Enjoying Medieval France

Trip Start Jun 19, 2008
1
6
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Trip End Oct 11, 2008


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Flag of France  , Aquitaine,
Saturday, July 5, 2008

    We had another close call yesterday morning, as we rushed to pick up our rental car. We had been previously warned by Renault Eurodrive that we had to pick up our car between 8:30 and 9:30 or our car would be "released." Ok. So, we make our plans to take the metro from a stop near our hotel. We check out of the Hotel des Arts with 60 minutes to spare. Plenty of time, we think. The hotel staff would not give us change for the automatic metro machines, but tell us that we can get change from the attendant at the station. Fine. So, we make our way to the metro station with which we are familiar and find that only ticketholders can enter. We have no tickets. So, after a few minutes of aimless wandering, we find another station. When we look for the attendant, he is nowhere to be found. We are not about to put our 50 euro bill into a machine which only spits out coins, so we wait. We only have 45 minutes by this point, so I run to the street and, after making a fool of myself in a café (they don't give food to go, apparently), I get change by buying pastries at a local boulangerie. By the time I return to Ryan in the station, the attendant is back, of course. We finally get on the subway. We have 30 minutes before the "release." We look at the metro map and realize our stop is one of the last on the line - at least 25 stops away. Keep in mind that we have our gigantic bags, and everyone in Paris seems to be on the subway today. And they all feel like we are in their way, no matter how small we try to make ourselves. We trigger many many French hisses and heavy sighs. We make it (with 3 minutes to go!), and pick up our brand new Renault Laguna Estate station wagon.

    After 6 hours of driving and a 17 euro toll (ugh), we arrived in the medieval village of Sarlat la Caneda. The GPS goes crazy, and nearly gets us stuck in an alley too small for any car. Parking also must not have been a priority in 14th century villages, and we circled the town for over an hour trying to find a spot and our hotel.
We are staying in the Hotel des Recollets, a cloister from the 17th century. After we settled in and did a little sink-laundry, we splurged the rest of our day's budget on a delicious meal of duck with salad, foie gras-stuffed quail, and little French desserts. Apparently, this region is famous for its foie gras, and I know why. Yum.  It was worth every euro.

    Today, we woke to a (free!) breakfast of bread, fresh croissants, and coffee in the courtyard outside our room. Then, we headed out for our first adventure in the Dordogne region - a canoe trip 14km down the Dordogne River. When we arrived at Roquegeoffrey Canoe, we were instructed to "Parkay behind de snuck" aka "Park behind the snack bar." Little did we know that those would be the last scraps of English we would hear all morning and afternoon. Soon, we were surrounded by several French families and an extremely boisterous French football team. We were loaded into a bus, and I don't want to sound rude or over-generalize, but it has been our experience that when more than 4 French people are in an enclosed space, a certain distinct "aroma" begins to permeate the area... Then the rowdy French men started singing, and everyone was laughing and jabbering. Ryan and I smiled uncomfortably and tried to avoid speaking. We made it to our launch-point, and were shoved into the middle of the river in a wobbly canoe. The current was fairly strong, and the water was calm, so we floated pretty effortlessly through the gorgeous Dordogne River Valley. Check out the pictures - beautiful woods and bluffs, and castles around every turn. Now, here we are sitting in a McDonalds (Free WiFi!), and deciding what cheap eats we will seek out tonight. Tomorrow we will visit Lascaux II, some of the world's most famous cave paintings. The actual cave is only a short distance away, but only admits archaeologists and anthropologists (and only a very few of those) so as to preserve the paintings. We'll settle for the exact replica (and we scored tickets to an English tour!). More soon.
 

Note: I just want to clarify that although "I" (Patti) am typing the travel blog, Ryan and I are both sitting here reminiscing and contributing. I just like to use the first person when I write. Sorry if that's confusing, but don't give me all the credit!
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