Up at our usual time and breakfast in the old kitchen at Domaine du Cloucau. Our last day here. We are all packed and ready to go to Bordeaux - specifically to the Medoc Region - way in the north of a peninsula near the Atlantic Ocean. The sun is finally back and it is beautiful out for our drive west.
Breakfast with Francine and Alain was great as usual. I practiced the conjugation of verbs with Francine and she thought I was doing better. I complimented her on her fig preserves in French and she gave me a large jar of them as a souvenir. Yum.
We packed up the car and headed out about 9:30 from our stay at Domaine du Cloucau.
Our bedroom at Domaine du Cloucau
Our sitting area with dressing room to the left at Domaine du Cloucau
First stop Perigueux, still in Dordogne. It was a 2 hour drive - mostly on the peage (motor highway). We easily found a place to park and started the walking tour using the map that Emilie had provided of the Medieval/Renaissance City. The map provided was in English and a huge help!. Beautiful city. We loved the architecture and the cathedral. We went by the house where the patissier made fois gras in the 14 century. We returned to that square later for lunch. Tim had the plat de jour for 8.50 and it was good.
The Mataguerre Tower in Perigueux - an old medieval tower
Beautiful streets and alleys all over Perigueux
Many pretty squares in Perigueux
This was Place St Louis - the building on the other side of the square is where the patissier made pate of fois gras in the 14 century. The Maison du Patissier. We had lunch there later.
Beautiful buildings in Perigueux
An interesting building - a half timbered house built on stone blocks - very curious!
The St Front Cathedral built in a Byzantine style - reminded us of Agia Sofia in Istanbul!
Beautiful entry ways - this one with a salamander over the doorway which was the favorite of Francois I, King in the 16th century
The St Front Cathedral
Inside the St Front Cathedral
A beautiful wood carving at the altar in St Front Cathedral
The front of St Front Cathedral destroyed many years ago!
Tim contemplating lunch in Place St Louis at Restaurant Le Saint-Louis - the place where fois gras was invented!!!!
We then went to the Gallo-Roman city ruins and followed the map Emilie had provided. Too bad that the coliseum was destroyed but we got to see the ruins. We went into the wonderful Vesunna Museum there that was built overtop of many Roman city structures.
The original city church - Eglise St Etienne de la Cite
Inside the old church
This was curious - they carved the dates of Easter in the walls for 1163 to 1253!!!!
Ruins of the ancient Roman amphitheatre - it would hold 20,000 people
Ruins of the ancient Roman wall
An old Roman gateway into the city
Part of the museum built over the ruins uncovered. This was where a large home, garden, and fountain originally was
Ruins of the Temple de Vesone in Perigueux
It started to rain so we got the car from the carpark, and continued on to Bordeaux - to the Medoc Region. It was a 2 hour 25 minute drive without much traffic until we got to Bordeaux, and then the traffic got quite heavy. Our B&B for the next 5 days is at Chateau Real in a small village, Saint Seurin de Cadourne, north of Pauillac. Violaine and Patrick Lapeyrere greeted us and showed us our room on the second floor. The Chateau was built in 1800 and has been in Violaine's family for 5 generations - her father grew up here. They run the property as a B&B with 5 rooms. Tonight we are the only ones here. Violaine made some coffee for us and we had that and cookies and chocolates in the garden and talked to them for a while.
We went into the small village of Seurin de Cadourne and had dinner at Restaurant Seurin - the only restaurant in town. It was good and we had a great bottle of Medoc too. The restaurant is a short walk from the B&B. We walked back, caught up on email and travel blog, and then went to bed. We have a 9 am tour of the Medoc region vineyards tomorrow.
We walked into the small village for dinner at . . . .
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