Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Venice of Perigord

Brantôme: the Venice of Perigord. This ancient town of 2000 inhabitants is built upon an island. We took the circumnavigating river trip past the caves, the wonderful gothic church built into the rocks and the fifteenth century houses with their toilets venting over the water.

A view of Brantôme

 Alex and Clare converse with drunken Brantôme youths 

 The boat trip 

 Alex enjoys his snails 
Stately French buildings, parks and gardens and a restaurant where Alex ate a dozen snails in garlic butter and professed himself delighted.

Clare now walks around in tight-fitting trousers and socks as the mozzies have identified her legs as their plat du jour. I am less bitten and seem to suffer less. We woke this morning to gloom and a touch of moisture in the air; the solidarity of the Dordogne with the biblical deluge back in Angleterre.

This afternoon we did our obligatory chateau at Puyguilhem, where a pleasantly-androgynous guide showed us around in easy-to-follow french with English course corrections.

The chateau at Puyguilhem somewhere behind Alex and Nigel