Driving the Dordogne
We awoke, bright and early, at 6:30 in the morning, as we had a train to catch. After getting our things together, we hauled our bags down to the front desk, as we planned to leave all of our things at the hotel so we didn’t have to deal with carrying them around Bordeaux. Our taxi arrived punctually at 7:30, and we were soon on our way to Libourne. Despite having bought tickets to leave from St Emilion, given the fiasco of getting to St Emilion, we opted to leave out of the larger town of Libourne. While a couple days previous seemed to be the day of transportation fail, today appeared to be one of transportation success, as everything ran smoothly. We caught our train without incident and was soon back in Bordeaux. From there, we hopped on the tramway up to Place des Quinconces, where we took a bus out to near the Merignac airport in the outskirts of Bordeaux to our rental car place, which we found without any problem. It’s amazing what a little planning can do. We collected our rental car with nary a problem, and it wasn’t long before we were on the road. We were provided with a cute little Renault Twingo (diesel)—a tiny little hatchback, but it would serve our purposes just fine. We swung by a gas station and invested in a stout book of roadmaps for France. I had prepared Google maps to get us from all of our various accommodations, but it would be nice to have the opportunity to wander through the tiny roads of the French countryside without getting completely lost.
We made our way back to St Emilion (successfully proving our ability to read road maps!), and stopped at the restaurant across from our hotel to have some ice cream and plan our route. We thought we’d take the suggestion of the Guide to St Emilion and try to take in a chateau on a vineyard. We figured out (roughly) how to get there, crammed our suitcases into the back of the car, and headed off. Our planned destination wasn’t far out of St Emilion, and we were soon pulling into Chateau Monlot. Unfortunately, no one seemed to be around, or at the very least not open for tours, so we moved on. David was simply overjoyed to be driving again, particularly in a manual little diesel car. We headed eastward towards the town of Bergerac, admiring the vineyards and rolling hills along with the gorgeous sunshine. Bergerac is situated right on the Dordogne river, and it is a darling town full of half-timbered houses and of course several statues of the infamous Cyrano de Bergerac. We took a poke through the town, which was largely comprised of tourists not surprisingly, taking a temporary reprieve from the heat in the Cathedrale Saint Jacques.
From Bergerac, we utilized our road map to take us on some truly tiny French roads, that were just over a single car wide. We wound our way through some lonely but picturesque countryside, dotted by farmhouses and hay bales. We followed the rolling hills and made our way out to some fairly remote country, but managed to successfully find our bed and breakfast for the night, Le Moulin de Leymonie du Maupas. We were a bit earlier than we’d said, but Ginette and her giant droopy-eyed, huffing spaniel companion greeted us and showed us the property. The B&B was actually converted mill which they’d extensively renovated. It was very tastefully decorated with a plethora of antiques (even some stacked luggage!) and vintage furniture. But their pièce de résistance was their garden and surrounding landscape. We greeted two horses, who were hiding from the heat in the shade. They had large swaths of garden, accented by a lovely stream running along the front of the property. At Ginette’s suggestion, David was quick to stick a lawn chair in the stream and lounge with his book, feet in the cool water. I retreated to the cool living space inside to play with photos and watch a show.
Because we were so remote, our hosts provided us with dinner. They laid out a beautiful table outside and provided perhaps the healthiest meal we’ve had thus far. Our first course consisted of hard-boiled eggs, prosciutto, and tomatoes and green beans drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some potent garlic. Everyone will be pleased to know that I finished the entirety of my rather hefty mound of green beans because they were awfully good. We then had poached white fish with pan-fried yellow potatoes and salad. To finish it off, D was particularly intrigued by our dessert, which was essentially cherries in a gratin (sour cherries baked in a egg custard type thing). We lingered over a bottle of local Bergerac white wine and chatted with Ginette’s genial husband Jacque.
