Le Chat de Pierre

Guest blogger – Karen Howlett

Saturday – Sainte-Foy: The flight arrived ahead of schedule but sadly the car rental was certainly behind schedule, the excuse being they weren’t ready for the early flight !! Our bezzie mates were there to meet us looking tanned and relaxed, little did they know that was all about to change 🙂 x After first stopping at the camp site we hit the market in Saint-Foy.  Very big and a little expensive but lovely.  Coffee and a croissant were welcome.  8 of us then did the supermarket sweep.  This was like herding cows (What?  I thought that’s what one did herd! Ed) as the supermarket was so big, we were losing each other.  Grant as ever thinking of his tummy needed food, so we hit the cafe where he then devoured a full hot lunch whilst the rest of us had our light snacks.

The Journey to the Gite was lovely, a couple of wrong turns but nothing that wasn’t corrected quickly and then we arrived at our picturesque destination – ‘Le Chat de Pierre’ set amongst fields of wheat and a hop skip and a jump to the nearest vineyard.  The Gite is beautiful and the pool a very welcome sight.  We cannot get over how peaceful it is here….only the sound of a cockerel and a tractor to break the silence.  After unpacking and exploring the Gite is was wine time…..followed by our tea of baguettes , cheese, ham, pate and tomatoes , plenty of water and plenty of wine and beer.  It had been a long day and we were all ready for our beds and looking forward to the adventure in front of us …not to mention the unexpected heat wave ……

Sunday -suffice to say a day of rest, although we did barbecue in the evening and Grant did his speciality sausages which went down well.

The Ellis’s view of their arrival…..

We had an early start and got as much packed as we could before leaving for the airport.  We arrived in good time, but the plane was early so we were concerned that they’d be through and waiting for us.  20 minutes later some of them appeared in dribs and drabs, but by the time Geoff had come though the queue at the hire car cabin was out of the door.  Eventually, he got the paperwork, but there were no cars ready so we had another 20 minute wait before we were able to load up and return to the campsite to drop the bags and head to the market.

After we’d shopped we dropped the others at the gite, and returned to the campsite to pack up and move the caravan to a storage pitch.  Peter, the campsite owner, arrived with his tractor and effortlessly reversed the caravan off the pitch avoiding John and Jill’s washing line, and popped Stavvers where he wanted him parked.  I suspect he quite enjoys moving caravans!

Karol takes over….

The weather was gradually getting hotter (up to about 32 degrees) and on Monday we headed for the market in the local town of Duras, only about 10 minutes drive away from the gite. Duras is a lovely small town with a chateau and the market fills the main street and the square in front of the chateau. The first stall we stopped at was manned by the owner of the wine farm across the road from the site, Monsieur Guy Pauvert, who informed us that he had waited in all day on Saturday for us to drop off the caravan. I’m still not sure if he was serious or has a very dry sense of humour! We promised to call back later in the week to sample his wines although we had already drunk a couple of bottles from the gite – we weren’t too impressed with the red but the fizz (cremant) is delicious! We had a coffee, bought a few food supplies, bread, fruit and some very expensive cheese – Brebis and Cantal – and reconvened for lunch at a restaurant recommended by the owners of the gite, La Terrace. We all opted for the menu du jour, the main course being thai beef with noodles – not very French! Still it was a very good lunch and thankfully in the shade. We then walked over to the chateau but at 9 euros each to go in we gave it a miss and headed for the chocolate factory a few kilometres away.

This had been recommended to us by Peter and Ann Roberts from the campsite at Sainte Foy – the couple who were angling for some of our chicken and chick pea concoction. They are a lovely couple from Morpeth and I had a great chat with Ann who it turns out knows our Knaresborough friend Barbara Owens who has just moved back to Morpeth – small world. With that and the fact that Ann has the same name as my Mum’s maiden name we got on really well!

One of the foods this region is famous for is prunes and the chocolate factory make a speciality prunes in dark chocolate so we had to try them, and they are surprisingly good. The bonus was that the building was air conditioned and although we couldn’t tour the factory we spent a happy half hour tasting the free samples of chocolate. After stopping off at the Carrefour on the way back for more supplies we had a few hours by the pool to top up our tans.

Grant once more….

By now the forecast for the week was showing the temperature building up to 41 degrees by Thursday, so we decided to make the most of the ‘cooler’ temperatures and on Tuesday headed to the chateau at Monbazillac about 30 minutes drive away from the gite.  After coffee we strolled around the lovely 16th century building, which was furnished from various periods over the past 400 years, and had a bizarre room dedicated to a 19th century French actor called John-Sully Mounet and friend of Sarah Bernhart.  It had a lot of photos of this rather pompous man posing in tights and codpieces.  Exactly why he featured here, we can only guess (although he was born in Bergerac so that may be the excuse!)

