Iris fought the duvet all night. We had set the alarm for 7:30 in order to be ready for breakfast when Yves has it ready at 8:30 but we were awake at 6:00. Raining this morning. Nice breakfast with fresh fruit, juice, breads, butter, jam, yogurt and our own decaf coffee. Then it was away to our visit of the day - Bergerac, named for the fictional long-nosed swashbuckler named Cyrano de Bergerac in the 1600’s. and his image is everywhere in the town even though Cyrano never set foot in the town. The drive of about an hour was beautiful going along very narrow roads through vineyards and wheat fields enjoying the views of farm houses and the odd chateau with turrets. Arriving in the city limits we had a bit of difficulty finding the right parking lot so we shut it down at the most convenient one, paid the fee and walked to the Tourist Information Center where we found out that our booked tour was for Thursday, not today being Tuesday, so they provided us with a map and off we went to see the main sights of Bergerac. Just about now the sun came out and we had a lovely warm day for sightseeing. First a coffee then a walk to Our Lady of Notre Dame church that is the center of town and it is a magnificent building both outside and in.
Then the test began - to drive from our current parking place to another one close to our chosen restaurant. We did accomplish it with only two wrong turns and we ended up in the parking lot of the police station, not the one we intended but it was close enough. Walking from the parking to the restaurant was down the narrow streets with shops and houses all with half-timbered upper floors, mostly 3-4 stories high. It is obviously old construction, many having been restored and very close to Dordogne River. We suspect the type construction had its origin from the south of England as the English controlled this area before the French took it the 1400’s.
Anyway lunch turned out to be in a Spanish themed restaurant but even though this is very close to Spain the food was really coastal French. They had a large group of tourists having a set lunch and they almost filled the place but the service was still good and the staff very helpful even though there was very little English spoken. We chose the daily specials - Iris having moules (mussels) then merlon (white fish) with veg and potatoes then chocolate cake with whipped cream for dessert. Bob had salad, the fish and tiramisu. We left and walked down to the river to see the scale on one of the walls of the various floods that had inundated the town over the centuries. Strolling through parks and down little streets enjoying the houses, flowers and people having lunch outside before finding St Jacques Church, first built in the 12th century and also seeing the Temple Protestant. We saw two statues of Bergerac but we understand there are more.
Finding our car again we left the protection of the police and, using our GPS, we were able to get out of town and make our drive back to the Blue Raisin where we met Sandra, wife of Yves. Having had a nice chat, we then caught up on emails and had some wine outside in the courtyard and later we had a can of sardines and crackers and called it supper. Fairly early to bed but read some before turning in.
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