Caught between a rock and a hard place, literally and figuratively.

The church bells rang this morning,

reminding me every half hour that it was time to get up. So eventually I did and went to breakfast.  I tried the strange looking cake bread thing as she said it was marzipan, BUT it reminded me of a mix between angel food cake and a sweet bread, I did not really appreciate the marzipan.  We chatted for a bit, I worked on getting the blog downloaded and then we got ready to leave.

It really is a pity, she said that we were the first Americans she had had this year.  It really was a pretty cool place to stay!

On the road we saw sheep, cows, and goats again, grazing in the fields as if planted there just for our viewing!  And the sun flowers here give a whole new meaning to being a late bloomer!  It was so lovely.  

We rolled into Cahors not really knowing where we were going, I remembered that there was a bridge there that was supposed to be pretty cool,

we drove through downtown looking for lunch first, but was not able to find both a place and parking that worked so back to the bridge we went where we had seen a restaurant that was open.  Jodi had a chocolate crepe and I had duck (I didn’t pay attention to the order and got a duck leg rather than breast,  and its October an all!  

IT was tasty though, came with a salad, chevre toasts and frites.  For dessert I had an amazing pear clafouti and coffee.  I got tickled at this guy, just snoozing the rest of his lunch our away!

Then we ambled to Pont Valentre a bridge dating back to the 14th century that crosses the Lot.  We just played a bit, and enjoyed the view, the reflections in the water and the emerging fall colors.

  It is lovely and they have planed a vineyard right there. by the bridge, it really bugged me that they did not pick the grapes.  Maybe it makes them grow better?  Could not figure out what this shell meant,

but I did finally get a pic of the mailman and he was amused by my snapping a photo!

Anyway we messed around on the bridge a bit and then headed to our B7B.  It is pretty nice in the room, but the establishment is VERY interesting.  She is nice, rapid fire French, which I think I got most of. Her hubby, he seems a bit uptight.  

After checking in we went looking for food, which while we finally found food, we never found the place the B and B lady suggested.  At one point after a big gulp I headed up a very steep incline andI almost ended up in a cemetery after climbing a hill at about a 60 degree angle.  My heart was in my throat as I had to back down a narrow drive that had stone fence on both sides.  After that I gave up and wen went foraging elsewhere.  We finally found this place, but Jodi was not in the mood to eat and the waiter/owner had his nose seriously jour of joint that she was not eating.  It is a bit strange to eat alone, with someone.   Either way someone was gonna be unhappy, and easier a stranger that Jodi. 

 I had fois gras with an onion compote and veal forrestrier which was good (salty but good) accompanied by some potatoes that were not even mediocre.  I skipped dessert as we had brought a bottle of wine and I wanted another glass of that.  

Back at the B and B, I FINALLY got a bath!  Bliss.

I don’t give a fig about FIgeac,but St Circ Lapopie was the shits!

I got up and had  breakfast solo, it was unimpressive, croissant, bread, some thing that looked like maybe a sweet bread, I stuck with the Croissant.

  (Mine are better......that sure is a double edged sword!) The coffee was..., well mine is better too.  It was set up loverly though and after Jodi was ready to go so we headed off to St Circ Lapopie.  It was impressive, but more about that later 

I had a few moments of trying to cement things into memory, we were traveling down a road which had stone fencing covered in the most luscious moss and it was so lovely.  Then we stumbled onto a windmill and chapel which were a pleasant little gift of the eye too!

The weather cooperated for the most part, and we were lucky, we stopped and had coffee and crepes when we got there and that was my big mistake of the day as that was the most excellent culinary experience of the day, we did not get to lunch in time. I think I was still trying to play Quarante time and have that coffee break!  Dinner was not gonna happen on a Sunday so it was pizza, which was not terrible, but still I AM IN GASCONY for Pete’s sake!

But, back to St Circ Lapopie, We hiked up to the top of a sort of look out and the view was breath taking (as well as the hike up but still......).  

The ability of folks to build even the buildings on the side of this cliff, let alone the whole town.  We walked around, stuck our nose in the church and when we were ready to eat, nothing but crepes and coffee available until 1900.  AUGH.  Leaving St Circ Lapopie there was this lovely chateaux, the thing that just make you stop and try to commit to memory, maybe a painting?????

 Off we went to Figeac which I had heard was also nice, but really it was a town, nothing any more impressive (and maybe less) than any other town.  

We had Pizza at a little take away place and ate it in the car.  Back to finish off our bottle of corbière wine and snuggle in to try to warm up.

Au Revior

We left the  warm hug of Quarante today, and plummeted into the real world. 

We got up and had breakfast. I think I climbed our steps a hundred times, to get our stuff out, but really we were both loathe to leave the tender care of Annika.  Breakfast was the normal fare  , and we were sent off with a bag of left over quiche, and other goodies we later discovered.

We headed towards Albi, and I was a bit worried about the path we were taking and was it taking us in the right direction. I needed to powder my nose and have a bit of caffeine so we stopped at a reliable Mc DOs for coffee, etc.  The coffee came with the tiniest chocolate chip cookie I think I have ever seen.   

This bozo looked like he hung out at Mc Donald’s every morning.  Back on the road eventually we came to Albi.  The cathedral there is imposing

and its patron saint, St Cecelia.  Apparently she didn’t go down after 3 attempts to behead her!  

That is hard headed!  I think the most interesting thing about the church is that there are not really any stained glass windows so none of the Bible on glass that one often sees elsewhere.  

Rather, here ,there were terrible Dantesque painting is on either side of the alter, Yikes, that wold make you behave seeing that every Sunday!

Then we went to the Toulouse Latrec Museum, but it was 7 minutes until afternoon opening so we went to the gardens and they were LOVELY.  

Actually the experience was lovely. One could see multiple bridges gracing the river and the buildings on the other side just caused me to sigh over and over, in between gasps of awe at the reflections in the water.  It was simply breathtaking.  

We walked around a bit, got some cash and some eclairs for Jodi, a raspberry thing that resembled a pop tart and quite, honestly was not as good for me.  So not so hot.  And then got back on the road for the B and B in Lunac, the Chateau de Lunac.  It is pretty amazing and I can not imagine living here in the winter as it must be frigid.  

It is a  stone building, that is several stories tall and actually also has a pool, in the middle of a couple of streets with a church beside it.  IT is really difficult to describe.  Regardless, the room is comfortable and full of castle type charm. 

 We went for a walk around the village and then had the picnic that Annika packed for us.  What a blessing as there are NO restaurants open in this village. 

 So we reminisced about how much we miss Annika and how wonderful she and her Masion are! We are in bed to prepare for another adventure tomorrow!