Day 4 Village Life in Dordogne

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Monday, October 6, 2014

Somehow, we were the first 2 people down to breakfast this morning. That means that Clay had an opportunity to take a bunch of photos. Thanks to Flickr deleting all but 1000 photo free storage accounts late in 2018, see the links at the top & bottom of each post. Sorry!

So for the last 2 mornings people have been raving about the small glass jars of what looks like cherry compote. We’ve seen people mix in plain yogurt or pour it in crepes, spread it on toast and eat it straight out of the glass. Last night the insulin-dependent diabetic next to me also assured me that it was sugar free. I like tart cherries as well as the next person, so today I had a glass. I mixed plain yogurt in mine. It was alright, maybe even pretty good, I wouldn’t have recommended it to anyone, neither would I wave someone off it. It was just OK. I went back for a slice of bacon and 3 speculoos crepes. Weirdly, we have been finding pieces of bone in our bacon that are like crunching into glass. We can’t figure out what that is about. I picked carefully and got one good piece. Now that I'm looking, I can actually see the glass-like bits in the slices of bacon. Clay had some of the fresh squeezed orange juice today. I knew he was drinking OJ each morning and the first morning I definitely saw him pour it from a pitcher. I had seen the help asking people who picked up a pitcher if they wanted fresh-pressed instead and point to the machine. Somehow Clay had not noticed the orange squeezing/juice dispensing machine. He said he would not ask for any, anyway. I asked for a pitcher of hot milk as soon as someone appeared behind the counter. (We were the first to breakfast today!) She offered pressed OJ as well. I asked Clay and he said yes, so she brought out a small pitcher of hot milk and a glass of OJ to me. The machine has a hopper of whole oranges on top. When they put a glass under the spigot below and press the handle, the oranges fall in one at a time and then halves fall on to orange-shaped half balls that are rotating in the center and they squish the juice out and down to the spigot. Voila! Presse! Clay said it was good and we still don’t know if that is the same OJ that is in the pitchers. Clay likes the big long baguettes standing in the tall basket in the center of the buffet room. He takes one out and cuts off about a 6 inch piece and then gets some bacon and some of the ever changing selection of cheeses from the table in the center of the dining room and makes a sandwich.

After breakfast we had a lot of time free before 9:30am departure. (We should have slept later!) We walked down to the self-service laundry we had passed down the street on our way to and from Les Tulipes. It opens from 7am to 9pm. Last load in at 8pm. Since there are no hangers and not even a shower rod here, Clay’s plan to hand launder has been stymied and he is about out of clean clothes. Now he has gotten change from the tabac and is ready to go at his next free 2 hours.

At 9:30am we left for a tour of Les Jardins du Manoir d’Eyrignac. Our tickets say that the cost of our entry was 7.7€. . It was included in our trip fare. It was a chilly but bright and sunny morning, so a perfect time to tour a garden. We stayed in one large group and were guided through by an employee of the gardens. It was quite nice but Clay and I are not really garden people. We still really enjoyed it. It was a nice morning.

Back onboard the bus we had to order our dinner for L’Octroi tomorrow night. The choices were duck, duck or fish, fish or duck, fish or fish, duck. Clay laughed and laughed. Monika came back before the order form made it to us and told me to sign up for special diet and we covered that I only eat meat that is well done. She said she knew that. Maybe she knows, but is she sharing that with the cooks? We’ll see.

We drove back to Sarlat and arrived a few minutes before lunch at the hotel. Menu was vegetable quiche and a small mixed green salad followed by fruit sorbets and fruit with whipped cream. It was a nice light lunch. There were rolls on the table and coffee and tea was self-service in the buffet room. We had time to go back to the room and brush our teeth before setting out for the afternoon.

Clay checked the Internet while I brushed my teeth and told me that it would be warmer and sunny all the rest of the day. So, I left my rain jacket and umbrella in the hotel. It rained on and off for the rest of the afternoon and evening! It turned out everyone else on the bus had seen weather that predicted rain all afternoon and evening, so Clay needs to find another source for weather information.

For some reason, a member of our party was 5+ minutes late and we did not depart on time at 1:30pm. We have appointments scheduled for most of the itinerary and so it is important to be where you are supposed to be at the time on your daily itinerary handout. It is not clear that everyone quite gets that. I have heard our director and guides iterate the point enough times, but I guess those who need to receive the message are not hearing it or receiving it. We went to Abri de Cap Blanc to see bas relief sculptures in a stone cliff overhang shelter. It was pretty incredible. No photos allowed in there though, sorry. I picked up a brochure (all in French) and it looks like it costs between 6€. and 7.50€. Again it was included in our fare.  

