We had to get up at 3am and leave Harpenden with Mike and Liz for our flight from Stansted to Brive. At least we will get there early .
Arrived to beautiful blue skies.
On our drive to our accommodation we stopped in the village of Vayrac. Got some very fresh fruit and veg and had lunch.
Out for a walk from our beautiful Gite.
No! This isn’t the Gite!
Walked into the village from Puybrun.
Cafe au lait
This is the Gite and our outside sitting area is under the pink umbrella.
Gorgeous grounds with many secluded areas (15 acres) to sit and just here was a Le Boule pitch.
Table tennis
Badminton and goal posts.
The communal area with bbq and help yourself to bowls of walnuts- this area is famous for them.
Our living area
Our kitchen.
Drove into Rocamadour for the day. A famous pilgrimage town. All built into the cliffs.
Had a Plat du jour down here on the terrace.
A field of sunflowers 🌻 on the way back to our Gite.
A swim and a chapter by the pool.
Went to the beautiful village of Carennac not far from our Gite.
After exploring Carennac we had a 4 course Plat du jour on the terrace of a restaurant overlooking La Dordogne.
Next day David and I hired some kayaks and went 15 miles and spent 4 hours exploring a section of the Dordogne between Carennac and Montvalent. It had a bit of everything was great fun and was wonderful.
Stopped for a swim.
There were some Irish guests at our Gite and Kimit celebrated his 50th birthday, with a cake made by Jerome one of our hosts as he is a Master Baker.
This day Jerome held a bread course for anyone that was interested.
We all had different recipes.
What a character Jerome is! So funny 🤣. This was Liz’s fruit bread which was also full of custard.
This was Hazelnut and raisin bread.
!!!!!! Wow 😮 he also made all the large loaves on the tables in Tge Great Hall in the first Harry Potter movie!
Liz’s fruit bread then chocolate and orange and rum and raisin bread.
Jerome.
Mine is the bloomer with poppyseeds. It was sooooo good. Actually they were all amazing and we sat around and tried them all. What an amazing experience.
At the side of our Gite.
Our bedroom.
Were recommended by Tom and Jerome our hosts to try a friend of theirs restaurant and Mike and Liz had been there before. The lady was called Karen and was from Belfast and has lived in France for many years. We had 4 courses for only €13.50 each. This was the second course Makeral mouse it was devine.
We drove to the 13th century Castelnau- Bretenoux Castle which we can actually see from our Gite and looks fabulous when lit up at night.
Very hot today- loving it.
The next day our host Tom took us to see Chateaux du Doux which was recently on the TV show Escape to the Chateau- DIY. A young family from Cornwall purchased it about 10 years ago and are now very popular as a wedding venue. Tom and Jerome sometimes help Karen (Belfast) as she does the catering for the weddings. What an incredible place!
The library.
Tom and Jerome were our perfect hosts. What with all Jermones experience and talents then there is Tom. He used to work for Mecca and the Morley’s- running and organising The Miss World Competitions! One of his highlights was when he asked (after been told not too!) princess Grace of Monaco to dance which she gladly excepted. We said our goodbyes to Tom Jerome and Mike and Liz took us to the airport as they have another 2 weeks. Wish we did! What a great holiday. We can truly understand why they keep coming back year after year.
We checked in at Brive airport, expecting to be back in Stanstead Uk in 1hr 20mins - but oh no! Boarded the flight only to be told we had to get off again as the emergency oxygen supply in the cockpit wasn’t working! After one Lear jet with an engineer flown in from Milan and another from London with a spare part, the delay was 8.5 hours!!! A very small airport and not even enough seats to go around , they even had to go to the local supermarket to get sandwiches to feed everyone. But on a lighter note we couldn’t believe that the ex Australian rugby player and now author Peter Fitzsimmons was on our flight and sat next to David. He used to play rugby in this area 30 years ago and is now building a home in the area. During the delay he was working on his current noval about Captain Cook. On an even brighter note we have since received compensation from Ryan Air for the delay of $800! It was worth the wait. A huge thank you again to Mike and Liz for sharing their special place with us. 😃
Back to Harpenden for a week to catch up with some friends then we will head back to Wales to do some more walks and meet our Jess. 💕
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