Périgueux, a small city

It is after 9 pm and we are back from dinner, and I’m really ready to read and sleep…but must try and write up today while it is fresh…first, we didn’t have a truffle dinner last night…we got to the restaurant, and when they realised we were half board (dinner included in our nightly rate) we had the menus confiscated and were told what our dinner was, no option! We didn’t really mind - had seen that the truffle menu was €118 per person, and it all was complicated, so were happy to have our simple but very tasty and satisfying meal, and delay our truffle experience. We did however partake of walnuts in a yum ice-cream of walnuts with chocolate sauce…

So today we walked about 23 kms and it was a very surprising day. We had a slight feeling of doom as rain was predicted, and it poured last night - just before dinner when we were going to have a wander through the very small town - there was a wild storm…which didn’t last long and we walked to dinner without even getting wet…but it had another burst during the evening, and rained at night. So we set off knowing it was a longer than our recent 18 km walks, and we anticipated very muddy and soggy tracks and possibly rain while we walked. Also we knew we were walking again into a city,though smaller than Limoges, but walking into a city always has its problems…Well it turned out to be a fine day again, cloudy with sun breaking through, and the paths were not soggy miraculously - and we walked through continuously gorgeous forests, mostly level and different from the other forest days…we passed a little farmland, and saw fields of decapitated sunflower stalks, and our first vineyard for a while - but just a small backyard one, not serious ones yet. But it was just a constant treat of beautiful walking. And the signage was good, so no panic about directions. And I think we are getting into the Périgord blanc as there are white stones, often covered with moss, and we will come to the white limestone cliffs world.

It was only a few kms out of Périgueux that it got a bit boring, but not hard as we just followed the road straight downhill into the city, which seems nestled in the valley. We knew our hotel was near the train station so turned off the path and headed for there, about a km out of the centre. Our bags hadn’t arrived - a Sunday problem perhaps as the hotels close during the quiet times and they are so sadly quiet at this time anyway…but our hotel man here was very helpful and soon they were sent by taxi from Sorges. We are here for 2 nights, rest day tomorrow.

Having showered etc we set off to have an initial explore and maybe find dinner as not included here. Soon after we left it started raining and poured, and we sheltered in a bar with a beer (I had forgotten to bring my umbrella)…we are so lucky, rain after we have finished walking. It stopped soon, even almost sunny, and we walked round a bit in the centre, having decided to go back to that brasserie for dinner. And we just love this place. It is absolutely charming - has a lovely historic centre which we got lost in, and we even found a cafe de la truffe which is open tomorrow (so many places just open Tuesday to Saturday) so maybe the truffle treat will be tomorrow. Looking forward to a day of discovery in this lovely town. We are both reading a Martin Walker detective book at the moment, set here…they are fun books, and very appropriate for us here! All about food and life here while he solves the mystery. Our dinner was good…Amr had duck and I had linguini with coquille st Jacques …and a Campari…off to sleep now..Læs mere