Our Tour De France week Three - Into the Dordogne

Morning run through the pines

We're now entering into the third week of our personal Tour de France in our newly acquired VW Campervan, affectionately known as Elsie, having arrived via ferry in Caen we have moved through Normandy into the the Loire and Cognac regions. We entered the new week with great expectations about the journey which was to take us through the beautiful dordogne region just east of Bordeaux. Grab yourself a coffee and come on the journey with us as we seek to bring you the highlights of the tour.

Wet Libourne market
but we did find some Kimchi!

We were due to leave our second AirBnB stopover early on the Tuesday morning however since it was such a beautiful morning as we woke to another cloudless sky I couldn't resist going out for an early morning run in the forests that surrounded the property. After receiving instructions, which were written on a small piece of paper by our hosts, I followed the road left and turned into a wooded area, I crossed a meadow and as per the instructions opened the simple barbed wire gate, which looked like a no entry, and entered into what I can only describe as a pine forest and a path which reminded me so much of those we had lived alongside in the Western Cape. It was a beautiful route but all too soon I was back Elsie who was ready all packed up and waiting to explore further into France and the noted wine growing region around St Emilion.

Parking in the vines again, who can complain!

As we left La Roche-Chalais and travelled further south west the weather became a little overcast and upon entering into the inland port town of Libourne, where we were keen to attend the local market to top up on essential items, it started to spit with rain. 

After finding a car park, clearly marked along the banks of the Dordogne river but literally miles from the center we donned our rain jackets for the first and last time of the trip and wondered into town.

Coffee in St Emilion

Much like Cognac before the town was deserted, and not just because of the rain, there were a few possible reasons for this, firstly it would seem that Covid-19 virus was keeping tourists at home and secondly the fact that much of France shuts down for the summer and the locals were sunning (not this morning due to the rain!) themselves on the nearby beaches which stretch down the west coast not too far away. 

St Emilion

We found the market held in a huge square in front of the impressive Hotel de ville and although we bought our fruit and veg the best find was a little stall run by a Korean man from Seoul and who was selling some wonderful home made Korean food, we had a good chat with him and showed him the area where we had stayed when we visited that fascinating country for three weeks this time last year. We duly stocked up on Kimchi, a staple in any Korean dish and one that we had grown to love with all of our meals, even breakfast!

After drying out with a wander down by the river and the long walk back to the car we made our way to our next France Passion stop a tiny vineyard just outside Pomerol at the Chateau Castel Viaud where we received an initial off hand welcome and were shown to a small spot in the corner of the backyard on some rough gravel next to another huge motor-home which was taking up most of the space. We both looked at each other then grabbed our Bible (our France Passion guidebook) to see where the next nearest vineyard might be. 

As we backed out of the space looking for a quick exit a young man on a tractor stopped and asked if we were OK, in our broken French we lied and said we were and then he looked over to the spot where we had just tried to park and raised his eyebrows and pointed to another spot which was currently taken up by a spray machine which he quickly got into and move to reveal a perfect little place for us to park Elsie overlooking the vineyards.

Overnight along the Dordogne

We lunched on our fresh bread and kimchi and then went to see if we could taste some of their wines, the young man said that his father was sleeping (siesta time in France after a lunch with wine!) but he would wake him in thirty minutes and we could taste with him, it turns out the father is the owner of the vineyard and the young man was his son. We had a great tasting of our first Bordeaux style blends, dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot grapes, bought a bottle of their quite expensive red and were pleasantly surprised to find that they offer a free glass of wine to any France Passion visitor so we took those glasses back to Elsie, enjoyed that with another hunk on bread and after a few minutes enjoyed our own little siesta too!

Maz swimming in the Lot

The night was peaceful, the rain had already stopped before we went to bed and we were up and out by around 9.30am keen to make our way for a day at the magnificent hill top town of St Emilion. Once again the town was quiet but much busier than other places we had stopped at but we could see why, with its ancient city walls, stunning churches, cobbled streets, cafes and bars with views over the lower town, caves and vineyards is a true tourist mecca and one that we really enjoyed. However we both agreed that we wouldn't really want to go there under normal non Covid-19 circumstances as we would imagine the place being so busy.

A walk along the Lot

After we had enjoyed a picnic lunch in a local park and then made our way to our next stop which was only a couple of miles down the road from St Emilion, this vineyard and stopover was recommended to us by our previous host as he knew the owner so we had great expectations. The location was lovely we found a tree with some shade to park Elsie, found the toilet and water filling point, we even spoke to the owner as he dashed out into Libourne to make a delivery of his wines to a restaurant there. We had an amazing view over the vines and up towards St Emilion and with the prospect of the sun setting over the vines to the west later we were really looking forward to our evening.

Another perfect pitch, or so we thought!

I went out for a quick run around the local vines and village at around six o'clock, as the sun was less hot then and just as I arrived back two huge motor-homes pulled up and asked if we were enjoying the sun, which we were, then to our utter disbelief proceeded to park up right in front of the view we had set up, blocked out the sun and then set up their little kraal in the shade as to avoid the sun and therefore miss the beautiful sunset that was just about to come. It wasn't as though it was a small field and had we not got everything set up with the shower/toilet tent, rear and side awnings out we would have moved but it was all too much of a faf so we sat there in strew with our new neighbours apparently oblivious to what they had done.

What the heck!

On top of that the owner of the vineyard was very hard to track down and after knocking on his door, ringing the bell and calling on his cell phone we eventuality got him to agree to a wine tasting, a rushed affair but with our plan to purchase at least one product at each stopover we bought what was to be our most expensive and perhaps least impressive wine of the whole trip, which added to our increasingly grumpy mood.

