DORDOGNE 1

My Tour de France 7 is over but September is often, since we retired, time for some holidays. This year, as it's complicated to visit Great Britain -passport, change, boat or plane or drive on the right side of the road- we decided to go to Dordogne... ha ha ha!

It's easier for us and all the visits are both in English and French too!

I'm kidding but there are also Belgians, Dutch People, some Italians and Spaniards...

A lovely weather, comfy rent and here are some of our discoveries...

First Bergerac...

The city makes big uses of "Cyrano" from Edmond Rostand book "Cyrano of Bergerac" who has nothing to do with the town. The reel Savinien de Cyrano never went to Périgord and lived in Yvelines in the Chevreuse Valley.

That said, let's take a look.

After a tour into the old town in a small train, we went on a nice cruise on the river Dordogne on a "gabarre".

Lot of water (due to weirs upstream and downstream as rivers in France this summer are quite dry), helping the rowing club to train too, lot of birds and a special guest this year a black swan came and decide to stay here!

The funny part was about the tour commentary

two weeks in French became three weeks in English

and the height of the bridge also took half a meter more

when translated!

You might see the profil of Cyrano on the right side of the feather

and Roxane on the left window of the church facing the statue.

We had a nice lunch at the "Richelieu" restaurant, in a square under the trees. With a delicious cold-served confit of pork and ratatouille.

There is also a nice Tobacco museum

where all about the tobacco culture is explained

a large collection of pipes

and explanations about the way they were handmade

and then industrialisation

as a Durroz machine used to make 14 pipes from 1 pattern

sign for tobacconists we name "carrot"

calumet de la paix - a peace pipe

I'll show you many other places in the next days

Première visite en Dordogne à Bergerac

nous n'échapperons pas à Cyrano même s'il n'a rien à voir

avec la ville ou le département (merci E. Rostand)

une vieille ville très agréable visitée en petit train

puis une ballade en gabarre sur la Dordogne très en eau

grâce aux barrages, déjeuner au Richelieu pour déguster

un enchaud de porc délicieux

Découverte du musée du tabac avec de belles collections