent English, which is unusual - turned out she was Canadian, just arrived and still finding her bearings. Ah, good luck, I suspect it could be quite a challenge for this young girl so far ...

... least we had this trusty little Lonely Planet guide, which recommended a few places around Dournazac and Chateau Montbrun.... Hmmm, they all seemed to be closed... Finally, 'La Taverne'- a place to eat (even though its ~10pm) and sleep (what! no rooms available!). Well, of course it did have a happy ending, but I start with the photos first....