We headed towards Uzerche, a town that Julianna's guidebook said "is an impressive sight: grey slate roofs, turrets and belltowers rising from a hill above the Vereze river." And, the natives have got a bit of style; on the point of surrender after a seven year siege by Moorish forces, they sent out a huge feast to the Moors, who thought that the Uzerchians had scads of food if they could afford to send it to their enemies, so lifted the siege and went home (which doesn't make particular sense, though the Moors could have had such a sense of propriety that they thought it rude to kill the people who just gave you a nice meal).
However, upon arrival, it was a little underwhelming. While the grey slate roofs were nice, they are grey slate roofs, and are not particularly spectacular. The town is built on top of a cliff over a river, but there are quite a few other towns with the same attribute. And no one offered us food upon arrival, though we weren't especially threatening, so that could have been our fault.
So we left Uzerche, and still feeling peckish, continued south. Not too much later, upon the cusp of being not just hungry, but hungry and irritable, we spotted another turn-off, this time to a town called Sarlat-la-Caneda. Julianna checked her guidebook, saw it was good, and off we turned... onto a beautiful country road, one that wound its way along a river, through a handful of small towns, and had a maximum speed of about 50 km. so it took us 30+ mins. to finally reach Sarlat, which is a long time to drive for a croissant and a cup of coffee.
Upon arriving in town, we appreciated the "narrow lanes and archways, and ancient, ochre-coloured stone town houses rich in ornamental detail" for about three minutes, before discovering we had come on a market day, and all of the "narrow lanes" were lined with stalls selling knives and antique copper cookware and clothes and odd, recycled metal sculpture and bee-related goods and suchlike. We wandered through the first half before stopping at a nice cafe, and splitting the Menu Perigord, starting with a reasonable pate d' foie gras, a tasty duck confit (accompanied by rather indifferent fries) and finishing with a tasty Cabecou (a quite small, rather mild, local goat cheese). And with the sunny terrace and the lax service, and the market and everything, our quick lunch turned into a three hour pause, requiring quick work to arrive at the Farm in the Pyrenees before 6:00, which is when we said we'd get there.
We nearly, almost, didn't really quite make it before 6:00, and then we got lost because the farm doesn't have a proper address we could put into the GPS and then we got lost because the directions weren't really very good, but we had the cell phone and everything worked out and we pulled in about 7:ish. We met Jean-Louis and Ginette and their daughter, Gaelle, and helped with the evening milking of the sheep and got our stuff settled in the very spacious and private room with a view of a barn on a hillside above a stream are looking forward to the next couple of weeks...
However, upon arrival, it was a little underwhelming. While the grey slate roofs were nice, they are grey slate roofs, and are not particularly spectacular. The town is built on top of a cliff over a river, but there are quite a few other towns with the same attribute. And no one offered us food upon arrival, though we weren't especially threatening, so that could have been our fault.
So we left Uzerche, and still feeling peckish, continued south. Not too much later, upon the cusp of being not just hungry, but hungry and irritable, we spotted another turn-off, this time to a town called Sarlat-la-Caneda. Julianna checked her guidebook, saw it was good, and off we turned... onto a beautiful country road, one that wound its way along a river, through a handful of small towns, and had a maximum speed of about 50 km. so it took us 30+ mins. to finally reach Sarlat, which is a long time to drive for a croissant and a cup of coffee.
Upon arriving in town, we appreciated the "narrow lanes and archways, and ancient, ochre-coloured stone town houses rich in ornamental detail" for about three minutes, before discovering we had come on a market day, and all of the "narrow lanes" were lined with stalls selling knives and antique copper cookware and clothes and odd, recycled metal sculpture and bee-related goods and suchlike. We wandered through the first half before stopping at a nice cafe, and splitting the Menu Perigord, starting with a reasonable pate d' foie gras, a tasty duck confit (accompanied by rather indifferent fries) and finishing with a tasty Cabecou (a quite small, rather mild, local goat cheese). And with the sunny terrace and the lax service, and the market and everything, our quick lunch turned into a three hour pause, requiring quick work to arrive at the Farm in the Pyrenees before 6:00, which is when we said we'd get there.
We nearly, almost, didn't really quite make it before 6:00, and then we got lost because the farm doesn't have a proper address we could put into the GPS and then we got lost because the directions weren't really very good, but we had the cell phone and everything worked out and we pulled in about 7:ish. We met Jean-Louis and Ginette and their daughter, Gaelle, and helped with the evening milking of the sheep and got our stuff settled in the very spacious and private room with a view of a barn on a hillside above a stream are looking forward to the next couple of weeks...
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