You know a town is old when...

You know a town is old when a description of the roofs notes that moss grows on the slate roofs but it helps seal the cracks and ensures that the roof will last 300 years.

Mushroom heaven

We stumbled into a nice little event a couple of days ago. We were driving south to see the villages known as the Bastides, when, in a town square, we saw a sign for "something to do with mushrooms". (That's not actually what the sign said. It said something about a mushroom market but we did not "get" the rest.). We stopped and watched the event unfold. Pretty soon, people with cars full of mushrooms began arriving. It turns out, they were all wild mushrooms. One person weighed the boxes and assigned the vendors numbers. Then, the potential buyers began arriving, surveying the mushrooms. I asked someone if they were restaurant owners but was told they were just people. The church bells rang at three and the buyers started handing over checks. When the big purchases were made, the bargaining began for the leftovers. To give you an idea, the mushrooms were going for $100 for 19 pounds and some for as much as $130. One lovely mushroom sold for $12.

Food

I mentioned that three outstanding features of the Dordogne are beautiful villages, castles and caves. Let me not give short shrift to food!

Across France, there are some commonalities. Everywhere, there is an emphasis on fresh foods: fruits and vegetables that have ripened naturally and are brought to market ripe (tomatoes that really taste like tomatoes)...fish that has been caught recently, free range chickens and hormone-free meats. Good wine and bread are available everywhere. (The bread is to die for!). Even the smallest towns have 2 - 3 bakeries. Yet, each region of France has its specialties. In the Dordogne, anything related to ducks and geese is popular: pâtés, terrains and even slices of the whole liver, which is called foie gras. Walnuts are a local product and are ripe right now and it is the end of the season for local strawberries, which are small and very tasty. There are always local cheeses and wines.

Every where you go, you can find a schedule of "the markets". Suddenly, a street will be transformed into an open air grocery store with all kinds of farm produce, cheeses, sausages, meats, etc. You go with your shopping bag and buy what you need for a couple of days.

Over and over, I have felt like Julia Child in "Julie and Julia" when Julia first tastes fresh fish in France and struggles to tell her husband how good it tastes and he keeps saying, "I know, Julia. I know."

Market Day Appears and Disappears in our home away from home

Castles and Caves

We've already mentioned that the Dordogne is known for beautiful villages. Two other outstanding features have to do with castles and caves. The caves contain prehistoric drawings and paintings from the time of Cro-mangnon man. We have visited three. One was a reproduction of one that was becoming deteriorated as a result of the change in the moisture in the air from the huge number of visitors. The reproduction was done exceptionally well and the explanation of the history and techniques was great. Another cave was huge and contained many drawings but the tour guide only spoke French so I think we missed a lot. The third cave was really cave-like. We had to duck in many places and squeeze through others. They are trying to protect the drawings so only a few people a day are being admitted and they do not let you see more than 6 drawings. Taken altogether, and realizing these drawings were done more than 17,000 years ago, it has been an amazing experience. We hope to see one other of the many in this area.

As for castles I will let the photos stand on their own. Needless to say, there are many left over from the 100 year war. Some are still inhabited, or partially inhabited, and even the partially deteriorated ones are impressive. Being at the tops of hills, the views are generally wonderful.

Castles

Caves

A Night at the Opera

No, not a Marx brothers comedy, although at times I thought I had landed in one!

Yesterday, Mel and I planned to go to the market in Sarlat but when he went down to the next street to get some Pain Chocolat and croissants for breakfast, he saw a poster advertising the Metropolitan Opera HD series on the Tourist Office bulletin board. The opera was "L'Elexir d'Amour" starring Anna Netrebko. It was partially covered by another poster so we waited until the office opened and asked the person in the office to give us information about buying tickets and the location of the movie.

She explained that we had to go to the Maison Presse (a book store) in Le Bugue to buy tickets. She explained that if we just go to the village and walk down the Main Street we would see it. We did. There was a huge line waiting for the person at the cash register, who spoke no English. When it was my turn, I asked for tickets to the opera, she looked at me like I was crazy. Luckily a man in line spoke English. He explained to me that we just register to go at this location then pay when we arrive. Then he told the clerk we wanted to register. She handed me a piece of paper and asked me what place I wanted. I picked two of the numbered spaces and wrote our names in them. The man explained that the movie would be shown in the chateau in Limeuil. He also explained that the road to the chateau was under construction so we should park in a certain lot at the bottom of the hill and a bus would take us to the,chateau at the top of the hill.

We went to Limeuil to scope it out. We were not sure which of 3 parking lots he meant but decided to park, later, in the one near the sign advertising the opera.

When we arrived that night, no one was in that lot. We asked in a nearby restaurant but no one had heard about the opera, parking or bus. By now, time was getting tight so we followed some people up the hill, and I mean up the hill! When we arrived at the chateau, there was a crowd of less than 90 people, milling about, drinking wine and champagne. We paid and found our numbered places.

The Mayor of Limeuil greeted the crowd in French and English, but when laughingly challenged also greeted in German. He got a huge laugh when he mentioned the non existent bus. The movie was, indeed, shown in HD with an excellent sound system to this room full of French, Germans and Americans, and it was gorgeous. Subtitles, by the way, were in French. We coped. At intermission, out came the wine again, and they sold little plates of pâté, cheeses and sausages on bread.

Afterwards, we made our way down the extremely steep hill, in the dark, laughing about this wonderful adventure.