May 31 - Village hopping
Today we had to drive from Perigueux to Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne (literally, beautiful place on the Dordogne) - probably another 2-3 hr drive. Our planned route was to go through Collonges-La-Rouge, maybe Rocamadour, then finish in Beaulieu where we were staying for 2 nights.
Once again fate intervened to redirect our course as we came across interesting road signs. First Min saw a sign for some kind of Roman church, which we passed, and while backtracking to try and find it we came across Turenne - another quaint little village with a chateau. The difference was that this chateau - and the village - was situated on a high hilltop which gave a very pretty view of the surrounding valley. We could already see Turenne from the highway:
And the winding pathways of the village itself, though exhausting to climb, were really sweet:
We didn't actually go into the chateau since we could see the whole valley from the hillside anyway - and though impressive it really wasn't worth paying entrance fees for on a rainy day:
After Turenne we found that we were accidentally very close to Collonges-la-Rouge, so named because - as it turned out - the entire village was made out of red brick. It being also a tourist stop, it had plenty of cute little stores selling souvenirs, knick-knacks, jewellery etc. - but stuff that real people would actually buy. After much debate Min bought a beautiful blue jug/vase with some kind of berry liquer, and I came close to buying some pottery. The village itself had nothing special, even the church was not spectacular - it's too bad we weren't there on a sunny day though because I have a feeling it would have looked even better with its red colour in the sunlight.
Finally we made our way to Beaulieu, which was indeed very quaint and pretty. Turns out, Beaulieu is the strawberry capital of the Dordogne, which was great because Min and I love strawberries! Unfortunately being a tourist town, and small, Beaulieu shuts down for half the year (probably more than half) meaning most of the restaurants don't open until sometime in June or July. We ended up eating at this little hotel/restaurant, Auberge Les Charmilles, which was probably the best restaurant we ate at on our entire trip! I had magret de canard - slices of roast duck breast - another Dordogne region speciality. AMAZING!!! If you ever go there, you have to eat there. It was also listed on the Routard list - kind of the "best restaurants guide" list for France. If a restaurant has the Routard sign, eat there!!!
Beaulieu is another medieval town with amazing architecture, mainly, the large Abbatiale St-Pierre, a Romanesque church from the 12th century:
When we got back to our hotel after dinner - Central Hotel Fournier, very nice hotel and very centrally located - we found our suspiciously sleazy hotel host (not exactly sleazy - but not exactly wholly professional either) in the back room with all the lights turned off except his office light, listening to Kenny G playing some version of "Take my breath away" or something like that. Creeped us out - we practically ran to our room and bolted the door. Other than him, our hotel stay there was very pleasant.
Once again fate intervened to redirect our course as we came across interesting road signs. First Min saw a sign for some kind of Roman church, which we passed, and while backtracking to try and find it we came across Turenne - another quaint little village with a chateau. The difference was that this chateau - and the village - was situated on a high hilltop which gave a very pretty view of the surrounding valley. We could already see Turenne from the highway:
And the winding pathways of the village itself, though exhausting to climb, were really sweet:
We didn't actually go into the chateau since we could see the whole valley from the hillside anyway - and though impressive it really wasn't worth paying entrance fees for on a rainy day:
After Turenne we found that we were accidentally very close to Collonges-la-Rouge, so named because - as it turned out - the entire village was made out of red brick. It being also a tourist stop, it had plenty of cute little stores selling souvenirs, knick-knacks, jewellery etc. - but stuff that real people would actually buy. After much debate Min bought a beautiful blue jug/vase with some kind of berry liquer, and I came close to buying some pottery. The village itself had nothing special, even the church was not spectacular - it's too bad we weren't there on a sunny day though because I have a feeling it would have looked even better with its red colour in the sunlight.
Finally we made our way to Beaulieu, which was indeed very quaint and pretty. Turns out, Beaulieu is the strawberry capital of the Dordogne, which was great because Min and I love strawberries! Unfortunately being a tourist town, and small, Beaulieu shuts down for half the year (probably more than half) meaning most of the restaurants don't open until sometime in June or July. We ended up eating at this little hotel/restaurant, Auberge Les Charmilles, which was probably the best restaurant we ate at on our entire trip! I had magret de canard - slices of roast duck breast - another Dordogne region speciality. AMAZING!!! If you ever go there, you have to eat there. It was also listed on the Routard list - kind of the "best restaurants guide" list for France. If a restaurant has the Routard sign, eat there!!!
Beaulieu is another medieval town with amazing architecture, mainly, the large Abbatiale St-Pierre, a Romanesque church from the 12th century:
When we got back to our hotel after dinner - Central Hotel Fournier, very nice hotel and very centrally located - we found our suspiciously sleazy hotel host (not exactly sleazy - but not exactly wholly professional either) in the back room with all the lights turned off except his office light, listening to Kenny G playing some version of "Take my breath away" or something like that. Creeped us out - we practically ran to our room and bolted the door. Other than him, our hotel stay there was very pleasant.
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