Thiviers, foie gras capital

I’m sure many towns in France that say they are the best place for foie gras and truffles, but Thiviers claims this honour in the green Périgord. And Sorges, tomorrow’s destination claims it for truffles. But there is the Périgord noir which is supposedly the truffle area, so who knows…as complicated as wine!

So we left exactly at 9 as all the bells in La Coquille started chiming the hour…it was a lovely 18 km walk, not quite as breathtaking as yesterday as there wasn’t much forest walking through tree tunnels, but just along the shoulder of the hills through pastures and farms, sometimes on country roads, or on grassy paths. Cold as we left, and heated up as another perfect day. But not the humid enervating heat of the first week thank goodness. Tomorrow they predict rain, but we’ve given up believing it very much, and also the rain is not supposed to start till later in the afternoon and these 18 kms walks take us about 5 hours and we seem to arrive at about 2pm or round about, so hopefully it won’t even effect us. Today we went for about 5 kms in a straight line Amr says, but tomorrow we walk on an old Via Romana through hazels and orchards according to our Book, so that should be quite a straight line too.

Thiviers turns out to be quite a bustling little town…more awake than most of this size so far. On our way in we popped in to the Mairie as we had noticed an electricity pole that was split and bent and looked dangerous as it was bound to collapse in a storm or high wind. Amr had taken a photo and the La Poste driver told us to report it to the Gendarmerie or the Mairie. We spotted a Gendarmerie when about 2 kms out of Thiviers and tried there, but they were closed till 2pm and it was 1.30… (no criminal activity during lunch break)…so we didn’t wait around - in fact this diversion made us miss a turn we were meant to make just before the gendarmerie..but with another couple of pèlerins (we actually saw another couple, none yesterday) we retraced and found the true path! And as we entered the town there was the Mairie with flags etc, so we masked up and did our civic duty - who knows if they will find the splitting pole!

And then, almost opposite there was our wonderful hotel…Hotel de France et de Russie! And it has a restaurant l’Escapade des Sens, where we eat tonight so should be good. We have a room 2 floors up with a skylight window, and lovely old beams…it is an old house and came about in the time of the French and Russian alliance, and now run by an English couple for the last 5 years. They have a son who was in Melbourne last year (poor thing) and got stuck, but finally returned to England and hopes to return to Oz when all is normal again…he is in hospitality. After showering we went out on the town for a beer at Bar Foch in the market square, which apparently will be in full swing when we leave tomorrow morning. So will buy cheese, sausage, fruit perhaps.

Now relaxing back in our room - but first the final chapter of the hat saga…it has reappeared, found folded in Amr’s jacket in his bag!! It is a mystery and we are not suggesting how it could possibly have got there…but at least our hostess in Limoges is off the hook, and we can go back to wearing our customary hats!!Leer más