Next we drove to Les Eyzies, the epicenter of Paleolithic discoveries. Instead of Bruno, we have had only Adrian as our sole local guide all day today, except at the garden. (I believe that is his name and I am sure I am spelling it wrong.) He has been speaking to us on the bus and when we went into the stone shelter he was allowed to guide us with the QuietVox system with the local guide accompanying us. He was also allowed to guide us here at the Musee National de Prehistoire in Les Eyzies. It was good because I would have just been lost in there. It was nearly overwhelming and I am sure he just showed us the best of the highlights to give a narrative overview of humanoid evolution as displayed by artifacts. He did a good job and is quite enthusiastic about his subjects. Our tickets say 6€ but again it was included in our fare. So, we covered the last 400,000 years of human history and it was fascinating.

Tonight we still have the village life Q&A and then Clay and I have reservations at 7:45pm at Café dez Arts for dinner on our own. We plan to follow Monika’s advice and pick up a glass of wine at the bar to take next door to the room for the lecture. The wine was like an ounce or less for about 3€. Our 20€ card will not go far. Clay got a double of Pouilly Fuisse and I got a single of Chateau Neuf de Pape. It is still not clear if I got the size squirt I was supposed to get because the machine shut that tap down with a message that the bottle was empty as it dispensed my serving. Anyway, it was not our money, it was a gift. They were both OK, but I didn’t think either were as dear as they were priced. I gave mine to Clay. The Q&A was a little painful in really uncomfortable folding chairs. The pain was from the questions. Evidently Obamacare was eating at a good percentage of our group and they refused to accept what 2 Frenchmen who have grown up with government run healthcare had to say on the subject. Uncomfortable.

This afternoon on the bus ride back to Sarlat, Monika handed out tomorrow’s itinerary. Breakfast buffet from 7 to 9am. 9 to 10am will be a lecture by one of tonight’s local speakers, Christophe Larriberre, about architectural preservation in Sarlat. At 10:30am, we are in the first group to walk somewhere in Sarlat for a tasting of wine and local products. At 11:15am, the 2^nd group goes. We are on our own for lunch.

At 1:15pm sharp we must leave for Lascaux II or miss it. At 3:15pm we leave for St. Amand de Coly to visit an Augustinian abbey. At 7:30pm we have an included dinner at the restaurant, Le Petit Manoir. Menu unknown.

Back from dinner tonight at Café dez Arts. It was a very tiny place with seating for only 18. There were only 8 in there eating while we were there from 7:45 to about 9pm. Monika told us that after she learned from me that it was newly open on Monday that she tried to get a reservation for 6 more and was told they were full. Anyway, it had a small menu as well. In addition it was weird. I’ll explain. I had boeuf bourguignon which was probably normal, but it came with a very hot jar in the center of the bowl of stew that had what tasted like gratineed mashed potatoes. Clay ordered cassoulet. (I thought!) We’d seen it in jars and cans all over town and it was duck and white beans. His came and it was a tiny fish pot pie with a small salad. Oh, Clay tells me it was not cassoulet but cassoulette and like andouillette we have decided that ette is used here not to indicate a smaller version of something but a grosser, more disgusting version of something. Like Andouille is a sausage we would eat, andouillette is not a smaller version but a yuckier version. Cassoulet is a white bean-based casserole and cassoulette can be fish stew with a crust and no white beans. Actually, I can't find a definition for cassoulette that is different from cassoulet. Go figure. Desserts were hand written in cursive on a black board across the room. Not only could we not tell what it said, we didn’t understand it. The waitress spoke no English, but we asked her to tell us what the board said. Clay saw her point to the potato jar when she read the top one which was Fondant au chocolat. We thought maybe pot de chocolat, so I ordered that. The next one sounded like it was caramelized fruits. The 3^rd one she offered was raspberry soup with vanilla ice cream, so Clay ordered that one. When mine came it was a classic chocolate soufflé in a ceramic ramekin. So why not call it that? Soufflé is a French word, isn’t it? Mine came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream too, which I gave to Clay. I put whipped cream and best of all lots of Clay’s cold raspberry soup on the chocolate soufflé and it was delish. I ate half and shared the rest with Clay. Oh, we both had a glass of white Bourgogne wine with the meal. Our meal price came to 51€.

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