Lussac and Weekend in Perigueux

Another week has flown by in Bordeaux, more so the surrounding areas. I worked earlier in the week and caught up with some housekeeping and of course shopping items. I went back to a few of the tres mignonnes boutiques that I had been wanting to visit but hadn’t stopped in – much fun! The only place where I ended up really liking something was a small place near the apartment. The lady at the store started talking with me and was excited that I spoke English because she had learned it from her aunt, who now lives in the US, and wanted to practice. She made me a coffee and we ended up chatting for a while I got to browse the store : ) I went back and visited her later in the week, too, which was nice!

Bordeaux center, it turns out, is much smaller than it looks like. I stumbled upon a salon de the that I had seen one of the first days and finally went in and had my much desired café at a café (with a bite of chocolate cake…yes). Delightful! One of my favorite things here has to be just sitting in a quiet place like that (or a bustling place, also fun) and enjoying the atmosphere.

About mid-week I met up with Pedro in Lussac for the end of the town’s tournament. I met and we stayed with his friend Arnaud, Arnaud’s girlfriend Laurence and their attack cat, Berlios. My experience with Berlios was particularly memorable, as he left me with no shortage of scratches and bites, but I forgave him after I woke up with him purring on top of me.

In addition to watching the tournament and having a lovely meal with the people from the club, Arnaud took us to another vineyard where we did a mini-tour and had another private tasting. Oh la la! We were really lucky, I must say. We did a vertical tasting (I believe that’s what it’s called) where we tried their wine from three different consecutive years. Pedro ended up winning three bottles of wine, one of them from this chateau (vineyard) so we’re really excited to try it again!

After Lussac we came back to Bordeaux for the day and finished our tour du musée d’Aquitaine and then headed to Périgueux for another tournament. We stayed with the Presidents of the club – it was nice to be in a house for the weekend and of course so have such generous hospitality! We got to borrow one of their cars so on Friday we road tripped to Sarlat, a small and well preserved medieval village about an hour from Perigueux. So cool!! The cobbled little streets and their surrounding architecture were beautiful. We stopped at a restaurant in town for dinner and had a very regional meal – the area is known for its canard (duck) so duck and foie gras are almost always on the menu. I had a salad to start with duck that was quite, quite delicious, along with an omlette aux cepes, a type of Parisian mushroom I had been wanting to try. So good!! It was also served with patates sarladaises: sliced potatoes with a delicious sauce, presumably well-known in the region. Walnuts are also popular there so the dessert was a walnut cake with crème angalise. All this for 15 euro? YES!!! So good. Pedro was nearly brought to tears about how good his meal was (flashback to spring break); that’s always a good sign.



I forgot to mention that we stopped at a castle on the way and took a tour….!! Very cool. I still can’t believe how they built such enormous “houses” back then in the middle of nowhere…really incredible.

I’m back from Perigueux now but have left Bordeaux for Paris!!! I’ll be spending two nights with my most favorite French professor and then headed to Bruxelles for a meeting with P&G (VT work). After that, headed back to Toulouse to meet up with my long lost tennis player!

More about Paris and Brussels to come : ) I’m already missing all the nice people I met in Bordeaux!