1st Newsletter for France 17-Feb 2009

Lavardac, France

Hello Fellow Travelers,

We are really excited about the upcoming trip and thinking about things to do while there. Of course you can chose to sit in a chair on a sun drenched porch the whole time drinking wine or you can chose to do any other number of things. We thought it would be helpful to share some of the things that are interesting to us just to give you an idea of what is available. I will send these out every two weeks, alternating between areas of our stay.

The first week we are in the town of Lavardac which is a quiet town far enough off the autoroute to make it out of the way but very close to other sites in the area…

For some additional details see this link: http://www.leboat.co.uk/cruising-companion/location/16/lavardac?cruiseid=197

Lavardac is a sleepy little town with at least one place to sip a cocktail and one or two decent restaurants. The southern part of the area up until now has been less populated by tourist; this has allowed it to stay more traditionally French. This means that sitting in a café chair sipping a Kir or a coffee will not feel like a cliché but more like a native experience. For additional information about the recent discovery of this southern region:
http://www.southofthedordogne.com/

Michael is speaking with the owner of the house to arrange a cooking lesson. This will include a day trip to the outdoor market to do some shopping the French way, cooking and then eating lunch. It looks like it will cost about 50 euros a person, but to have someone navigate the market will be such an amazing thing to be part of. Speaking of which, here is a link to help you navigate French cooking, whether it is making it yourself or ordering off a menu… http://www.patriciawells.com/glossary/atoz/atoz.htm

We are excited to get into the car and drive from village to village, stopping where we find it to be extra charming. I am excited about visiting the town of Domme, which is very picturesque. Here is some additional information about the regions towns: http://www.francemonthly.com/n/0603/index.php

The towns to the north are pretty amazing. Here is some information on them, including some information on the cave paintings from prehistoric time. This is something I would like to consider, I believe it will take some pre-arranging which we will work on.
http://goeurope.about.com/od/dordogneperigord/ss/dordogne.htm
There is a town, farther than most may want to go, but I have always wanted to see it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane

There is a winery south of the house that makes a white wine that we love, we will try to get a reservation to get onto that property just so we can say we were there and see how the make it. Aside that we are in the area of Cognac, Armangac and close to Bordeaux which should let us know that wine and vineyards will be all around us.

As you know food is very important to us, we would like to do the outdoor markets as well as trying restaurants. We are more interested in local cuisine, less interested in glitz and glamour, so smaller family places are on our list. The same woman who provided the glossary about has written the most comprehensive French restaurant guide (in English) and has many recommendations for the area, but exploring new ones is something that excites us. Think about what you are willing to eat and what you are not, this region is one of the gastronomy wonders of France and has specialties that range from Truffle (mushrooms) to duck and duck liver. I will try anything once, but if you are not as risky you may want to check out the food glossary and pick the things that you want or don’t want so you do not order something that you cannot eat once it arrives winking at you.

Feel free to chime in if you see anything that interests you. We are all free to participate or not as a group, so look at those things that appeal to you and we can research them. Some things will be day/date restrictive, like the cooking course which will be on Wednesday only as that is the day of the local outdoor market.
By the way, here is a schedule of other outdoor markets in the area: http://www.france4families.com/Lot/RegionsLotMarkets.htm

The next newsletter will be about Provence, when I come back to this area I will focus on towns and sites that hold interest in greater detail…