Today we spent about five hours in the car getting from Carcassone to our latest B&B near Avignon. We made the usual gas and lunch stops, but the most interesting part of the trip was the hour we spent in Narbonne. Narbonne is the first Roman colony established outside Italy and was founded in 118 BC. Today it has a population of about 50,000. Entering the city, I definitely felt that we were in a different part of France. The architecture resembled some of that in Paris and there was a bit of a feel of Spain, as in Barcelona or Madrid.
Les Halles
Les Halles, Narbonne’s classic covered market, dates back to 1900. It is open every morning and is a food lover’s delight. I love visiting local markets. We did this in Mexico City and also in Valencia, Spain. Here are some of what we saw and salivated over.
French radishes
Mostly blues in this case!
Fish or scallops?
Stand after stand of fresh produce, meats, cheeses, fish, and more plus lots of cafes and tables for eating on the premises.
On our last night with Richard and Philippe, they served us a marvelous dinner on the terrace. We began with Philippe’s homemade walnut wine as an aperitif. First course was a delicate medallion of foie gras terrine with some homemade onion jam.
Foie gras plate
This was followed by a beef daube along with panfried broccoli finished with sesame oil. Dessert was a piece of walnut cake and a slice of walnut ice cream, both homemade, of course.
Dessert
The food was all delicious, but even better, we had a wide-ranging conversation with our hosts. So much so, we felt like we had made new friends.
GETTING TO CARCASSONNE
The drive to Carcassonne was projected to take around 3 hours with most of the trip on the super highway. The first hour was typical French countryside over, around, and up on narrow one-lane roads. Pretty, but the Chief Penguin was glad we were the only car around. Ultimately, we joined A20 and began to concentrate on keeping the gas tank filled. Today was a General Strike day all over France, so some businesses were closed and no trains or mass transit were running.
On the plus side, service areas on French highways are numerous and fairly closely spaced. There are “aires” that are what we in the U.S. would call rest areas with parking and usually restrooms. Interspersed with those are other aires which have a gas station and coffee shop and sometimes also a restaurant. On the negative side, a few aires were totally closed (there was messaging ahead on the electronic signboard), and many were under construction.
The roads in these aires loop around like spaghetti, and the signage is not always clear. The first time we stopped for gas, there was so much construction we couldn’t easily get to the pumps, another time we missed the internal turn for the restaurant and didn’t like the food offered at the gas station. Finally we settled on an aire where we surrendered to a small salad bar with quite a choice of ingredients. We ate outside at a high tables with stools. Lunch accomplished.
CARCASSONNE
Several miles before you reach the old city of Carcassonne (La Cite’), it looms up looking perfectly put together, yet out of place. A bit like something you’d expect in Dungeons and Dragons. We parked just outside the walls and began our exploration. I first heard about Carcassonne, this famous medieval city, in one of my high school French classes. It was part of a sentence we learned for vocabulary, and ever since, I’ve wanted to visit it.
Entrance to La Cite’
Outer wall of Carcassonne seen from inside
The height of the outer walls, the bridge over the empty moat, and the large, now open, gate are almost overwhelming in their size. Inside, the streets are narrow and wind around, with stores, restaurants, and an uncountable number of ice cream parlors. Normally, you can pay to enter the chateau and access the ramparts, but it was closed due to the strike.
Love the series or arches
The chateau and the cathedral dominate the city. Churches never close, though, and we were able to go into the cathedral, Basilique Saint-Nazaire. I was impressed by its height and very much liked the rich purples and reds of the stained glass.
Rose window in the cathedral
DINNER IN CARCASSONNE
Quiet streets in the evening
Carcassonne in the evening was quiet except for the open restaurants and cafes. The tour groups and the lively students had all retreated. We debated where to have dinner and compromised on Le Jardin de la Tour. The Chief Penguin was very enthusiastic about his panfried cepes (it’s the season for these mushrooms), and equally pleased with the cassoulet he ordered. Cassoulet, a stew of white beans cooked with duck and pork, is the dish in this region and appears on almost every menu.
Traditional cassoulet
I ordered cold salmon crumble with avocado which was a mound of raw salmon on avocado purée topped with crumbs and served with a green salad. A different taste experience. For my main, I had a pasta dish heavy on the Parmesan cheese with some small shrimps on it. I had been craving pasta or something different from all the fish I’ve consumed.
