The Pont du Gard for our Christmas cards

In spite of what our B&B host in the Dordogne told us, Provence isn't just a pretty face.  There is lots to see and do here.  Much of it is outside though, so you need good weather to really experience the area.  Most of the buildings are light stone, or stucco painted in light colors.  The roofs are red tile.  It's really a beautiful place in the sunshine.  In addition, the area is chock full of Roman ruins.

A sunny day in lower Sablet

We woke up to some clouds, but decided we'd better go see the Pont du Gard anyway.  It was on Tim's "must see" list.  Rick and I had been there before, and we knew it was worth another visit.   It's a remnant of a Roman aqueduct that spanned 30 miles and provided water to the city of Nimes, one of the biggest cities of ancient Europe.  It was built in about 19 b.c., and the aqueduct supplied 9 million gallons of water per day to the city.

The Pont du Gard spans the Gardon River.  It's an amazing sight, and warrants a photo every few feet!  Here are a few of them.

Pont du Gard from the trail above

Rick and I with Pont du Gard in the background

Another view of the Pont

Possible Christmas card photo of Tim and Linda

Rick, helping support the 1,000-year-old olive tree near the Pont

We had a picnic lunch within view of the Pont, and toured the great museum. 

We drove home and did some shopping for dinner.  Rick made duck breast again, but made a fig sauce to go with it this time.  He used fresh figs, and just experimented.  It was dee-lish.

Duck breast with fig sauce, polenta and salad.  Food stylist presentation by Linda and Kathy.

It was cool and windy outside, so not a night for an after-dinner stroll around the village.  Luckily our house came with a good selection of movies.  We watched "A Good Year" with Russell Crowe.  It had some great Provençal scenery.

It felt like rain was coming, but we won't be caught off-guard this time! 

The rain in Sablet is mostly in the house

Our little village of Sablet is an 800-year-old hill town in the part of Provence known as the Vaucluse.  It wasn't possible to park our car right near the house, as the tiny lanes are too narrow.  We were able to find parking within a few minutes of the house.  Our first few days there, as we'd be sitting out on the terrace, Tim and Rick would hop up each time they heard a car going by.  They'd look over the wall, 10 feet below to the street, to see whether the car could squeeze through the narrow lane by our house.  As if it wasn't hard enough to drive through here, to have an audience made it even more stressful, I'm sure!

Our local Tourist Information office also had wine tasting.  Rick and Tim had stopped by there soon after our arrival and said the "tastes" were healthy pours.  Plus, of course, we could get lots of info there too.  It was a nice combination of services for the lucky tourists!

We'd been on the road for almost three weeks by now, and we were exhausted!  We'd had non-stop activities over that time and were looking forward to a little slower pace out in the countryside.

On this day, in the little square in town, they were holding a Marché Aux Puces, or a car boot sale, or a flea market, depending on your nation of origin.  The town was busy with visitors coming in for this activity.  We walked through, but didn't buy a thing.  The one thing I coveted was a huge wine jug covered with a basket. 

I could have carried this home on the plane!

The Marché aux Puces in Sablet

It was laundry day again for us.  At home this activity happens coincidentally with the rest of our lives, but on the road it's a major undertaking.  There's a different machine to figure out each time, and with no dryer, at least a day of hanging clothes on racks around the house to dry.

We were happy to lay low for a day though.  The bakery was open for part of the day and we bought bread for happy hour and pastries for dessert later.  The butcher was open too, and Rick got rabbit for dinner.

When Rick started the dinner prep, he noticed the kidneys were included with the pieces of rabbit we'd purchased.  He decided to fix them as an "amuse bouche".  He sauteed them with onion, garlic, butter and olive oil.  I think most of us are a little skeptical about eating organ meat these days.  We all tentatively had a taste, and when we realized how good they were, ate every last morsel!

For our main course, Rick cooked the rabbit in a mustard sauce, and made some polenta the slow way.  With a salad on the side, we had a great dinner, once again.  Pastries for dessert topped off the meal. 

Little did we know that we shouldn't have wasted a day of good weather hanging around the house. 

At about 5 a.m. we started hearing thunder, and it was booming!  We were all snug in our beds, so not worried about the impending storm.  We were having our coffee and tea in the kitchen about 7 when the torrential rains started.  We started hearing water falling in the other room, like a little waterfall.  It was leaking through a skylight in the hallway.  We raced around gathering buckets and bowls to catch it, and then noticed water running from a ceiling vent down a wall in the sitting area next to the kitchen.  More buckets and bowls were quickly collected.  Water started seeping in under the doors from the terrace into the kitchen and living room.  We tried to stop it with towels and newspaper.  When we checked upstairs water was spraying from a corner of the ceiling in an extra bedroom and had totally flooded the floor of the bedroom and run halfway down the hall.  Luckily the floors of the house were mostly tile, so no ruined wood.

