Tuesday, 24th April - Chateau de Losse

After the usual vital visit to Spar supermarket for cheese and a baguette we were on our way for the day. Having done Lascaux caves and the Gouffre de Padirac last year, we were all in the frame of mind this year to stay above ground in the warmth of the sunshine so we headed to another chateau....Chateau de Losse.

Above right is a view from the river side of the chateau looking through the buildings towards the gatehouse and moat. This is a particularly nice design aspect of some chateaux. The idea was that these internal doors could be left open and as the owner returned, he would be greeted by a view right through his property and to the view beyond.

I really enjoyed the guided tour of the inside of the chateau but I had to rely on Alain to briefly translate what was being said. I don't know why it is, but sometimes I can understand French and sometimes not...something to do with a particular accent perhaps?

After Losse we made our way along the north bank of the river to Montignac and then followed the south bank back to Les Eyzies.

Whilst following the incredibly winding country roads Alain's mobile phone rang. It was our hotel in St. Malo asking us for the code for the Dorgodne area so that they could fax to confirm our reservation with them on Friday. At the time we were down a dip in the hills, behind hundreds of trees, so the phone signal was decidedly 'ify' and Alain had to keep repeating himself to be understood. During the call, a large coach filled to the gills with tourists came hurtling around a bend and the driver impatiently glared at the stupid English registered car, stupidly parked out in the middle of nowhere, with its stupid occupants on the stupid phone. Alain manoeuvred out of the way - now very fed up at being phoned by the stupid man in stupid St. Malo who was asking us for the phone code of an area of his own stupid country. (It equates, I suppose to us phoning a German tourist out in the middle of the English Mendips and asking if he knows the code for Kettering). Needless to say, the phone incident did little to maintain the happy ambience in the car on the way back.

5.40pm: I'm sitting here in the hotel feeling quite despondent at the prospect of dinner. I don't really want to be eating pork again as a matter of principle, the girls don't want potato omelette again and none of us want to be the main attraction at that bar from Sunday night. The food situation here is quite dire 'pour les vegetarians'. You know, even if we all ate meat I'm positive none of us would want to be tucking into duck each and every night.

9.30pm: Wayhay! Pizza Romane was opened. ....so we had pizza! Yes good old pizza....pizza, pizza, pizza. Mmmmm.... I thought I'd be sick of the stuff by now but tonight's discovery was cause for celebration. This restaurant at least has some atmosphere and not a duck in sight (well, I lie actually, there was duck on the menu but only a couple of dishes).

We had some fun on our way to Sarlat for our evening meal, however. We were being boot-bumped by a woman driver behind. She obviously didn't like the fact that we were 'only' doing 55 mph down the country roads so she started mouthing and gesticulating. When Alain spotted her anguish, he slowed to 45 mph (aren't we just the most annoying people?) When she eventually had the courage to overtake on the bendy roads we were treated to the sight of a French woman with her now puce coloured face contorted into absolute rage, mouthing obscenities at us as she drove by. We have a way of dealing with people like this. From her side of things she was treated to an entire English family smiling inanely at her and waving enthusiastically as though we were greeting an old chum. I think her head nearly exploded at that point and she powered off into the distance making the most unlady-like gesture with both arms (yes with both arms - no hands on the wheel, and I'd estimate at that point she was probably hitting at least 70 mph). All this time, of course, we continued to wave and smile sweetly at her.

I had to laugh when Charlotte mis-read the unusual 'hand signals' coming from her car and innocently said:

'Look, I think she's waving back'.

Next day...we're s.h.o.p.p.i.n.g, we're shopping