Pasta with zucchini
The excuse was we’ll never be in Carcassonne again, so dessert was a plate of profiteroles for the CP and some strawberry and citron sorbet for me. A good dinner in a medieval dining hall.
OUR B&B
This B&B, Le Jardin de la Cite, has a prime location just a short distance beyond Caracassone’s walls. We left the car here and walked into old Carcassone in the evening. That took all of about 5-7 minutes.
Our host, Daniele’s property is lovely with a single story house, pool and nice lawn, and a casita with two rooms where we stayed. She is retiring the end of the week to spend more time with family in Spain and do other things. We are some of her last guests.
For breakfast, she provided an attractive buffet of croissants, muffins, some sliced ham, cheese, and dishes of fresh fruit. The Chief Penguin thought the coffee was especially good. During the summer when the B&B was full, she had 12 guests.
Note: Photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) Header image is Carcassone at night from outside the walls.
Yesterday was lovely and warm, and we walked to the nearby village of Castelnaud, site of a castle high on cliff. We went along a paved path for bikers and pedestrians through groves of walnut trees. It was a 45 minute walk at a moderately brisk pace and got us some much needed exercise. It’s the end of the walnut harvest, and any walnuts on the path are fair game. Stamp on them, open, and eat. At the boulangerie, we bought a tasty loaf of walnut bread.
Walnut trees
Castelnaud is compact, and there were several restaurants, but only one was open. Restaurant Le Tournepique serves Perigord and Basque specialties. Arriving just after their noon opening, we were able to snag a table with no reservation. In the next half hour, the restaurant filled up totally. All French, no other Americans.
The Chief Penguin ordered the homemade foie gras, delicate in flavor, followed by the shepherd salad of greens, cherry tomatoes and strips of cheese and chorizo.
Shepherd salad
I went for an omelet with Serrano ham with a green side salad. The French do omelets so well! This one was stuffed with ham and the eggs were light. Of course, we had to have a glass of local wine. Around us, other diners were ordering duck and beef and the smells were tempting. With the return walk back to the B&B, we got in a lot of steps!
WANDERING ROQUE-GAGEAC
A town built into the rock wall
Having spent so many days in the car, we took the rest of the afternoon off and lazed at our B&B. Around 5:00 pm, we drove to the nearby town of Roque-Gageac, touted as one of the loveliest in the area, where we were also booked for dinner. Roque-Gageac did not disappoint! Located on the river, it dates back to the Middle Ages and is built from the ground up into and against a massive stone cliff. At street level, there are shops, some selling walnuts and walnut oil, and restaurants.
Walnuts galore!
Every so often appears what might be an alleyway somewhere else, but here is a set of stone steps leading to the next level.
Some of these stairways are steep and often they wind a bit. We climbed up one long set and found ourselves on a straight stretch past a series of tropical plants: bamboo, hibiscus, giant ferns, all with handwritten labels at the base. There were signs requesting respect for the plants and a mounted plaque listing the man who had created this garden.
Farther on, we came to a small plaza outside a simple church. Built in the 1300’s, it was solid still.
Church built in the 1300’s
The doors were open, and we peered in. There were two stone benches on the plaza and an upright stone cross. We sat in the quiet, and I pondered how difficult it must have been to construct this back then. Walking in the opposite direction, we walked up another set of stone steps going a bit higher to the medieval fort. A very impressive structure built against the stone.
Portion of the fort on one of the highest levels.
After dinner, we stopped a few times to snap a few nighttime shots of the buildings.
EATING
I had booked dinner at La Belle Etoile, located in one of the Roque-Gageac hotels. The dining room is lovely, and we were pleased to be seated before our reservation time. This was a first class meal with great service. The dishes, from several amuse bouches to main courses and desserts, were sophisticated and creative, but never precious. Noteworthy were the little cups of cauliflower soup with foam. The Chief Penguin had langoustine ravioli followed by fish. I had egg cocotte (baked egg usually in cream) with shrimp and bits of morels. It was luscious.
Then I had veal roast dotted with ginger and spinach on the side. My dessert was strawberries in a balsamic syrup with a soft pastry on top while the Chief Penguin had profiteroles filled with chestnut cream. This meal was a real treat!
