Hotel le Collonges Brive-la-Gaillarde

... some way off and enjoyed the view as we walked the 1km to the top...

By the time we made it to the bottom the heavens had opened. An extremely rude little man told us off for standing under some shelter in the street but out the front of his shop. I just laughed and then ignored him which made him furious... serves him right ...

... 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.

Gorgeous!!! Not a soul insight as we had arrived at lunchtime and we only met 2 other tourists, on deptarture - a retired English couple who had seen us in Blois - they recognised Scooby :) Rolling fog and mist coming up the valley started to clear and revealed a valley full of autumn colours. We made our way to the Waterfalls and then followed the riverside walk before heading back to Scooby to have lunch and further appreciate the view.

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!

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!

... to decide if it sounded any better than the last. I finally settled on Auberge Lys D'or, where I was kindly relegated to the back corner of the terrace - single diners don't get much respect, I have learned over the years.

At least the waiter was really nice, despite difficulties communicating with each other. The bread was like yesterday's, dry and crusty on the outside, but good on the inside, perhaps coming from the same bakery. I sampled a red ...

... the beautiful cuisine would be like going to London without seeing Big Ben, going to Paris without seeing the Mona Lisa, and going to Spain without drooling over the senoritas - it would be a mistake of epic proportions!!!

Normally I write in my journal as I eat, because I've got nothing else to do, as I have nobody to talk to, other than myself - but that usually turns off fellow diners, so I try to limit that. But tonight, all I did was eat - in ...

... jerking and hopping in a comical way, she just couldn't find the beat but it didn't bother her in the least. A slightly besozzled man joins her, takes her in his arms and tries to guide her, to no avail. They laugh it off and leave the dance floor, hand in hand.

It is all so sweet. The song being sung now sounds familiar and I am doing my best to grasp what the chanteur is singing. It sounds French but it's actually English. 'Whoa aah ate goat noha bot-tie.' Oh, dear me ...

... 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 ...