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Dordogne

 Warning: Long Post with lots of pictures


May 13th started Ascension weekend in France and we escaped to the region of Dordogne.

The drive took a little longer than expected with traffic getting out of Paris but we were so ready to be out of our apartment.  

With many closures still in place, our dinner on the road came from a pizza vending machine.  We stopped for gas and began looking for dinner.  The only thing we could see nearby was McDonalds and I was ademant that we wouldn't visit the Golden Arches twice in one day.  I saw a neon sign flashing "pizza" and thought it was a food truck.  To all of our surprise, it was a large vending machine that baked frozen pizza for you.

It was surprisingly good pizza for a parking lot dinner.


I found a really cute B&B with gorgeous grounds and chickens for the boys to chase.  A covid concession was pre-ordering our breakfast the night before and having it served to our table (instead of the usual breakfast buffet).  Scott and I were so excited for our first table service in 8 months.  When the proprietress refilled my coffee cup.  I just about wept with joy.

It was a chilly weekend (about 55 degrees) with lots of rain predicted.  Friday the weather cooperated.  The boys spent the morning exploring the inn.  Quimby and Scott played soccer and bocce ball and despite the cool weather Kenyon tried out the pool, briefly.

In the afternoon, I had booked a canoe trip down the Dordogne river.  We floated past 5 different chateaus of the region.  And only got rained on briefly once or twice.


We ran into some interesting timing when it came to dinner that night.  When we finished our canoe trip, there was a snack shack open, but we were worried it was too early for dinner and opted for an ice cream cone instead.

 In Paris, many restaurants offer take out but in the small towns of the region, without tourists, the demand isn't there so most restaurants were shuttered.  


Still under a 7pm curfew, we ended up making dinner out of a gourmet meat and cheese from a local specaltiy shop.  Kenyon had cookies and Coke for dinner; are we bad parents?

 


Kenyon made up for it with a plate of bacon for breakfast.  No eggs, no toast, just bacon.  Many thanks to Sarah and Ian for accommodating our picky eater. 


On our second day, a local chateau offered a treasure hunt to keep kids entertained and engaged while touring the grounds.  

The boys had a lot of fun and it let me get my history fix.  An incorrect Google maps search took us to the other side of the valley for our afternoon ice cream.  In the true spirit of happy accidents, we stumbled upon the French church with the most domes.  It was quite spectacular.
Part of our weekend away was getting used to our new (to us) car.  We are now the proud owners of a bright red Renault Twingo we call Poppy.  In all the hills, roundabouts, and back country roads, I got to get familiar with a manual transmission.  

My sister's high school boyfriend taught me to drive stick back in the day, but never having owned a car with manual transmission I never got really proficient at it.  Poppy has some cool features including hill start assist and automatic restart for those stalling occasions.  

All in all, it was a successful trip and a great weekend away.

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