May 5, 2019
Les Eyzies to Montignac
Troglodytes and table d'hôte
- If you are North American, the word "troglodyte" brings an image of a caveman clad in an animal pelt, holding a club and perhaps also dragging a woman (scantily clad in fur) by the hair. In France, it's someone who lives in a dwelling built into a cliff, and troglodyte homes were in use into the 20th Century (and perhaps still). Today we visited two troglodyte sites.
This morning the usual croissants and baguette were supplemented with a really good apple cake. I skipped the bread and had seconds on the cake!
We got on our bikes and headed upriver along the Vézère, wearing our jackets and full-finger gloves. Our first stop was Site de la Madeleine, well worth the short detour, although the 7€ (each) admission was a bit high when you convert to $CDN. Adding more layers, we continued to La Roque St-Christophe. This was right on our route; in fact, we were wondering what that was above us on the cliff... Admission here was 9€ each. Fees are adding up!
Both sites were in use from the Stone Age and well into the Middle Ages and beyond. I would hope they weren't always as cold as they were today and I think there were outer walls and roofs when they were inhabited. Today, the chill wind was whistling through.
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After La Roque St-Christophe, a hot lunch was in order. St-Léon-sur-Vézère was on my list of places to see and was only 5 km further, assuming the clear plastic over the "Route Barrée" sign meant the road wasn't barrée today, Sunday. It wasn't. The road was very quiet (because of the sign?) and took us over a little bridge and into the centre of the village. It's a cute place, as it needs to be given that it's entire economy seems to be based on providing lunch or ice cream (not today, thanks) for tourists and selling them artworks. We are at Café du Pont because it had indoor seating. The pizza was good too.
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Another 10 km brought us to Montignac. Our accommodation isn't in town and rural France doesn't have street addresses as we know them. Just house names. It took a couple of false starts and a phone call, but we found Les Gaps--or rather Pascal found us. We were the only cyclists around.
We were shown our chambre, more like a suite, with living area, bedroom, and bathroom. Then up to the deck by the pool (covered in this weather) for cold drinks with Simone and Pascal. They are very friendly but have little English, less than my French, so the attempts at conversation were in French. Al's French is on a par with their English...
We returned to our suite for showers and our bit of laundry which we hung on the outdoor clothesline. It was close to dry when we we brought it indoors before going upstairs for a table d'hôte. Yes, the first time we've had this opportunity since being told to take it when possible, sometime during our 2015 tour in Germany. "Stay at chambres d'hôte in France" we were told, and "always take the table d'hôte!"
Well, they were right, though I have to add that I couldn't eat like that every night. There were 6 at table, us plus Simone and Pascal, their (his?) son Guillaume (visiting from somewhere for his 30th birthday) and his friend Amandine. Pascal was the chef and I think it was mentioned that he worked as a chef for some years. The conversation was mixed French and English as Guillaume spoke decent English, but the French bits were too fast and complex for me to follow.
We started with an apéritif of sweet white Bergerac and each person had a plate of little dishes: something with duck, another of tuna, and some cucumber salad, accompanied by small slices of two kinds of bread, in addition to the basket of bread on the table.
Then the first course: foie gras with truffles on toasted brioche, with some white asparagus and green salad, accompanied by a glass of Monbazillac. Monbazillac is a sweet white wine and is traditionally served with foie gras but it's the first time we've had it. Delicious!
The next course was confit de canard (I think). We were each served two duck drumsticks, large dark, and meaty, with sarladoise potatoes (potatoes from Sarlat) and roasted tomato. Also delicious, but Al finished my portion because I was getting very full. This course was served with a dry red Bergerac and I didn't need any help with that! The first two wines were drunk from small round wine glasses but for this wine we used bigger tulip-shaped glasses with ridges inside on the bottom to help release the flavour when you swirl the wine (I think). We hadn't seen glasses like this before and I got the feeling they were something new Pascal had gotten recently. Guillaume hadn't seen them before either.
Next was cheese. Three types of local chèvre were passed on a small platter, each thick slice with a half walnut on top and nested in lettuce with halved grape tomatoes. The basket was reloaded with more bread. I took a small wedge of each type, at which point Pascal said the cheese was best with a tiny bit of honey and one nut. He brought out a jar of dark "forest honey" from the Dordogne (there's a light version too) and some walnuts in the shell. He had a very cool nutcracker that broke the shell of a walnut while leaving its meat intact. We ate the cheese with honey and nuts, yum! and finished the bottle of red.
But we weren't done yet. There was dessert! This was vanilla ice cream with strawberries and crème anglaise and a small nut cookie. The Monbazillac returned since even dessert has its wine.
I was in a food stupor by this point. We were offered coffee and Al and I each had an espresso. I noticed we were the only ones having coffee; Simone and Amandine had herbal tea while Pascal and Guillaume slowly finished their wine.
We had started at 8 or so and it was now almost 11. It was a memorable meal, by far the best one of the trip, but it was time for Al and me to sleep and digest. No photos of the meal because it didn't seem appropriate. Good night!
Today's ride: 33 km (20 miles)
Total: 254 km (158 miles)
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