The rain lasted less than an hour, but it was rushing down the streets by the end of it.  We called the caretaker to see if there was anything we should do.  No, she said, there's really nothing you can do about it now!

The rain stopped, and we'd mopped everything up, so we decided to drive to Vaison la Romaine and look for a supermarché. 

We walked around town for a bit and bought sandwiches to eat in the square near the fountain.  I had brought the picnic supplies, of course, but I hadn't rinsed the plastic cups out so I went over to the fountain and swished them around in the water.  It wasn't until later that I noticed pigeons frolicking in the top level of the fountain I'd just used to wash our glasses in.  Yuck!  We all survived, and maybe I should have just kept this bit of info to myself!

Fountain in the square in Vaison la Romaine

We stopped at a tasting room on the edge of town and bought some wine.  We saw a sign over a display of boxes of wine that we'd tasted, and I translated the sign to mean, if you buy 4 boxes of wine you get them for 7 euros each.  Their regular price was 11 euros.  We thought that sounded great.  When we got to the checkstand we discovered that the sign actually said, if you buy 4 boxes of wine at 11 euros each, you get a 7 euro carafe for free.  Geez.  It's those little subtleties that get you in a foreign language!  We're just lucky they didn't send us off with a free puppy!

The wine tasting and fill-your-own bottle area

We picked up some escargot in a can at the grocery store.  For you skeptics, this is a perfectly legitimate way to buy your escargot.  You can buy the shells separately, and then you stuff the shells with the snails, garlic, butter and seasoning and bake them.  But you don't really need the shells.  They're just for show.  So we had escargot, minus the shells, for our appetizer before dinner that night.  Yumm!

Dinner was a simple spaghetti, but you can imagine that chef Rick never buys canned sauce.  He always, always, always makes it from scratch.  My mother would have loved him.

We were pooped after our exciting day of fending off the flood.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be better!



 

A week in Provence

Today we left the beautiful fortified city of Carcassonne.  After a good breakfast at our B&B we ducked into the cathedral for a look.  It was beautiful, and the stained glass was as amazing as that of Sainte Chapelle in Paris.

Stained glass at the cathedral in Carcassonne

One of two rose windows in the cathedral, dating from the 14th century

Check-out time at the B&B was 10.  When we went back to pick up our bags and leave, the cleaning lady had already been into Tim and Linda's room, and changed the linens and the towels.  It wasn't yet 10 and their bags were still in the room, so that was a little strange.  Maybe we were still in trouble for checking in early the day before.

Our only itinerary item today was to drive from here to the town of Sablet, in Provence, and check into our next rental.  The skies were cloudy, with just a spit of rain now and then. 

We drove on the toll way (Péage) for a good part of the way.  At a truck stop again for lunch, Rick had lasagna, which he said was pretty good, and the rest of us had sandwiches made with baguettes.   Sometimes the fresh pastry selection is huge at these places.  The stop today also had a McDonald's.  I got a café crème from one of the many vending machines, and it was very good.  The cost was less than 2 euros.

We've been buying gas along the way, of course, and the cost has been between 1.35 and 1.50 euros for a liter.  That's 6 euros for an imperial gallon, which converts to about $8 for a little more than a gallon.  Our car uses diesel, and gets great gas mileage.  I wish I had more accurate stats for all you car enthusiasts out there!

As we got closer to the city of Orange, the GPS notified us of a slowdown and re-routed us through the area.  We could see the big backup on the highway and felt bad for the people stuck in it.  We were happy we weren't among them though!

The hill town of Sablet - our home for a week

The drive from Carcassonne to Sablet took a bit over 4 hours, plus a stop for lunch, and we arrived about 3.  Sablet is a small hill town near Vaison la Romaine, in the northern part of Provence.  I found a rental house there after following a blog called Our House In Provence.  The blogger, Michel, is from the Sonoma area of California and visits France 3 or 4 times a year.   Michel and his wife Shirley bought a renovated house and created their dream home in Provence, and luckily they rent it out.  They're part owners of the Bistro des Copains, a great restaurant in Occidental, California, too, so you know they're into great food!  That explains the big, well-appointed kitchen, and the list of good restaurants for miles around!

