Five days of Discovery

O.K so its Monday morning and time to begin our journey of discovery into the many treasures of the Dordogne. Not in any chronological order, but to give you some idea of our itinerary, we visited the regional capitol Perigueux, and its fascinating Cathedral of St Front together with the Wednesday market, and the excellent Museum and fascinating small streets and squares close to the Cathedral.

The colours of the Perigord

We were soon to discover that the Perigord region was split into various colours, originally to describe the landscape.Vert for the northern part with its rolling hills and valleys, Blanc for the central area where the landscape changes to the outcrops of limestone and dramatic cliffs. Noir for the area around Sarlat, Les Eyzies, with its National Museum of Prehistory, Beynac, and the troglodyte village of Roque St Christophe, where people have lived for 50,000 years. Then most recently they have introduced Perigord Poupre to denote the Bergerac wine growing area, to the south-west towards Bordeaux.
So here we are, in this region of prehistory, with so many ancient sites to visit. Caves and Chateaux, Plus beaux Villages de France, vinyards, and ancient cities. A bewildering choice to focus on for the seven days at our disposal.
Having travelled through France for a couple of days, visiting Chateaux, and following my "most direct" but tortuous route we were happy to stay around the farm for the Sunday, and as it happened we were to have a visit from some friends from Wales who were staying in the Charente and decided it would be a nice idea for them to visit us for lunch.The day was hot and sunny, the air was warm and full of good conversation, as the food and wine began to cast its spell. Altogether a splendid start to our holiday in the Dordogne. Even better when Madame spotted me early in the morning and enquired if we liked "haricot verte" and invited me to join her and gather a basket full.
But enough of this, we had places to go, visits to make, adventures to enjoy, and much to discover. At this point, I must emphasize, we were still enjoying an innocent holiday in France. The age of innocence was soon to pass!

Discovering the Dordogne

I did manage to make that telephone call. Have you ever felt compelled to use a French Telephone Box, with limited French, and no idea how much to feed into the machine. Anyway, I made it, was connected to "mine hostess", and explained that we were at Chalus and would be arriving in about an hour or so. I guess she could work out how long it would take to drive the distance. I have no idea what she said in reply but I felt pleased to have made contact and was convinced that she had understood me.
This level of optimism, that people have understood my French, has remained with me ever since, although there have been times when my confidence has lapsed, either because their eyes take on a glazed look, or they come back with a totally different response from the one I expected. "Eh bien, cest la vie".

We did eventually find the Gite and discovered to our delight that it was a working farm with an apartment over the garage, which was normally occupied by the daughter, an artist of some repute, who vacated her home for some months during the season, to generate some income.

It was spacious, with two bedrooms and very well equipped so we were soon encamped, and ready for our discovery of this much loved region of France.

France on the Backroads

What could be more delightful than to travel the open road in France on a sunny afternoon, with only the occasional tractor to overtake, and miles, sorry kilometres, of straight, well surfaced road. I was reminded of a previous visit following in the footsteps of a friend with whom we were going to rendezvous in the Italian lakes. He wrote me a card with brief directions, but was at pains to mention the numerous stretches of "Chaussee deformee" with the appropriate words of caution. Thank goodness those days have long since disappeared although the sign does pop up from time to time still, but the degree of Deformee is for the most part much less serious.
We were soon passing by the walls of the charming town of Richlieu, quoted as "the finest village in the universe". The Cardinal was not satisfied with that and decided it should become the capital of France, around 1630, however, there was no time to dally and I made a mental note to allow for a visit on a subsequent trip.
We skirted Chatellerault and drove through the lovely little town of Chauvigny, then on to Confolens and eventually arrived in Chalus, and the route of Richard, Coeur du Lion.
A word of advice at this point, if anyone is thinking of following this route I would advise against it. Although at the time it seemed to us to be ideal, needless to say, by this time we were considerably behind schedule and I was moved to try to make a telephone call to our hosts to warn them of our somewhat later than estimated time of arrival. What gave me the confidence to think I could negotiate the intricacies of a French Public Phone Box I do not know to this day, or that I would be able to adequately convey to Madame the essence of my message with my almost non-existent French, but more of that later.

