Last few days in the Dordogne

Friday was another washout, so we chilled out, played games (Karol beat me at Bananagrams by some margin – clearly my earlier victory must have been a fluke!) and discovered that the lime tree on our pitch was full of bees taking the nectar from the blossom (our French neighbour who keeps bees pointed this out to us while prodding Karol’s arm and saying pique! pique! – I think it means sting!)

Saturday was also forecast to be wet and overcast in the morning so we took ourselves off to Le Bugue to stock up on supplies.  We’d visited a wine shop on our last trip and had bought a couple of bottles to try, one of which we really liked (a malbec merlot blend) so we went back and bought six more.  We also wandered round the small Saturday market and stumbled across a stall selling local wine, which was from the same vineyard as the previous campsite’s house red which we’d really liked.  It was also for sale in 5 and 10 litre boxes at the farm shop so we decided to try the smaller of these – very good!

In the afternoon we returned to Limeuil to finish exploring the old village, particularly beyond the gardens where we’d finished last time.  In fact there wasn’t much more to it, other than the obligatory 11th century church, and some other really lovely old buildings.

We popped in the church and were surprised to see the majority of the notices were in English.  We were particularly disappointed that we’d missed the Pasta and Puzzles evening on Thursday just gone.  On checking further we saw that the church has in fact been adopted by the Church of England and holds services in English every Sunday morning.  Clearly the new English invasion is not exaggerated!  Not sure how the locals feel about this….

Sunday arrived along with the predicted sunshine – whey hey!  Karol was a bit bleary eyed, as she’d been woken by fireworks at midnight and was still awake at 2 o’clock, so we decided to have an easy day and catch up on our vitamin D.  Peter and Ro had invited us round to join them for supper that evening, and we’d promised to supply a dessert so we popped into the fabulous bakery at Le Bugue first thing where we bought tartelettes aux pommes for us all, and two baguettes for our other meals.

The site is starting to fill up a bit more now, and the pitches next to us are now occupied for the first time this week with a couple of big British motorhomes. Typical, as no-one had been on the nearest pitch for a few days and we had just set up with our deckchairs and books for a lazy afternoon, and had to make a hasty retreat back to our own pitch! It’s still low season, so goodness knows what it’s like when it gets to be really busy!

We popped round next door at 6 o’clock, and were treated to Pimms, bruschetta, prawns, paella and tarte au pomme all washed down with some very nice red wine!  By 10.30 everyone was pleasantly full, and ready for bed.

Monday was another fine and very warm day so we decided to explore a couple of villages we’d passed through on our travels and which looked interesting.  First stop was Campagne, about 10 miles away, which has a Chateau (doesn’t everywhere round here?) so we drove there, and spent a lovely hour in the gardens, where there are superb enormous old trees from all over the world (sequoia, maple, and Canadian pine) a maze, and more ponds and streams with water lilies and noisy frogs!  The chateau itself and an adjacent community building have been beautifully restored and whilst not open were stunning on such a fabulous day.  There’s also a small 14th century church which actually follows the slope of the hill it’s built on, so that you walk up a slight incline towards the alter.  Very unusual.

Our next stop was Saint-Cyprien which was a 15 minute drive away.  It’s named after the hermit Cyprien who lived in a cave above the present town around 620 AD, and a monastic community evolved around his tomb as a result of it being the scene of a number of miracles.  We know this because we popped into the Tourist Information Office on arrival to pick up, from a very accommodating young lady, a map and walking tour with a handy English translation.  This opened, and I quote:

“tart from the Tourist Office”

Well, she looked like a nice lass to me!  I would hazard a guess that each Tourist Office has the responsibility of translating its own leaflets into English, as we’ve seen some very unusual phrases and syntax!

As we’d skipped breakfast we decided to stop for lunch before ‘tarting’ the walk, and dropped on a popular spot for “meal of the day.’  Saint-Cyprien has a lot of building work going on and it seems that most of the builders had decided to join us for lunch at the same restaurant.   It soon became clear why – they had a help yourself buffet (salads, pasta, pizza, melon, roast beef, boiled eggs) for starters where you could go back as often as you liked and fill up your plate.  There was then a choice of main course, and a dessert buffet to follow – incredible value for 13 euros 50. The builders were clearly making good use of this!  Interestingly though, whilst easily recognisable as builders not one of the had a tattoo that we could see.  In fact the French don’t seem to have succumbed to that particular fashion, unlike everywhere else in Europe that we’ve visited.  Even more incongruous was the fact that these burly manly chaps would greet each other with a kiss on each cheek!

After a lively lunch we set off to take the tour, but as it was really hot by now, around 28 degrees, our hearts weren’t really in it, and we didn’t dawdle.  Karol drove us back to the site around 2.30 where we spent some time by the pool.

Once it had cooled down Karol prepared a gastronomic masterpiece of fresh local asparagus wrapped in ham with cheese sauce.  Delicious!  I should have taken a photo, but it was half eaten before I realised.  She’ll just have to make it again.