A lunch to remember

Friday 18^th April – Good Friday

Well, we were worried about what we would find open today being Good Friday. We needn’t have worried. As we left the B&B this morning we passed the road workers out on the road doing their thing, and further along the postman was delivering mail. And the small villages we passed through seemed to have the usual shops open.

Our B&B last night

We were able to take a leisurely drive this morning as the aim was to be at Madame Murat for lunch. We first stopped at a small village called Pujols, marked on the map and with a sign pointing to a medieval village. This place was very quiet; mind you it was only 10 in the morning. We were able to wander around at our leisure. There was an art exhibition in one of the churches but we were more interested in the paintings on the wall from the 12^th century. This village was an unexpected bonus for the day.

 

12th century paintings in the church

...and the art show.

A pretty spring garden display in one of the streets.

Interesting woodwork.

Another interesting looking village we passed through -
on the river Lot in the Dordogne, a very pretty part of France.

A boat on the river Lot

All these signs of business as usual boded well for finding Madame Murat open – the only question was exactly where the restaurant was. The only recent references we could find were from 2009 in the village of Pomarede, so we headed there. And there it was! We were a little early but yes, we were assured we were in the right spot, and Rob recognised Madame Murat and her daughter from Mary Moody’s book. This was a dream of his – to have lunch at this restaurant.

 

Does he look happy?

You bet!

This is more than just a lunch it is an experience. You arrive at the restaurant and all the tables are set with cutlery, crockery, glasses, bottle of red and carafe of water. No menu, you just eat what is on offer for the day. Rob was thrilled first that it was open on Good Friday and then that he met Madame and had his photo taken with her. So lunch - soup of we think potato and maybe carrot, cheese pastry with salad, fish with an onion tomato and pepper topping, with fries and mash with herbs and maybe onion, 2 sorts of cheese to follow, then dessert of creme brûlée. Now were you all counting? That was 5 courses. Coffee to finish off. When you are not actually putting food in your mouth you look around at how all the French people do it; ie, pepper on the cheese, break the bread into the soup, put the mash on top of the fish.

We weren't really sure what the bill would be but it was only 28 E for the meal. Excellent value and the food was great! Good home cooked fare. We were both stuffed full of food and ready for a lie down but had another 60k to travel to Sarlat le Caneda and our next accommodation.

We took another small detour along the way to pass by another medieval castle – just some photos from a distance this time.

Castle at Montfort

Sarlat – we had enough time here to do a short walk around the old town. This place has a big market in the old town on Saturday mornings and luckily enough our planning sees us here for that tomorrow. Walking around the town I found a quilt shop. It’s been more than a week since the last one so I popped in for a little sample to bring home.

Interesting shop window in Sarlat le Caneda

Polygonic tower from 12th century

The patchwork shop

I've mentioned parking before. This was one of our efforts
where the parking lot was partially blocked by construction but this spot looked like it was waiting for us.
Not blocking anyone or access to anything.

We did hear one very French thing today – we overheard some young kids using ‘Ooh la la’ where our kids would probably say wow. We both had to laugh!