Down in the hilly Dordogne

Dordogne River

Today we left the Loire valley and headed to the valley of the Dordogne river,  another scenic area of southern France.  The Dordogne is known for the many caves in the area, the beautiful scenery, great hilltowns, and of course wineries.

The drive will take at least 3-1/2 hours.  We plotted it out on our GPS at home, but always figure it'll take longer.  You never know if there will be a big traffic jam on the tollway or the highway because of a school holiday or something else going on.  It's strange to be in a place where we don't really know what's happening.  We're not watching the news, we can't read the local papers, and we don't know the calendar of holidays by heart, like we do at home.

We stopped at a truck stop for lunch.  It might seem funny, but the truck stops have pretty good food.  They're modern and clean, with nice bathrooms, lots of snacks for sale, and very often a restaurant or café.  I counted 8 of the exact same coffee vending machines (espresso and the variations thereof) at more than one truck stop.  Everyone needs coffee, of course!

On this day we had sandwiches at a stand-up outdoor table, and were on our way.

We arrived at our B&B, Chambres la Barde Montfort, early, of course. (We found the B&B in Rick Steves' France book.)  We were greeted warmly by our hosts Phillipe and Marie-Christine Peeters.  They just recently took over the B&B and are from Belgium.  They were very friendly and eager to make sure we enjoyed our stay.  This is a post-retirement career for them - having worked in banking and finance in Belgium.  They were self-conscious about their english, but spoke it very well.  Our rooms were beautiful and clean. 

View of Chateau Montfort from the lawn at our B&B

We left our window open and had an unexpected guest

We asked for a restaurant recommendation in the area and they suggested Le Bistro de l'Octroi.  Marie-Christine called and made a reservation for us.  The restaurant was in Sarlat, probably 20 minutes away. 

We all ordered the same thing on the menu.  It sounded like a set tasting menu, no choices for each course, and was 25 euros per person.  We were all surprised when everything came on a platter all at once.

Tasting menu at l'Octroi

It included a salad, a slice of foie gras, a bit of goat cheese on toast, breast of goose with a potato and onion gratin, a piece of thin-sliced smoked duck, a fig confiture, a couple of vegetable mousses, a little jar of sauce for the goose, and a slice of rich chocolate cake and a small crème brulée for dessert.  We had some wine, and of course bread, and we were all stuffed!

Tim got us back to our B&B, with Rick's navigational help, along the winding roads.  All was quiet in the village of Montfort.