Green-way runs

As next day dawned we had already made our minds up to get packed up quickly and were keen to move on as we had a longish journey which took us along some delightful roads that hugged the banks of the Dordogne, our next stop was at a restaurant right next to the river, arriving just after lunch we spent the afternoon reading or swimming in the fast flowing river, Maz loves swimming and had such fun in the shallow water swimming against the current and literally going nowhere. Later in the afternoon we were joined by a motor-home, 'oh no not again' we thought but this couple couldn't have been more friendly, also from Belgium but with stories to share of places we'd stayed it was chalk and cheese from last nights stop. The worry of a busy and noisy restaurant was non existent as they closed at 9pm, way before sunset so we enjoyed a very peaceful evening and night with the sound of the river flowing and the ever present woodpeckers with their laughing call keeping us company as the hours rolled by.

Swans taking off

Once again we both woke early and ran out, Maz along a track near the banks of the river where she saw a pair of swans take off, which she captured on her phone camera, this gave a wonderfully peaceful feel to her run, I instead chose to tackle a big hill just behind the small village and was pleased with my times on a couple of the segments of which Strava, (the exercise app on my phone which is linked to my watch and which I and many millions of people use to record their activities), told me that I held the second fastest time up a 1.84km long, 138 meter elevation gain Category 4 Climb, I hope you are suitably impressed with that, I was!

St Emilion

As the morning progressed we had an unfortunate misunderstanding with the owner of the restaurant, I'd spoken to his wife the night before and as I collected water for our solar bag shower as she seemed to be in charge of the whole operation asking her if she minded if we stopped another night, she seemed happy for us to do that and we had planned to go and have drinks at the bar over lunchtime as a sort of thank you. However bang on 11am, the expected leaving time, the owner (her husband) sent over an English speaking waiter with a piece of paper explaining that the spot was only to be occupied for one night and that we were expected to pack up and leave but if we'd like to return after 7pm that evening and if there was space we could stop again.

Wine over the Lot

Not wishing to upset him further and not wishing to take the chance on missing out on an overnight spot we decided to move on and packed down in record time making our sad departure from this wonderful little spot. Our journey now turned south away from the Dordogne towards the Lot. By this time our google maps had understood that we didn't really like travelling on major roads, not motorways and defiantly not toll roads, therefore we made our way through country lanes, hardly seeing a soul or other vehicle and arrived at our next stay over with the misunderstanding out of our minds and ready to engage with our new vineyard owner.

Our friendly host

We arrived down an avenue of trees to a delightful little property with a large barn which was their chai (pronounced Shay and is an above ground storage area for vats and barrels, rather than a cave or cellar) and production area, as usual we were keen to taste their wares but also to explore the surrounding area where our host had told us that there was a green-way, an old disused railway line, that ran along side of the Lot river. The sun was beating down on us so after a leisurely tasting we let the sun burn off some of its heat and we then had a walk, which turned out to be around 10km down the river and back. Maz even had the opportunity to swim, I didn't go in this time, anther river ticked off of her list!

The evening was very peaceful, we had the place to ourselves, which was great and as we didn't have too far to travel the next day we both headed down the green-way again for a run. It was so peaceful at that time of the morning but we were glad we got out before it got too hot. Our journey continued east along the river spotting huge medieval castles on high promontories overlooking the river and out across the ever increasingly high hill tops.

Kiwis

Once again our France Passion site was a true blessing, the owner, a real typical Frenchman, very proud and quite short was a delight, he made us so welcome with a pitch nestled by the river, still the Lot, with a boat jetty, of which Maz was keen to use as access into the river again, and a huge field of Kiwi fruit. We'd never seen kiwis growing before and were taken by the complex method of support that these vine like plants require. 

In she goes again!

He was keen to show us his cave and winery called Domaine-Chantelle which he said he'd built with his grandfather around 15 years before, the new build looked much older than it was and they really managed to keep the traditional feel which was reflected in their lovely wines dominated by the Malbec grape which is why we ventured towards the Cahors region. We did buy a bottle but also a box of his 'local blend' which he sold directly to his neighbours from one of the huge tanks kept in the cellar apparently this is a common practice where people bring their old bottles and they are filled there and then, we bought five liters, very cheap and very good. 

We spent the evening by the river watching kingfishers skimming across the slow moving river with flashes of blues and orange capturing our attention and after another very peaceful night we left early as we were keen to have a quick look around Cahors before making our way to our son and daughter-in-laws place just outside Moissac where we were due to spend the week chilling by the pool, but that's another story for another blog post.

Cahors dome

Cahors was a delight, it was a Sunday morning so there was hardly anyone around, which made the ancient cobbled streets with their homes almost touching overhead even more atmospheric. We did venture into the cathedral which was becoming a bit of a habit, we were getting used to stopping in little towns just to walk around or inside their church. The service was just ending so although it was busy in their everyone had their masks on to protect everyone around them from the Covid-19 virus.

We made it down to Le Sap our daughter-in-laws family holiday home at about 2pm and were greeted by the gentle hum of a few bees, more stories of those little blighters in the next post, and after a brisk walk across the very hot and sunflower filled fields we arrived at their neighbours home to catch the start of the much delayed but very dramatic British Grand Prix live from Silverstone which was won by local hero Lewis Hamilton who managed to coax his Mercedes home on three inflated tyres as he suffered a puncture on the last lap with Max Verstappen closing quickly in his Red Bull, both cars and teams based near by in Brackley and Milton Keynes respectively, well done the Brits!

We've arrived

When we returned to Le Sap we made ourselves at home with the knowledge that we would be staying in a real bedroom with a real bed for just over a week, this thought both excited but saddened us as we really really enjoy spending time with Elsie and bedding down either in the pop up top or down with the rear seats. More adventures to come as we explore the surrounding countryside, take time to chillax by the pool and fend off the swarms of bees, but those stories can wait for another day.