Tim and Francine in her dining room with the huge petit dejeuner breakfast for us.
Our room at Domaine du Cloucau
The yard and pool at Domaine du Cloucau
We then followed James to Rocamadour. About a 30 minute ride. But WOW - the approach was breathtaking. Just beautiful. Just when we thought it couldn't get any better - it does. Emilie has put together a masterful program for us. We parked at L'Hospitale near the tram as she had recommended and then walked along the ridge taking lots of pictures of the city. Beautiful.
Approach to Rocamadour - Stunning!
View from the ridge above Rocamadour
View of Rocamadour
We walked through the Porte de l'Hospitale at L'Hospitale and started down the hill to the city. Great walk and breath-taking. We walked along the pedestrian street through other portes. It was a bit touristy as Emilie had documented in our book.
The Porte de l'Hospitale leading down to Rocamadour
The pedestrian street in Rocamadour
The far end of Rocamadour - another porte ahead
Then we walked up the Escalier des Pelerins. This is where crowds of people used to come to make their pilgrimage up the steps praying as they went. We went to the Sanctuaries - there are many of them and we visited 4. Many very beautiful.
The beautiful Rocamadour as we started our walk up the Escalier des Pelerins
The first set of stairs up the Escaliers des Pelerins - can you imagine doing this on your knees?
Another set of steps
The Sanctuaries at the top of the stairs
Entrance to one of the Sanctuaries
Inside one of the Sanctuaries
The Sanctuaries built into the rock
Another Sanctuary
This is the place where they found the body of Rocamadour
Then we walked on to the "Stages of the Cross". We walked to up Stage 3 then back down then to the tram for a ride to the top. It was well worth the 2.60 euros to get a ride up - by this time my knees were feeling it!
The 1st Stage of the Cross - Jesus is condemned
The 2nd State of the Cross - Jesus is made to carry the cross
The 3rd Station of the Cross - Jesus drops the cross
The winding walk up the hill at Rocamadour where the Stages of the Cross are located - Beautiful
We visited the Chateau on the top but it is was closed for renovations. We walked all around, took pictures, and then had a coffee at the café nearby.
The Chateau Rocamadour
Large cross at the top of the Stages of the Cross walkway - beautiful lookout point
Then we headed to Chateau de Montal. We switched things around in our itinerary due to the weather forecast - we are supposed to have 2 days of rain so we thought we'd get this in now. We stopped in Saint-Cere for lunch. We had a very light lunch and had a great view of a castle's ruins from our patio seating.
The view of a castle ruins outside of Saint-Cere
The square in Saint-Cere
Then we headed on a beautiful drive to the Chateau de Montal. It reopened at 2 and we got there just before it opened. We had bought the 2 chateau tickets yesterday at Chateau Castlenaud so we were ready to go in. This property has a great history. It fell into disrepair in the late 1800's and no one wanted it. So a businessman bought it and stripped it of all of its architectural elements and sold them. Then at the turn of the century a man bought it and restored it and got many of the stripped elements back. We got to do our own tour and we were the only ones there. The guide was helpful - he spoke little English but told us a good bit. We enjoyed this chateau a lot.
The Chateau de Montal
Side view of Chateau de Montal
The old chapel at Chateau de Montal - not restored
The beautiful gardens at Chateau de Montal - fabulous but not open to the public
The front of Chateau de Montal - designed and built by a woman but never finished when her son died
Beautiful staircase inside the front door to Chateau de Montal
The dining room at Chateau de Montal
One of the bedrooms at Chateau de Montal
The gardens as seen from a 3rd floor room at Chateau de Montal
Beautiful sculptures on the front of Chateau de Montal - they have pictures showing the chateau once all of these had been stripped off and sold in Paris
The approach was beautiful. We actually thought the Chateau de la Treyne was a different property on the river but it was elsewhere and just as beautiful.
This is where we THOUGHT we were having dinner - but this wasn't it . . .
This was the lawn at Chateau de La Treyne
And the Chateau itself - a Relais Chateau
More of the Chateau de La Treyne - our FABULOUS dining experience
We had aperitifs on the terrace watching the sunset with the river running by below. Beautiful. We
talked for a while to a couple from Washington, DC. We reviewed the menu and decided to do the chef's "surprise" menu - it was the most expensive on the menu but "what the hell"! The waiter went away and then came back and asked about the wine. I asked if he could have them do "wine pairings" for our meal and he responded that he could. But I asked how many courses we were having as we had to drive back to Gramat. He responded "Don't worry - I'll drive you back!!!!". Funny.
The waiter went away and then came back to ask if there was anything we don't eat since we didn't know what the chef would be serving on the surprise menu. I replied that I don't like "organs". He went away and then came back yet again and asked "But will you eat sweetbreads and fois gras?" To which I responded "Yes". The guy from DC thought that was hilarious, and said "You don't eat organs but you eat those????" We all laughed.
The view from the terrace during aperitifs
Beautiful view from our table on the terrace
They summoned us when they were ready for us in the dining room. The dining room was small and had only 13 tables - there were 30 people total dining this night. The dining experience was really something special - excellent service - spectacular ambience (the room reminded us of the Green Room at the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington, DE) - and just a fun evening.
It seemed that our dinner went on and on and on . . . and it did. This is what we had:
(1) The amuse bouche: oyster in seawater jelly, escargot in potatoe, and salmon in a wrap
(1a) Bread - white, walnut, or corn flour breads
(2) Langostinos with mushroom truffle ravioli with squid ink
(3) Asparagus with egg sprinkled with squid ink
(4) Lobster - roasted garlic
(5) Turbot (a very special and expensive fish)
(6) Beef with fois gras layers - when we told Francine about this she said we had a "hamburger"!
(7) We actually skipped this course - a HUGE cheese cart - but we just couldn't eat it
(8) Mirabelle pastry
(9) Strawberry tart with frais sorbet
(10)Lemon shot with chocolates
(11)Coffee
We had 3 white wines served during the dinner and a fabulous red wine with the beef course and then a dessert wine later. I won't disclose the cost of this, but we think we set a record for a meal. Our friend Al Stewart said "You'd have to put Thrifty McTavish on oxygen at a place like that!" Funny!
We had our coffee in the lounge area in front of a huge fireplace. We paid the bill (gulp!) and then drove back to Gramat. Since the dinner was over 3 1/2 hours we were fine and there wasn't much traffic. But we went straight to bed when we got home. What an experience all of this is. We feel so fortunate to be experiencing this adventure.
The "Negatives" - frowns - martini - Manager talked to them and everything was fine "but you need to fix your roof"!!!! Huh!
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