Travel

There’s a joke about places that are quiet in the evenings and on weekends, it goes: “I went to xxx once, but it was closed.” When I lived in New Zealand, you could fill in the name of anyplace in the country.

Today we had a similar experience in

This is La Mas Bresson, a former stable that will be our home for the next three days. As you can see, it’s been improved. We share it with a German couple and a couple of Canadians from Montreal.

After settling in, we drove to an auberge a few

I know, I know, I know. Another day, another damned walled medieval city. But look, the Medieval period went on for a long time, plenty long enough to build a lot of these places. And even though they’re similar, there are enough differences to make each one interesting. Carcassone,

We booked one of those around-the-city bus tours for this morning. I thought I’d be taking a ton of photos, but took none. Although we saw a lot, the bus never put passengers in a position to take photos of the things we passed.

So let me take up

We arrived at our AirBnB apartment in Toulouse after a nerve-wracking two hour drive from Rocamadour. Why nerve-wracking? Not because of the French drivers, they are on the whole much better and much more courteous than in Seattle. Not because of the Autoroute speed. One hundred thirty kilometers per hour

I wouldn’t blame you if you’re getting a little tired of medieval towns hung on cliffs. I think Rocamadour will be the last – at least for a while.

We drove an hour east to visit this place because Mary Anne read that it is the second most visited

Eleanor of Aquitaine was really something! First she marries a French king, later an English one. But she was much more than arm candy. Eleanor was a strong, smart woman who helped the Périgord region prosper, lived into her eighties (twice the average in those days) and was the mother

The hub of this part of the Dordogne region is the town of Sarlat-la-Canéda. I’ll call it Sarlat from now on. As everyone’s favorite American tourist, Rick Steves, says, there’s nothing “special” about Sarlat, its appeal comes from having a large, well-preserved medieval center.

in case you’

The big draws in this part of the Dordogne are the prehistoric cave drawings and outdoor activities. I’ll show you our little village which stretches right up a sheer cliff and includes an ancient cave dwelling similar to those of the natives of the American Southwest. Then you’ll

We’re in the Dordogne region now, which is to say the area along the Dordogne river. It’s famous for a number of things including great wine, ancient cave drawings, and picturesque villages and chateaux. That’s a lot to see, leaving little time to blog about it.

On

Let’s get one thing straight at the outset: it’s cahd-e-lach not cad-a-lack. OK? OK! Done.

Today we set forth with something of a jet lag hangover to see what was interesting in the nearby area. If your idea of “interesting” is the BIG SITES, God bless you and

Our European journey started off smoothly. Our driver showed up as arranged, the ferry to Seattle was right on time, and we sped through check-in at the airport in near record time. Then I almost caused us to miss our flight.

Things had gone so well that we found ourselves