Driving North: Brantôme & Angoulême

With only 12 days left until we need to be in Paris, we decided to make a 300km dash northward to the Loire Valley, so these two towns were just “passing through” visits along the way …

A detour through the delightful town of Brantôme was quite nostalgic for Dot & Lenny, who had a memorable stay here 11 years ago.  The town is built on an island surrounded by the Dronne river, and is very picturesque.

We just happened to hit Angoulême at about 12.30pm when it, and the rest of France closes for a couple of hours.  So, there was literally no traffic in the city centre, and we scored a park opposite the cathedral, just long enough to leap out and take a photo – this one shows the side windows of the cathedral and the style of architecture of the townhouses.

Bookbinding in Perigueux (for my bookbinding pals)

Whilst we were wandering around the old part of Perigueux, I stumbled upon the Bookbinding business of Christophe Legrande.  His main line of work is book restoration and gilding and he has clients from all over France, Spain, Belgium, USA.  Parisians spend a lot of money having very old books restored apparently.  Christophe was kind enough to allow me to take these photographs …

Christophe holding a new book restoration, and one to be started

Some of Christophe’s tools – they are arranged according to which century the pattern belongs to

This book press from 1862, was found in an old workshop

Perigueux

We spent two nights here, mainly having a rest!  The cathedral is interesting but is undergoing major repair & restoration, so no ‘big view’ shots, but check out the driving skills …

We booked to stay at The Chateau des Reynarts – here it is, in its delightful surroundings.  Alas, it costs $1000 per night to sleep in the chateau itself, so	We opted for the “Orangerie” which is directly opposite the chateau and part of its accommodation offerings.  Much more sensible.	*** PERIGUEUX DRIVERS WIN 1ST PRIZE FOR DRIVING SKILLS & AUDACITY *** Taken in a public car park.  See, if your car doesn’t quite fit, don’t stress, no problem, just park it and go shopping anyway, she’ll be right.

Hautefort Chateau and gardens

We visited this lovely old chateau on our way north to Perigueux.   It has expansive topiary gardens, and is one of the few to be completely furnished inside.  The Baroness who owned it only passed away in 1999, so it is in excellent ‘lived in’ condition.

the ceiling of the chapel inside the chateau

wooden construction of the ‘keep’ at the top of the RH tower of the chateau

Goodbye to Villefranche du Perigord

After two weeks of total immersion in a rural French town of only 900 people, we sadly had to say goodbye and head North.  It was raining in the morning, but it was the day of the town’s annual “Spring Festival” and there were stalls, people and animals everywhere.  We spent some time at the market before departing, and we left with the warm fuzzies of a community lifestyle.

Young, wet donkeys for sale - I wanted to buy them all

and the pretty bantams

there’s not mush   room left on this truck  (oldie but a goodie)

clowns clowning around

this man was standing in for his sick friend and making baskets for pure enjoyment

hand made sausages: fig, olive, garlic, peppers, bison, wild boar are just a few of the flavours

forgers making horse shoes

Les Arques

Before we left home I read the book “From Here You Can’t See Paris”, written by an American who spent a year writing about and working in the restaurant La Recreation in the tiny village of Les Arques. By coincidence it turned out to be only 15 km from our base in Villefranche. The village’s main claim to fame is that it houses a museum dedicated to the sculptor Ossip Zadkine, a Russian who moved to Paris and later bought a country home in Les Arques. The museum was small but fascinating; no photos allowed inside but Zadkine’s works also decorate the village church and its courtyard.  The road into Les Arques is “how could this possibly be 2 cars wide?” and scary, but we were so pleased we made the effort to go, it was excellent.

‘Tree of the Three Graces’

Zadkine Museum

‘Pieta’ in the church crypt

‘Harlequin Howling’

Largest building in the village; used to be the Town Hall

Cahors

The city of Cahors is built on a teardrop shaped '”almost” island surrounded by the Lot river.  Although the weather was unpleasant with a biting cold wind and drizzle here and there, we really enjoyed our walk around.  All the services e.g. supermarkets, home stores etc are on the outskirts on the other side of the river, so it makes this good sized manageable town easy to get around and relatively uncongested.   It offers everything you’d need so it would be easy to live within striking distance of Cahors.

The bottom of the Cahors teardrop – a stunning view from the lookout 6km up a very narrow & winding hill road	… in St Etienne Church (still practising stained glass window shots)	Maison Henry IV – one of the oldest remaining townhouses
The Arch of Diane !!!! Old and crumbling, what can I say?		Hazy shot due to the weather conditions, but still a breathtaking panorama

Winter Returns

Week 1 in Villefranche: beautiful weather, temperature up to 30 degrees some days, pool sparkling.  Week 2 in Villefranche: the mercury plummets! For three days it rained and never got above 8 degrees, even though it’s now late spring.

The locals say this is not normal. It was so cold we had to cart wood inside and start a fire … all part of the adventure.  We had strict instructions to burn all wood immediately because of termites.

Probably Pretty Pricey Properties

Well, we have to admit, that yes, we have been looking at real estate in France.  An agent took us through a couple of town houses to see what you’d get for your money – in the centre of the village,  no parking,  3 bedrooms, three floors, renovated with modern fixtures, no indoor/outdoor, but low maintenance.  As we drove into the countryside we started noticing other promising properties.  We thought it might be good to be elevated,  so we wouldn’t have to worry about floods if we had to leave it locked up. Locked up? … well then we started looking for ”lock and leave” numbers in quiet rural settings and found this little gem that got our wheels spinning.

After making enquiries about prices,doing the exchange conversions, and adjusting our budget accordingly, the agent took us to this, our final choice –  described as: quaint traditional stone building, one level, open plan living, extensive rural views, attractively planted, close to all amenities, low maintenance, immediate occupancy.  We love it, where do we sign monsieur???