Yesterday we left the Medoc region and headed east to Dordogne and a lovely B&B tucked in the valley outside St. Cybranet. Our trip organizers presented us with several choices of stops along the way. We took divided highways for the first hour. Then, we decided, having skipped going into the city of Bordeaux, to go to St. Emilion (still in Bordeaux) and possibly have lunch there.
St. Emilion is a name that is probably recognizable to wine drinkers since it produces very fine, notable wines. What I didn’t know previously, is that St. Emilion was granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 1999, a first for a vineyard town. Legend has it that St. Emilion was founded by a monk who came in the 8th century, lived in a cave, and performed miracles. The town was then named for him.
In later years, lots of underground galleries and spaces were created. The St. Emilion of today is a town of multiple levels and extraordinarily beautiful medieval architecture. Plus the views out over the vineyards and toward neighboring towns are gorgeous.
Vineyards and beyond
It was a lovely mostly sunny warm day, and a Saturday. It felt like half of France had the same idea! As is often the case, getting into the old part of any of these historic towns and cities, involves a series of tight turns, narrow streets, and sometimes arches so narrow you think for sure the car will scrape the sides.
We had the GPS for a specific parking area in St. Emilion, and Waze got us there. Space after space was filled, people crowded the streets, and we kept going, about ready to give up, when lo, up ahead as we inched our way along the ramparts, we got the last parking space at the very end! The Chief Penguin, now master of French ticketing machines, walked the short distance to get a ticket while I stayed with the unlocked car.
Parking on the ramparts
Looking down on St. Emilion
He returned and we began a slow descent down into more of St. Emilion. It’s a beautiful town built on many levels and we kept stopping to take photos. There were people everywhere, as if a tour bus or two had just disgorged its passengers. We stopped in a plaza and noted a beautiful hotel front and its restaurant, La Table de Pavie. Looking at the menu, the prix fixe was 220 euros per person, about the same in dollars at the current exchange rate. (Later research revealed this is Michelin two star restaurant.) We walked on.
Rooftops of St. Emilion
A restaurant and wine bar not far looked equally enticing and more affordable. Seen through the window were lots of empty tables. We walked in and inquired, and when the maitre d’ asked if we had a reservation, and we replied no, he suggested tomorrow. Disappointing, since I wondered where all the people were to occupy those seats. But, perhaps it was a matter of staffing, not so much lack of space for us.
FAST FOOD FRENCH STYLE
In desperation, we took another short gander around St. Emilion and then walked back up to the car and headed out of town. On the lookout for some place to eat, perhaps a pizzeria, we spied a sign for a McDonald’s 3 kilometers away and headed there. The French like McDonalds! The parking lot was jammed, we found one open spot, and headed inside to join the crowd.
We haven’t eaten in a fast food restaurant in probably 15 years at least. This McD was high-tech. You ordered and paid at a big kiosk, and then they delivered the food to your table in whatever zone number you had entered. We had chicken on a bun that was actually quite good. Later, we noticed that Caesar salads were also on the menu—not your old McDonald’s.
French couple ordering
WALNUTS AND STRAWBERRIES
Our latest B&B is not far from a castle at Castelnaud. It’s located a bit south of Sarlat, the center of what’s known as Perigord Noir or Black Perigord for its dark forests and black truffles. Our hosts, Richard and Philippe, warmly welcomed us with a refreshing glass of ginger sun tea. They have run this B&B for more than 20 years, and both have backgrounds in hotel management. It’s clear from the level of hospitality that they know their business. The house is an 18th century building with a pretty terrace and pool and a lovely view.
Exterior of our B&B
Dinner was at their table with a very pleasant couple from Vancouver, British Columbia. We started with an aperitif of walnut leaf wine (made by Richard) on their vine covered terrace. Walnut trees and walnuts are a big deal in this area. I had noted walnuts, noix, on some menus, but had yet to order any dishes with them.
Richard is also the cook. The first course was a delicious pate with a small green salad. Duck confit topped with mashed potatoes with green beans on the side made up the main plate. I thought the duck was scrumptious. Next came cheese (I was the only taker), followed by homemade strawberry sorbet and homemade shortbread. Several varieties of strawberries are grown locally. The sorbet was yummy! Dinner, with local red wines, was a tasty re-introduction to the cuisine of Dordogne. We retired having been very well fed.