The gourmet kitchen in the Sablet House

Our terrace off of the kitchen

Michel and Shirley were back in the U.S., but they have a nice local woman who helps facilitate everything for the renters.  There was plenty of info at the house to help us with the workings of the house, and the resources in the area for food.  The added advantage to staying in a house owned by a blogger is that he writes about everything in the area.  With our little laptop computer, and the great wi-fi connection, I could access all of his blog posts over the last few years.  That helped us with some sightseeing and restaurant plans over our week here.

Our first priority was to find groceries for dinner, and food for tomorrow, since it'll be Sunday and we don't know if stores will be open.  We're in a part of France where everything closes for at least two hours in the middle of the day for lunch.  Well, except the restaurants, which stay open until 2 or so to serve lunch, but then close for a few hours before dinner.  Woe be to the hungry traveler who doesn't have the schedule figured out!

We found the boucherie, the boulangerie, and the épicerie, and stocked up on provisions.  Our little tiny village has 2 boulangeries (bakeries), 1 boucherie (butcher) and 2 épiceries (little grocery stores).  For a supermarché we need to venture closer to Vaison la Romaine, a much bigger town.  Have I mentioned that neither milk nor eggs are refrigerated in the stores here?  Well, sometimes they are, but they aren't required to be, I guess.  The milk is ultra-pasteurized, so it's fine sitting on the shelf.  I don't know what the deal is with the eggs, but we find them in the unlikeliest of places - next to the matches, for instance. 

We got settled into the house and Rick fixed a simple chicken dinner.  Linda made a great salad dressing out of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and a little cassis flavored dijon mustard.  Plus, Linda and I always make sure to buy a little something sweet for dessert.  We haven't weighed ourselves since we left home!

Church bells ring every hour and every half hour here.  Actually, they ring the hour twice, just a minute or two apart.  Is that just to make sure everyone hears it?  The bells ended at 10, letting everyone know it was time to go to bed.

A sign at the Sablet house  - "Let the good times roll!"



The Pig in Carcassonne

We had another good breakfast at Chambres la Barde in Montfort.  Today Marie-Christine fixed crêpes, in addition to the regular breakfast fare.  I think it's funny that so many different countries claim these thin pancakes as their own.  They go by lots of names, but are essentially the same thing - crêpes, German pancakes, Swedish pancakes, and my Dutch former in-laws called them flinchees, although I can't find any reference to them by that name on the Internet.  Whatever the name, they're a favorite!

Phillipe asked where we were headed, and when we told him we were going to Carcassonne and then to Provence, he said Provence was nice and all, but really what was there but one pretty hill town after another?  The Dordogne, he said, had more to offer.  Pretty hill towns abound, but there are also caves and castles.  I agree that this area warrants more time!  We didn't visit even one cave with prehistoric paintings, and that is one of the big attractions of the area.

As we headed to Carcassonne the weather was overcast and very windy.  We went by toll road again, in the interest of time.  Do GPS systems in the U.S. ask if you want to avoid the toll roads when plotting your route?  We hadn't experienced this before, but we live in a part of the U.S. without toll roads, so what would we know about it?  Some days we elected to go the backroads, just because we wanted to see more of the local color.

All along our route from Normandy to Carcassonne we've seen fields of sunflowers, but all the flowers were drooping and the stalks were often brown.  We must have been just a bit late to see them in their glory.

We had sandwiches at a truck stop on our route, and arrived in Carcassonne about 2:30. 

Carcassonne on approach

The main gate into Carcassonne

It's a big fortified city, and parking is outside the city walls.  We decided to pack enough in our carry-on bags for our one night there and leave the big suitcases in the car.  Even with wheels our suitcases are cumbersome on the cobblestones of old villages.  Visitors are warned not to leave anything in cars in plain sight, although there were attendants at the parking area. 

We thought maybe we could drop off our bags at our B&B and walk around the city.  Check-in time was 3:00, and when we rang at the door at 2:30 we weren't exactly welcomed with open arms.  Our hostess said holding our bags would be no different than checking us in early, so she allowed us in.

We're staying at Chambres l'Echappée Belle, run by Johanna and Bruce  from Scotland.  It's listed in Rick Steves' France guide, but Tim booked it through booking.com.  One downside of using a booking service is that you have to pay in full when you book.  All of our other B&Bs were booked directly, and all but one requested only a credit card number to hold the rooms.  They required payment in cash while we were there.  We booked everything many months in advance, and if we had to change or cancel our plans (within a reasonable time frame), it would have been possible with all but the booking service reservation.

