La belle France

LOvely weather continues for us- we had a great day in Perigueux a very interetsing Medieval town in one part and a Roman town in another.
Tourist info was excellent and we spent 2 hours in a living musueum of medieval buildings, beautifully preserved and restored without being too obvious. The shops were excellent as was the local market with mounds of fruit and vegetables. Lots of cheeses from the area and enormous amounts of fois gras the local speciality_ made by force feeding ducks and geese large amounts of corn until their livers are fatty. Each farm has its secret recipe for making fois gras from the livers and sell it world wide. We tasted it and it is like a smooth liver pate -garlic and herbs add to the flavour.
The local school children were fundraising for an end of school trip and were so charming that we donated happily_ wild costumes and cute accents as they all learn English here.
On the way to the Roman ruins found a trope doiel gallery and workshop. A local artist has done much work at Versailles and other grand places mimicking marble, woods, frescoes and all manner of other scenery on flat surfaces. Amazing display of work - pretend doors with coats hanging on them scenes outside, bookshelves- even a garage tool wall - must ve known Dale was coming!Off to the Roman ruins again fairly well preserved and the violent history of the area seems to have been repeated again and again- Gauls vs Romans, Catholics vs Huguenots and Gestapo vs the locals So sad to see a resitance memorial showing a statue of people with hands tied behind their backs after execution.Thursday was a local Hautefort day; Visited the chateau and gardens- a stunning day again. Chateau furnished with mixture of styles as burnt in 1968 -reproduction walnut woodwork was amazingly like the old photos of the original and cleverly done.Gardens were topiried and Italian style with swirling pattern box hedges and flowers in between- all overlooking the most superb countryside of walnut groves, hazlenut trees and cornfields; Sent home 11kg of books, clothes etc;Hit Nathalie and Arnands for another 5 course gastronomic delight. I had duck this time and Dale had the triflette we still passed on the cheese and left room for the fig tart this time.Friday we saw our Dutch friends in their house about 30mins drive away- navigation there was interesting thru little villages. The beautiful weather continued and we had lunch at the golf course after Dale and Rudy had played 9 holes. Katy and I walkesd around the Limerat and met most of the locals enroute bonjouring all the way.Local church is 11th century with bells and clocktower. Someone moved into the village and proceeded to climb the tower and muffle the bells as he was disturbed by the noise!Needless to say he did not win any friends doing this- such arrogance§
Have now driven thru rain to Limoges and are about to get lunch somewhere and possibly visit the porcelain museum here;Back in UK Sunday.