A nice drive through southwest France

 Saturday 3 August

We packed up the car under cloudy skies this morning and started on our journey north.   Happily after about an hour of driving the blue skies we have become used to returned to brighten up the countryside.  Today we had just 6 km of autoroute, taking us east of Tarbes and then it was an N road most of the way - so much more relaxing than speeding along and forking out euros at the peage.  
 Before long we had left the Haute Pyrenees and were travelling through the very rural Gers department which initially was not hugely interesting - cornfields and rather bleak villages that looked half abandoned.  The countryside is undulating and a mix of forest and farm.  After a couple of hours we stopped off in the hilltop town of Lectoure and around here the countryside began to look absolutely divine.  Lectoure is famous for its melons and we saw plenty of roadside signs extolling us to buy them.  However it was the massive fields of sunflowers that really captured our attention.  From the road we had wonderful views across the low hills which were a patchwork of pale wheat and  golden  sunflower fields interspersed with dark green pockets of forest and dotted with small hamlets of creamy coloured stone buildings.  A real delight!  It should be even more stunning in a couple of weeks as some of sunflowers are only just beginning to bloom.

Sunflower field near Lectoure - just beginning to bloom

 In Lectoure which is beautifully bedecked with bright flowers we found a lovely, very modern boulangerie and had a late breakfast - the juice, croissants and coffee variety for me, salad for Mel, pizza slices for Jess and Maree.

Lectoure

 By now the sun was really shining and we set off towards Agen, World Prune Capital, and beyond.  Fortunately the N roads tend to bypass the city centers of large towns so we skirted around Agen - not a prune in sight, but lovely drive beside the Garonne River for a while. By now we had left Gers and were travelling through the Lot-et-Garonne department.


Lot-et-Garonne countryside - beautiful!

It was not too far to our next stop, the Plus Beaux Village de France, medieval Pujols, which is yet another hilltop charmer overlooking the large town of Villeneuve-sur-Lot.  Pujols was quiet and stunningly pretty - just a few streets of pale stone houses, a covered marketplace and a beautiful 14/15century church (it took ages to build a church in those days). 

Pujols

 The streets were full of bright flowers and the views over the countryside and down to Villeneuve were naturally lovely.  There were a few restaurants in Pujols  which seemed to be the only places where there was any noticeable activity on this sunny Saturday afternoon so we  selected a nice shady table for a drink and an ice-cream and could probably have happily sat there all afternoon.  Instead we went to the local produce shop and bought some Agen prunes - fat, soft, juicy ones.  Also indulged in some chocolate coated prunes - scrumptilicious!

Flowery streets, Pujols

 With an hour and a half still to drive we had a quick spin around the  village and then set off again, heading for the Dordogne department and specifically the  town of Villefranche-du-Perigord where I reckoned there should be a supermarket for our supplies.  No billboards advertising the presence of a supermarket as we entered the town so we pushed on to our new home in Cenac-et-St-Julien which is in the heart of the Vallee de la Dordogne. Our ancient cottage is located on the hillside leading up to the village of Domme.  Pre-warned about the narrow, steep lane (only drive up to unload) we followed directions.  What a nightmare!  Far worse than I had expected but with much manoeuvring we managed to deposit all our stuff at the door and the car in a carpark down the hill.  Never again - we will wheel our bags down the lane when we leave.   Getting to the front door also involves a descent down a cliff face but we are rewarded with a charming, nicely renovated three-bedroom cottage and very pleasant views over the town and countryside beyond.

View from our living room window over Cenac-et-St-Julien, Dordogne

Once we had recovered from the trauma of the nasty lane it was back in the car and into Sarlat (large town 10 km away) in search of a supermarket.  Every single person inhabiting the Dordogne was at the E. Leclerc supermarket with us so it was the trolley equivalent of dodgem cars.  Talk about Saturday night fun! I had Jess as my seek and destroy wingman and we soon filled up our trolley with French goodies and managed to get out of there pronto.  Maree and Mel had similar success and we only forgot two things. Back at the house it was dinner, wine, more wine and then bed.  There is a Foire du Vin going on in Cenac this weekend  and some dude with a microphone is being broadcast via loudspeakers all over the village - along with plenty of accordion music - very atmospheric, as was the thunderstorm in the middle of the night.