Spotto le chateau

Saturday 19th May

On the road again to our next gite. We organised this last minute yesterday so it could be a surprise.

A couple more bastides to visit along the way - Lalinde and Tremolat, and then the village of Limeuil which is listed as one of the most beautiful villages in France. It was one of the most beautiful, but why was it on the top of the hill with no road access for tourist cars? We walked up to the top of the town only to find that the gardens that it is famous for are closed on Saturdays. A pretty little town but nothing really happening there - no shops, and only a restaurant or two. The location was lovely though, right on the Dordogne river.

One of the entry gates to the bastide town of Tremolat.

Limeuil - only part way up the hill.

Tremolat

Lalinde - I think.

Vieux Logis - old houses - in Tremolat.

Limeuil

Our trip today followed along the river and there were some beautiful river views. The further east we got the more chateaux we saw - they were everywhere on the cliffs along the river.

We travelled along this road right alongside the river.
We hadn't seen many tour groups but here we found a couple of busloads
lined up to do cruises on the river on local boats called gabardes.
Seems that canoeing on the river is the favourite local pasttime
and we passed many places for hiring canoes, with hundreds for hire.
I can imagine traffic jams on the river at peak time.

Just one of the chateaux in the area - we remember seeing some of them
last time we were in this area.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant that had a great view of a castle perched above the town.

Chateau de Beynac

Arriving at our gite was a wow moment for us. We picked this place with not a lot to go on - the price was right and it had wifi and parking - this was a new listing with no reviews, and the owner speaks no English. The gite is in farmland only 3k from a town and is one of a group in a converted barn and very comfortable. It backs into the hillside so is cool even though it is 28 today and the gite faces south. The owner is very hospitable and his wife baked us a cake even though we only booked yesterday. I'm giving this place a real thumbs up.

We are in the gite behind the car - yay, no steps.
Above us are more gites accessed from a road behind.
There is no one else in the downstairs gites
and we don't hear them in the upstairs ines.

Poppies are out everywhere now.

Time to tell you how we are going with the language. Well, we're feeling pretty proud of ourselves - we can understand a lot and can make simple conversation so are doing more than just getting by. For me, all those years studying French at school have finally been of benefit. I am much more prepared to give it a go this time than on our previous visits.

This week is about relaxing and enjoying the French life. As I sit here in our gite writing this, we are sipping wine and partaking of gooey brie and sweet strawberries. Life is pretty good.