Our day began in a small medieval village named Limeuil. Maryvonne pronounced it "adorable". Its crown jewel is, of course, a church. This one was reputedly built by order of Richard the Lionheart as pennance for the killing of Thomas Becket (see the movie "A Man for All Seasons"), by his men. It was finished in 1196. It of reknowned for its simple symetry and an original fresco.
Before we left this town we had lunch in a nice café by the river. From here we could watch a couple of guys trying to catch fishing in a slightly different style. They used very long rods with bait on the hook and a tiny bobber, no reel. They simply kept using the rod to flip bait upstream and follow it back down under the float, over and over. Exactly like a high tech cane pole. I preferred duck confit, one of my favorites, along with fries, which are sexily called "frites". After all, this region is known for "fat poultry- duck and geese. Maryvonne had a big salad, and we shared a Panache, which is beer with some lemon lime flavoring- very refreshing.
The next place we stopped was a neat place with a couple of attractions, Tremolat. One was a very, very nice hotel, the Vieux Logis. They were nice enough to let us stroll around the grounds. It was impecably designed, decorated and maintained. The restaurant and bar looked very inviting, as did the pictures of the rooms. It is, however, a bit out of our price range, though not unreasonable for such a property.
The other thing that was kinda cool was the communal oven at the far end of town. These were common to each community before transportation was fast enough to get fresh bread from one town to the next. A miller, or some other artisan would run the oven and bake the bread, or simply keep the oven going so housewives could come and bake their own.
From there we went to Belves where the guide books made much of the fact that this is a "medieval" town. Well, this may be strictlcy true, but the evidence was not apparent from our perspective. We did count the steeples there are seven, and all are there. Beyond this, we struck Belves from our "return to" plans. It was not worth a stop, let alone a special trip.
Well, we hoped to salvage the rest of the day by returning to Moulin d'Iches, a place we had stayed in 2006, to see if they were still in business- calls were unable to connect and we wanted to stay here in the future. Those of you who read our Dispatches from that trip will recall we found this place to be a rare find: location, hospitality and beauty at a good price. Mostly Maryvonne wanted to see the burros.
We arrived in the rain, and went directly into the art studio, hoping the proprietors would meet us there. No such luck. So we left, and Maryvonne was so sad. Finally, I turned around, so she could leave a note asking them to call or write to us about their situation. On return, the sculptor came out to greet us. We had a nice chat, he invited us for coffee which we gratefully accepted and we passed a pleasant hour catching up. He has changed the place a bit, now offering a gite, a house rental by the week, rather than the chambre d'hote. That was a relief, as we can make plans to go there as a group, the same way we are doing this year in Bretagne. We left feeling we had made another friend. I will post a special entry in the blog about the art of Patrick Vogel, and link to his web site so you can see his wonderful sculptures.
Then it was on to our "home". A word here about the use of GPS- wonderful! We are traveling roads we would avoid if we were using a map. Tiny. Twisty. Obscure. The kind that don't even show up on the map. The kind where you have to pull two wheels off the road to allow oncoming cars to pass. The kind with no shoulders whatsoever and sharp drop offs into ditches. But the GPS has done a great job guiding us through them, opening up new areas for us to go and explore. Best investment.
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