Somewhere in France...McDonalds..free wifi

Europe » France
April 9th 2011

Published: June 16th 2017

Geo: 46.2276, 2.21375

Somewhernin France, stopped at McDonalds to pee and get fries and soda on the way to Loire valley, here is last nights blog:

still without wifi, so I am writing this offline and hope to post when we arrive at our hotel in the Loire VAlley.

it is Friday night, our last night at our wonderful b&b in the Dordognne area. the couple that runs this place is no nice, and it is extremely comfortable. I wish we had more time here.

today after breakfast, we headed out by car to a couple of the nearby villages that we couldn't see well from the river (too much of a climb). We started at Castelnaud, a medieval castle that you can walk through and they have set up kind of like a museum about castle life. we thought it would take 1/2 hour and we were there 1 1/2 hours. this is a medieval fortress. We climbed to the top and the views we're incredible. they have a lot of the medieval weapons on display, including some of those huge catapault things like they used in Lord of the Rings. Hopefully I'll get the pics posted soon. We have some great ones.

We moved on to the town of Beynac and toured that castle/fortress that always warred with the previous one. there we could also walk around freely, it just wasn't in as good a shape. But again, great views. both were obviously built for strategic positioning on the river with great line of sight for defense.

we stopped in Beynac for lunch, at a Rick Steve's recommendation. it is so nice to sit outside in comfortable weather with no bugs. we had a wonderful meal...Lamb stuffed with parmesan and pine nuts, asparagus soup, some kind of fishy substance on toast, Tom said his veal stew was one of the best dishes he had here. fruity tarty dessert and creme brûlée. Most of the time, we didn't really know what we were eating, but is was all good. As usual, the potatoes were incredible, Eating takes a while here. At least 2 hours per meal, even for us,

After lunch, we actually went back to our b& b to relax for the first time, only about an hour, Then we were off to tour Sarlat, which is the largest village around here, We did the Rick Steve walking tour which showed us the best sites of the town, Along the way, we found several patisseries. Mary got her favorite macaroons and I found a yummy triple chocolate thing that is in the fridge waiting for me, calling my name,

we had dinner in Sarlat, a rather strange place, but very good, they call it mountain food. dot had vegetable stew (cassoulet), perfect for her. the rest of us tried the various fondues with potatoes and ham. Mary had another fruity dessert, while Tom and I had my favorite kind of oozy kind of chocolate cake with ice cream, whip cream and creme anglais, Two great meals in one day.

Home to pack, we head out to the Loire Valley (chataeu country) tomorrow. it is about a 5 hour drive.

Tom has totally figured out how to program Sofia, our gps, so we are doing better at getting around.

met some nice Australians at dinner. They liked our cute American accents????

In general, the French have been pretty friendly. Maybe it will change when we get to Paris? I just don't like the other drivers. road hogs! All the roads in this area seem line narrow one lane country roads, but nobody acts like it, at the speed limits are really high, considering.

Bathroom update: the public bathrooms, like in the parks, are generally unisex. When you walk in there is generally some old man with his back go you using the urinal as you walk by to get to the stall. also, most of the public ones don't have toilet seats, but no holes yet like Italy. and, we haven't had to pay to pee yet, like in Italy, Of course, we usually pick out a Cafe, sit down and order a 3 euro soda and 3 euro water so we can use their restroom. So, in a way, we are paying a fortune to pee.

Somewhere in France...McDonalds..free wifi

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