The rooms at Chambres l'Echappée Belle were very nice and the breakfast room looked out on an enclosed garden.  There are only a few places to stay inside the old city walls, so we were looking forward to our experience.

The old story about Carcassonne is that the city was under siege by Charlemagne 1,200 years ago.  The siege went on for years, and it was hoped by Charlemagne's forces that the occupants would run out of food and eventually surrender rather than starve.  They were indeed close to starving and surrendering when a very cunning resident of the town, Madame Carcas, suggested that the last pig be fed the last few bits of grain and tossed over the wall.  The troops below, thinking that the town still had plenty of food to waste if they were tossing pigs over the wall, retreated in frustration.  The town was saved, and named in honor of Madame Carcas.  Alas, this great story is thought to be just a fable, but believe what you will!

We wandered the busy and touristy streets, and worked our way up to Chateau Comtal, at the top of town.  It's been redesigned and renovated many times since it was built in 1125.  We enjoyed touring the chateau and walking the ramparts.  We had great views of the peasants below.

View from the ramparts in Carcassonne

A pretty garden inside the walls of Carcassonne

Wooden rampart enclosures at Chateau Comtal

We picked up baguettes, cheese and wine for our daily happy hour, and gathered in Tim and Linda's room.  The tablecloth I brought has been invaluable with our crusty baguettes.  No crumbs are left as evidence in our nice rooms.

We may not look too happy yet, but soon we will be!

We asked our hostess for a restaurant recommendation for dinner in the city.  She said she feels bad for the tourists, since our diet is sorely lacking in fresh fruit and vegetables, and will surely lead to scurvy for some.  I told my group that Carcassonne is known for cassoulet, and that's what I wanted to have for dinner.  Cassoulet is a classic dish made with confit of duck, sausage and beans.  Our hostess Johanna suggested Restaurant Adelaïde, which was just a short walk from the B&B.  We all had nice salads, in addition to our cassoulet, to fend off scurvy.  The cassoulet was pretty salty, so that was disappointing, but it was tasty. 

At home in Washington, whether we're making our own cassoulet or just hoping to buy some, we go to Picnic on Phinney Ridge in Seattle.  Jenny and Anson carry the supplies and also sometimes have cassoulet ready-to-eat.  Plus, it's just fun to talk to them about good food!

After dinner we walked down to the bottom of town and out through the main gate.  We took a few fun pictures, and wandered back up the deserted main street, which had been crowded with tourists and trinket shops during the day. 

Carcassonne at night

Caving in the Dordogne

La Barde in Montfort is a great little B&B.  Breakfast was wonderful. (Is it just that I love being waited on?)  We had croissants, baguettes, cereals, yogurt, fruit, coffee or tea and juice.  We really enjoy sharing a table with the other guests.  It's always interesting hearing what they've done in the area, and where they're from, and their input sometimes helps us decide what we'll do with our day.  One couple had been at the B&B for a week and said the nearby caves, Les Grottes de Lacave, were really interesting.

Our hosts had brochures and info about everything in the area, and said the caves were about 25 minutes away by car, so we were soon off to see Les Grottes de Lacave.  After a short train ride into the hillside, we were met by a guide who would show us around.  He apologized right away for not being able to translate everything he was saying into English, but would give an English synopsis as we went along.   The caves weren't claustrophobic at all.  There were easy walkways throughout, and beautiful rock formations in the walls.  Still pools of water created a fairytale reflection of the stalagtites.

This formation is called the spider, for the bent-leg appearance.

Lots of dramatic formations all through the caves

The reflection in the water makes it look like a fairytale village below

We bought sandwiches at a local deli and had a picnic in a nearby park.

What is a picnic without a bottle of wine, or in this case, three bottles?

Our actual priority for the day was to do a canoe or kayak trip down the Dordogne.  Phillipe, our host at the B&B, would have arranged this for us, but we hesitated to commit based on the weather.  As the morning progressed we all agreed it wasn't really warm enough to be on the water.  We decided instead to visit a few of the most scenic villages along the stretch of river we would have floated, but to visit them by car.

Domme is a picturesque hill town high above the Dordogne river valley with beautiful views over the town walls to the valley below.

A view of the Dordogne from the hill town of Domme

A view of the farmland surrounding the village of Domme

Next we headed to Le Roque-Gageac, a medieval town built along the river.

La Roque-Gageac, with stairs going up to ancient cliff dwellings.

