French Road Trip

Friday 29 and Saturday 30 August

An early start on Friday morning and after saying goodbye to Eleanor and Freya at CDG Airport, Terminal 1, I was delivered to the Sheraton Hotel, prearranged meeting point with Gerri.  She soon arrived and in no time at all we were shuttled to TT Transport and were setting off in our navy blue Peugeot - destination, Argenton-sur-Creuse (somewhere in the middle of France).  Our plan was to make a day of the journey (instead of zipping down the autoroute in 4 hours), so we skirted around the edge of Paris to our first stop, Fontainebleau.  This was Gerri's opportunity to visit a full- on royal palace and I was more than happy to make a return visit.  It is fascinating to see the exhibits in the Napoleon Museum wing of the palace, and then to be awestruck by the magnificently decorated and furnished royal apartments.

Slightly over the top decoration, Fontainebleau

  The splendid setting of Fontainebleau, with its formal gardens, lake and great forest add to the grandeur and historical significance of this monument, home of French kings since the 12th Century.  It was a real pleasure to visit with no crowds and excellent information guides to read along the way.

Just a little corner of Fontainebleau Chateau

  After visiting the chateau we strolled back into town for lunch - plenty of restaurants to choose from and we settled for alfresco dining at a little square close to the centre of town.  The galettes and salad were delicious and the coffee was so good we had two cups.
From Fontainebleau we drove in a south westerly direction through farmlands for about an hour and stopped at Yevre-le-Chatel, a small village on a hill with a medieval castle and pretty stone houses.  As a member of the Plus Beaux Villages de France Association, Yevre is required to have a population of less than 2000 people, at least two protected sites or monuments and of course physical qualities that make it stand out from other rural communities.  Situated on top of a small hill, overlooking a river valley, Yevre has the ruins of a medieval castle and a church dating from the 13th Century.  Most appealing however are the little lanes with pretty limestone houses and the abundance of beautiful flowers.  It is a charming and very well cared for village.  We met a very friendly lady from Orleans ( not far away) who was a great source of information about the local flora and gave us a chance to really engage in French conversation.

Yevre-le-Chatel

It was after 4 in the afternoon when we set off on our final leg of the journey, linking up with the French autoroute system and driving further southwest past Orleans, Vierzon and Chatearoux for a couple of hours before turning off to Argenton-sur-Creuse which is in the south of the Centre region.
Argenton is a lovely smallish town on the banks of the River Creuse and our hotel, Manoir de Boisvillliers is a beautiful riverside manor house.

Manoir des Boisvilliers, Argenton-sur-Creuse

  After settling into  our rooms we strolled along a path beside the river and into the town centre, stopping for a light meal at one of the restaurants in the town square.

River side stroll, Argenton-sur-Creuse

The evening was warm and sunny and we decided that Argenton was indeed an ideal stopping off point in our journey.

Argenton-sur-Creuse - view from the hotel room

After a wonderful sleep in super comfortable beds we woke to another gorgeous sunny day and drove a short distance to the Plus Beaux village of Gargilesse where the French author Georges Sand lived and wrote for many years.   Despite its proximity to larger towns, Gargilesse feels very remote, located on a hillside in a narrow river valley.  There is the obigatory medieval castle and ancient church as well as narrow streets of pretty houses tumbling down the hill.  The crystal clear waters of the river flow swiftly down the valley and huge brown cows (Limousin?) graze on the dairy flats beside the water.  Stunningly picturesque!

Gargilesse

The village is full of flowers and on this lovely Saturday morning fishermen were settled on the river banks.  Although all these Beaux Villages have much the same components, ancient church, pretty houses, flower- filled streets, lovely trees and a semi-ruined old structure, usually a castle, each has its own distinct character.   They are certainly not museums as there are plenty of locals out and about, walking their little dogs and chatting with the neighbours.  Because of its secluded location, the only sounds in Gargilesse were the twittering of the birds. The village is surrounded by thick forest.  Gorgeous place but I think it would be very cold here in the winter, even though the village is on the south facing slopes.   The nice thing about these small villages is that they are so easy to visit - just park in the designated parking areas and stroll through the streets soaking up the atmosphere maybe stopping off at a cafe for refreshments and a wonderful view.  There are 156 Plus Beaux villages in France at last count and they are located in every region of the country.
After an hour of driving through green and lush farmlands we reached another Plus Beaux village, Saint-Benoit-du- Sault which is also on a hill but in much more open countryside.  It also seemed to be a larger village with a thriving main street, lots of antique and brocante stores and today a small market.   The medieval streets have some quite impressive buildings and interesting rooflines.

Ancient roof tops, Saint-Benoit-du-Sault

  We enjoyed browsing in the antiques shops and strolling about in the sunshine.  Stopped for a quick coffee and then set off again, this time back on the autoroute, for Limoges.
Limoges, with a population of around 150,000 is large and quite modern on the outskirts but like most French cities has a charming small medieval quarter around the street called rue Bouchier (Butcher's Street).  We easily located a convenient underground car park and then walked to the old pedestrianised streets (after a bit of a shopping diversion at Maisons du Monde!).  Rue Bouchier doesn't have too many butchers these days but its old half-timbered buildings house numerous galleries, restaurants and antiques stores - great for browsing.

Rue Bouchier, Limoges - symbol of the past

  In a small square overlooked by a rather unique little church we found a restaurant offering a good lunch deal - and a nice spot to sit in the sun.

Sweet little church beside the restaurant rue Bouchier, Limoges

  The food was delicious  - marinated steak, delicious potatoes and salad followed by mouth watering panacotta with apricots and cassis sauce.  We chatted to an English couple at the next table and made friends with their two little dogs, lingered over very good coffee and then continued our wandering.   We managed to locate a couple of shops selling the famous Limoges pottery but didn't really fancy any of it and then happened upon a funky little gallery with a very chatty owner.  Gerri emerged with postcards and I somehow managed to acquire a gorgeous water-colour painting by a local artist - a riverside scene of Limoges.  I love it.

Lunching in Limoges

From Limoges it was just over an hour to Perigueux in the Dordogne, where after a slight hiccup with the one- way road system we managed to park and walk a short distance to the apartment we have rented in the old town.   Marianne and Jean-Pierre, the owners, are a delightful couple who greeted us warmly and showed us around the lovely apartment - a real home away from home with everything we could possibly need.  They gave us lots of advice on restaurants as well as home made plum jam and a nice bottle of red wine.  What a welcome.  We are going to enjoy our stay here.  The town was really humming with activity (Saturday night) but feeling a bit tired after our day of sightseeing we didn't venture out.