Montreal du Gers

Wednesday 10th:

 

Spent the morning looking around Brive. Another attractive town with a central square and many streets radiating from it. Buildings at the “hub” ends of the streets start off quite narrow and widen out as the spokes of streets get further apart. Another impressive cathedral.

 

 

 

 

 

Back on the road again with the next stop Sarlat with a very impressive (& touristy medieval city) within the modern town. Sarlat is a centre for the production of duck liver pate. Drove into the town and missed the turn to the parking area, but managed to find another road heading back, but on the edge of town with plenty of easy to get into parking spots & free. Most parking has cost anywhere from 1 Euro to 5 or 6. Very hot day and we were grateful for a park in the shade. We were running out of time again as we were due in Montreal that evening, so we only spent about 1 hour exploring. Some stunning buildings, with a plaque on one house noting that someone important was born there in 1530. Narrow roads and alleyways and another cathedral. Think we’re getting a bit “cathedraled” out. Can’t help thinking of the enormous cost to build them and wondering whether something less ornate/more modest would have been better with the savings going to support the locals.

 

 

 

The cathedral bell tower is still standing, but not used for bells anymore. Instead, an ascenseur paronamique (lift) has been installed to provide access to the top. It is a modern lift with a glass walled passenger compartment, providing great views over Sarlat. While there was no roof,  the glass box was very hot inside.

 

Laura, this quote is on the entrance to the ascenseur paronamique.

On the road again, with GPS ETA of 6pm in Montreal, we arrived 10 mins ahead of time and settled in quickly with a bottle of sparkling wine, brie and baguette. J&J have a beautiful house, very roomy with big entrance hall and impressive staircase to first floor. Attic above with access, at the moment, via ladder and cellar with unusable steps but accessible via a trapdoor outside. Beautiful huge timber beams, lots of timber and cool tiled floors.

Finished small drinks & nibbles and went for a drive to the nearby village to have a look at their other house, for sale. Food, drink and music event happening in the village square, so bought some dishes and wine from stalls, found seats in the shade and spent a while there.

Thursday 11th:

Did the never ending washing then went to Condom, a nearby village for lunch. Drove into Toulouse, about 1 1/2 hours each way and more grey hairs (with all grey & white hair already?), to look around. Back home around 8pm and just by chance, found a couple of cold bottles of sparkling wine in the fridge.

Friday 12th:

Bit of shopping this morning and back home for bbq/salad lunch. Spent ages putting together a simple hose reel on wheels. Lazy afternoon watching Tour de France live. Going to a nearby village this evening for a classical concert in the church and possibly looking for wifi that we can tap into.