Montcaret to Perigeaux to Gracy

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We spent the morning cleaning up the gite, packing our bags, loading up and sitting around chatting. After saying our goodbyes to Anita, Duncan, Jo and Gary, we left at 11.30 for Perigeaux. We travelled on a main secondary road which meant 90km/hr instead of 130km/hr but we did see a lot more. Once in Perigeaux (very hot again) we parked by the river and headed up into the town to have a short walk around. We entered the old Byzantine church with it's domed roof to an organist playing the huge pipe organ. It was truly a wonderful sound filling such an enormous space. We lit a candle for Robin and had a good wander about. What an enormous church! It had chapels set off to each side with the main alter in the middle like a sacrificial table. Quite awesome I thought. We had some lunch and headed back to the car to continue to drive north.

Our objective was a place near Vatan called Nohant de Gracy where the Chateau de Chesne is. This is where we opted to stay for the night to get closer to Paris tomorrow to return the car and fly to Dublin.

The chateau is a large house that has been renovated many times over the years and is 300 years old. It is very gracious with period furniture and a comfortable setting. The two people looking after us didn't seem quite as ease with their jobs but they managed. There are only 5 bedrooms and these were all occupied but we were the only ones staying for dinner. We had drinks outside in the evening sun, then dinner was served in the formal dining room with beautifully set up tables, lovely china and silver service. The dinner was a very good 3 courses and included two bottles of very good Bordeaux reds. A very stylish way to end our stay in France.

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Photos

The huge church organ
Note the size of the chandelier and pipe organ in the cathedral at Perigaux. Magnificent

Chateau de Chesne in Gracy
The B&B Hotel where we stayed on our way to Paris