More of La Roque-Gageac, built into the cliff

We got back to our B&B in time for a glass of wine out on the lawn.  We asked our hosts for another restaurant recommendation, and hoped there would be a place within walking distance.  This is a tiny little hamlet, and we'd only seen two restaurants, but Phillipe said one of them was pretty good.  We walked down the street and had a nice dinner.

The restaurant owner spoke some English, and told us he loves to go fly-fishing in Montana.  There aren't many big fish in the Dordogne, so fly-fishing is not very exciting here in France.  The music playing in the restaurant was American jazz and blues.  We complemented him on his choices.

We walked down the dark lane back to our B&B with the chateau looming above us.

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.

Du vin, la cuisine and l'argent

Today was a travel day, so it gives me some extra time to address questions from readers.  (I'm thrilled that I even have any readers!)

This is actually cider and Calvados, but let's just pretend it's wine! 

Kris asked about the wine we're drinking.  We made a pact before coming to France that we wouldn't try to find the absolute cheapest wine to drink. (Rick says he agreed to no such thing.  He loves finding really inexpensive wine that's drinkable!)  It's fun to think you can get a whole bottle for 2 euros, but it's not usually a very good wine.  When our foursome was in Italy 4 years ago, we were tickled to try lots of inexpensive wine, but came home feeling like we might not have really experienced the good, but moderately priced, regional wines.

The criteria on this trip was to spend a bit more, but not too much, and see how we liked the wine.  I like my friend Cheryl's hint on her blog Paris and Beyond 2012.  She and husband Norman decided that if they looked for wines that had won acclaim here in France the wine would probably be good.  We've followed that advice, and when we see the gold, silver or bronze medallion on the bottles, we've found them to be very nice wines. 

Our goal is to find wines in the 4-8 euro range.  Every region has its own local wines, with the exception of Normandy, where Calvados and cider rule.  We really like Côtes du Rhone, Bordeaux & Côtes du Provence, both reds and whites.  Wine is readily available at grocery and convenience stores, and there are also fancier liquor stores, and about a million wineries where we can taste first and then buy. 

It's also possible to fill your own containers with wine at some of the wineries.  We bought lots of wine that way in Italy, but it was usually at the grocery store where they only had one kind to buy.  Here we've only seen this at some of the wineries, and you'd be able to taste before buying, so you'd know better what you were getting.

Choice and availability are affected by the fact that we're traveling down the west side of the country, so we're not seeing lots of Burgundy wines, or wines from Alsace. 

For our food choices, we're all adventurous eaters, so we'll try almost anything.  We would like to have some idea what it is though!  Years ago I bought a great little book called "Eating and Drinking in Paris, A menu reader and restaurant guide" by Andy Herbach and Michael Dillon.  It's been invaluable as we peruse menus without english translations listed on them.  Patricia Wells also offers an extensive glossary of translations of food terms on her website that you can download for free.

A lovely lunch salad.  Would knowing that it was made with octopus (poulpes) change your order?

Sue asked whether we'd be publishing a companion cookbook, after all the great meals we're cooking and eating.  I wish!  A good Wi-fi connection has been a help when trying to find recipes for unusual ingredients.

We knew we wanted to have some picnics while we were on the road, so I brought a tablecloth from home, along with bandanas in different colors to use as napkins.  A corkscrew, swiss army knife, plastic cups and little plastic cutting boards have made it possible for us to eat anything, anytime, anyplace.

Pique-nique supplies

In France, bread is life, oui?  Fresh bread is a given.  Someone here explained that not only do french people buy a fresh baguette each morning, but might also buy a fresh baguette later in the day so as to have fresh bread at dinner.  Sometimes we overbuy, but at 85 centimes per baguette (about $1) it isn't a crime if we have to throw some out.  Just going to the bakery every day is part of the culture we want to experience.

L'argent - money!  I think we're always a bit nervous about being so far from home and having problems getting cash or using our credit cards.  It seems there is a cash machine on every corner here, so that hasn't been a problem.  Plus, the limit of the cash we can get in a day seems very high, and usually is higher than what the machine will actually allow anyway.  Credit cards have been a bit of a challenge this time though.  The Bank of America card we've tried to use doesn't seem to work in machines (ticket, toll), but is accepted where there is an actual person processing the charge (restaurants, stores.)  The Chase Bank card (through British Airways) we use has an imbedded chip - which is common, or maybe standard (?), in Europe.  We've been able to use it almost everywhere, whether there is a human being processing the transaction or not.  One notable exception was on the tollroad one day, when we used the card to pay a toll, and then at the next booth, on the same road, it didn't work!  Go figure!