Du Pain et un Plan

"Some bread and a map" - that's what Brigitte equipped Mary, Jasmin, Josh, and I with for our final expedition from St. Michel. We were taking a tour of the beautiful and (mostly) untouched medieval towns of Perigord.

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The day began early as we made our way about 40 km south of St. Michel to Sarlat, a charming old medieval town. It is the largest town I've visited which still retains the sense that it was built in the Middle Ages. It also was home to some most-excellent chocolate goodies, Mary and I delighted in truffles and rum cake.

It's difficult to find a city in the South of France which does not contain a cathedral with creepy woodcarvings and haunting organ music (see video a few posts down).

This sculpture depicts the ducks who proudly give their lives and their livers so Frenchmen and foreigners alike can enjoy the popular dish, foie gras.

I...don't remember what this was, great for photos!

This is the old fountain of St. Marie. I've dubbed it the fountain of dead pigeons, seeing as there was a dead pigeon floating inside.

After we exhausted the popular tourist locales in Sarlat, we continued south toward Le Jardins de Marqueyssac 

Above is our view of La Roque-Gageac, an ancient city built into the side of the rock face. This photo was taken from the best vantage point in the garden, la belvédère. It was the most breathtaking view I've ever seen, as several castles can be seen from this one point. It was also breathtaking because I'm afraid of heights.

Left-center depicts the castle Castelnaud; Right-center shows Castle Beynac, just across the river. This picture was taken directly to the right of the one above it.

We relished the opportunity to dine the classic medieval way, at the top of a suspended garden with a peacock.

After leaving the gardens, the sun began to burn and our feet were sore, but we mustered the effort to cross the Dordogne River and visit the hilltop Castle Beynac- wonderfully preserved and mysteriously devoid of tourists.

I probably ought not to confess my crimes publicly on the internet, but there was no photography allowed within the walls of castle Beynac. I digress, here is the stunning view of Dordogne from atop one the the castle's highest turrets.

After descending from the castle towers, we were tired, sweaty, and hungry. We returned to St. Michel and didn't look back.

During one of the final days of the medieval games, the workaways of St. Michel happened upon a strange sight outside our kitchen window, as we had our lunch. A shirtless roleplayer was hobbling around the field, not unlike the creature Golem, from Lord of the Rings, while other roleplayers hunted him down with bows and arrows. To my eternal dismay, there are no pictures.

A couple nights before we left, Brigitte and Philipe asked us to cook up some American cuisine. We made barbecue ribs and sweet potato fries (with truffle-mayonnaise for dipping!). Cultural differences I'd never thought of tried to get in the way of this feast; the French do not have the cut of pork ribs we are accustomed to in the United States! On her first attempt, Brigitte came back from the butcher with three pounds of bacon. Her second attempt actually contained ribs, though still not what we're used to. Mary slow cooked the ribs in the oven for four hours before we slathered them in bbq sauce and slapped 'em on the grill. MmmmmMmm!! They were tasty.

We gathered round for some goodbye pictures in le petit jardin of St. Michel. On the night this picture was taken, Brigitte prepared in exquisite dish of Camembert cheese melted over potatoes and eaten with bread. The next morning we woke up bright and early for our trip to Le Castel with our Host, John, in Normandie! I'm almost a week late in blogging, as we arrived last Tuesday- sorry :( . Thank you, readers, for helping Mary and I's blog reach the milestone of 1,000 views! If anyone wants to know more about any of our photos, please leave a comment in this post!

This picture has little do with our final days in St. Michel- I snapped it a couple weeks ago when we visited Chateau Hautefort. Here we can see how old gentlemen used to spend their free time: they would get in their tights, put on their wigs and enjoy a few rounds of hockey-billiards.

-À tout à l'heure, Jake