Discovering Chateaux

The hotel was comfortable, the breakfast predictable, the morning bright and beautiful,( after all this is France), and the open road beckoning. Noticeably at this early stage the Kilometers flashed by with amazing speed and soon we were travelling along the Loire towards Langeais.
Only when you approach the little town nestled on the north bank of the Loire and you catch the first sighting of the Chateau do you realize what an imposing fortress it is, towering above the town in all its Gothic splendour. Being on the border between Touraine and Anjou its possession was hotly disputed between the Counts of those regions, and being rebuilt in the thirteenth century, the chateau served as a hide-out for English captains during the Hundred Years War. As a result of which it was completely destroyed.
We were to discover that wherever we travelled in France the French would mention the Hundred Years War at every opportunity, albeit with a little Gallic shrug, and to which we responded with a little Anglo Saxon smile.
On instruction by Louis XI the citadel was rebuilt by Jean Bourre, and the one significant event of historic importance, the marriage of Anne of Brittany to Charles VIII , took place on the 16th December 1491.
In contrast to the formidable outer appearance, the bareness of the walls inside was concealed by glittering tapestries, and the huge and expansive fireplaces seemed to be a feature of every room.
Crossing the river and travelling along the south bank towards Tours we soon came to the magnificent chateau of Villandry, which is actually on the banks of the river Cher, but still quite close to the Loire.
Villandry, in contrast to the chateau at Langeais, is a good example of a beautiful Rennaisance building, with its symmetrical facades, and superb parterre gardens. Having experienced one tour of a chateau and listened to the French guide wax eloquently about the furnishings and tapestries, and many other features of the building, it was, for me, a delightful contrast to be able to wander in the warm September sunshine around the magnificent ornamental and kitchen gardens, together with the herb gardens and terraces, and marvel at the fact that in the eighteenth century all this had been landscaped, and walled up only to be restored by a subsequent owner, Dr Carvallo.
Time, however, was overtaking us, and we needed to move swiftly on if we were to reach the Dordogne at our estimated time. I had deliberately chosen a route to avoid major roads and Autoroutes and so we set off on the road for Richelieu and Chatellerault, but making one more visit, this time to the chateau at Azay-le.-Rideau.
The chateau of Azay-le-Rideau is set like like a jewel by the river, on pile foundations, and the two main buildings were finished in 1524. It is considered to be traditional in style and shows the essential features of flamboyant Gothic, rising as it does on a bend of the Indre, and seemingly floating in the landscape. But still more magnificent tapestries and a grand staircase left us feeling that it was time to attend to the rather more pressing task of continuing our journey without delay, still being optimistic that our route, carefully mapped out by me, was by far the most direct and easiest way to our ultimate destination in the top right hand corner of the Dordogne. Another mistake, but more of that later.

In the beginning

Like all good fairy stories perhaps I should begin by saying "Once upon a time" because that's exactly how it feels now, some 17 years later.
It was just a simple holiday in mid September. Suddenly we had some time free to escape the daily round and decided to spend 10 days in France. Advice came from all directions but a good friend who knew France well said,"At this time of the year, go south of the Loire and you are sure to have better weather.In fact better than that, go to the Dordogne".
That, and the possibility of visiting a few Chateaux en route and we were excitedly consulting routes, stop-overs (in Logis de France of course) and agents advertising Gites to rent. Before you could say "toute suite" everything was arranged. We would spend a couple of nights on the Loire and gently move down towards the North East corner of the Dordogne Region, having visited three or four chateau, carefully chosen, along the route.
With schoolboy French and a few subsequent visits, mainly en-route to camp in Italy, out came the phrase books, the maps, by now long out of date, and the Michelin Guide, even more out of date, but still valuable and packed with vital information, none of which I needed to use!
We booked the whole holiday with Brittany Ferries, sailing to Caen (Ouistreham) staying in one of their Gites and returning via St Malo.
Fair set the wind for France, or so I thought, and because it had been many years since we had crossed the Channel I assured my wife that she was a good traveller and would not need a travel tablet. First mistake. She was unable to leave the cabin for the whole crossing, but I did manage to feed her a sandwich under the door as we approaced the French coast.
The port of Ouistreham is a small friendly place and all we had to do was follow the directions out of the port and make for the open road south, carefully by-passing Caen.
Second mistake! which I discovered to my cost when negotiating the circuitous route through the suburbs of Caen, before eventually finding the carefully planned route towards the Loire an hour later.! Fortunately I had selected a few posible stop-overs along the route depending upon the distance we might travel, and so the first part of this exciting journey was completed and the night's rest was spent in a very comfortable Logis de France..... I had the feeling that this was going to be a very enjoyable experience.