Wednesday was another scorcher so we headed for yet another Bastide town called Eymet.  The is a very pretty but very British town – there were more UK number plates than French in the market place!  After the obligatory coffee stop we split up, and all explored the town, which didn’t take long!  By now it was really hotting up, so after a brief encounter with a British B & B owner, (who tried to get us interested in buying him out!) we landed on a restaurant for lunch, which turned out to be Peruvian!  It was a good choice though and we had a superb meal – indoors as it was simply too hot to sit outside.  The ingredients were all really fresh, and everything was full of flavour.  And it was quite reasonable for France too!

Thursday was due to be the hottest day of the week with temperatures forecast to touch 40 degrees but in fact dawned overcast and quite a bit cooler (relatively speaking!)  We planned to go to the night market in Duras that evening, so decided to try some local wine tasting at a couple of vineyards not far from the gite.  The first was Molhiere but there was no sign of life even though we rang the bell as requested, so we moved on to the next which was Berticot – a co-op of local producers.  After a bit of confusion we managed to organise a tasting, and enjoyed half a dozen different wines before buying a couple of cases between us.  Suitably encouraged, we called again at Molhiere but with the same result – no one home.  However, a car arrived just as we were leaving, and it was the winemaker (vigneron) himself who hastily opened up.  It was worth it!  We sampled some more lovely wines (he joined us – clearly a busman’s holiday for him!) and again bought a couple more cases.

Needless to say we were all quite happy to laze in the sun during the afternoon (after all that wine!) but were suited an booted and ready for off by 6 to head for Duras.  Carolynn the gite owner had suggested we get there early as it got very busy, but when we arrived about half an hour later some of the stall were still setting up and there were very few patrons.  However, it was blisteringly hot – in fact at 7.20 it was still 38 degrees.

We waited at a bar until some tables were in the shade and then sat down and took it in turns to go and select some drinks and food, including 3 litres of cold water to share!  There was plenty of choice of food, but little traditional French food which was a shame.  I had a calamari and basmati rice dish, and Karol had Basque chicken also with rice.  Phil had mussels followed by a fish mixed grill, whilst others had rotisserie chicken with potatoes, pork with potatoes, and chicken skewers with baked potatoes.

By now the aged (70 plus) DJ had cranked up the music, and soon the area near us became a dance floor.  Dancing was initiated by a Greg Wallace lookalike, who stayed on the dance floor all evening, and managed to annoy all other dancers at some point by ‘cutting in’ without being invited!

Karen and Jenny were soon on their feet, followed shortly by Richard and Martha.  The music degenerated from reasonable disco to eurotrash pop but the crowd danced to everything and knew all the words too!  It was great to watch as all ages were enjoying themselves – young children with parents and grandparents, teenagers, and elderly couples.  There were a couple of impromptu congas, line dancing, jiving – often all at the same time!  An Australian woman with zero sense of rhythm latched on to Richard during YMCA and he attempted to teach her the moves, but despite his best efforts she couldn’t get the hang of it, although later on he admitted that he’d deliberately done it wrong a couple of times to confuse her!

We got through another 3 litres of water before eventually leaving at around 11.  A great night to remember, and thanks to Phil and Geoff for driving.

Friday – another day, another market as we headed for Monsegur, a bastide town about 20 minutes drive away.  This was more traditional and less touristy so Phil bought some fresh tuna and duck sausage to barbecue later.

After a brief walk round the walls and some excellent quiche which I chose, we set off to another vineyard Chateau Astrelus which had been recommended by Carolynn and Charlie, and is owned by a british couple.

Mark, the owner, welcomed us, and gave us a very interesting talk on how he runs the vineyard and his 70 acres of vines.  He explained the ins and outs of the Bordeaux wine region rules and regulations – he choses to produce Bordeaux superior and subjects himself to more stringent rules as a result – how much yield he is allowed from each vine, and even down to how close together the vines are planted, and how many vines per acre.  he even has to account for any sediment that he takes off his wine, so that the authorities can track every drop of his production.  And no irrigation allowed!

We then had a brief tour of the winery and learnt more about the winemaking process before sampling the half dozen different wines he produces.  Wow!  Fantastic rose, and two totally different reds – one naked, and one not.  Yet more wine was purchased and we popped off back to the gite in good spirits once again.

Our last stop was to Domaine Amblard the vineyard across the road from the site where Richard, Martha and Phil and Jenny bought a couple of cases of their sparkling wine.  Unfortunately we’d decided to walk across rather than drive, so we had a sweaty and arm aching walk back to the site with all our purchases.  The barbecue of duck sausage with lemon juice and worcester sauce (honest it’s a must try!) fresh tuna and salad was a fitting finish to our last day.