Today was a day of views. Today was a day of driving. Today we ate at Mc Donalds. Today we saw beauty so stunning it was hard to find time to blink.
After our two weeks in Vaison la Romaine were done, it was time to drive to our next town: Sarlat. While we've been in "Provence" all this trip, it was now time to head to the "Dordogne." A main difference between these two regions is that Dan and I visited "Provence" before (and hand picked the places we wanted to re-visit on this trip), we have never been to the "Dordogne."
The drive was going to be about 5-6 hours. Our plan was to leave the house early, like 8:00 and hit the road.
In reality, when it was 8:00 Dan was still asleep. We didn't hit the road until 10:45! So much for our "leave early" plan!
I got up with Julia at 5:56 (now that is true love) and around 7:30 Sara woke up. To keep the apartment quiet (and let Dan sleep) I put Julia's zip-up fleece on her, and Sara's toggle sweater on her, and we walked to the bakery. They lead the way, even remembering to pause before crossing the street. The girls walked right into the store, played in the kid area, and after I paid for the bread they walked right over to me. Julia grabbed the baguette from me with out pausing - and Sara grabbed the two brown bakery paper bags. Both girls then walked out of the bakery together, leaving me to follow behind them. Julia held the baguette in her left hand - and it was as tall as she is. She looked like a little Knight. Sara held the bakery bags on in each hand - and she looked like a happy little girl, skipping back "home" so she could dive into the tasty breakfast treats. I was vastly amused.
When we got back Dan was still asleep. I didn't know what time he went to bed (he telecommutes starting 2:00 PM and stops when he is done). I never bug him when he is sleeping. But the girls walked right into where he was said, "breakfast!" and thus he started his day. I found out later he worked 'till 3:00 AM, and he was woken up by the girls around 9:15. Not to worry I had coffee ready, and we had to leave the apartment by 10:00 anyway.
So by 10:45 we were in the car going down the road. We trusted the GPS to lead us to Sarlat, though we did have a conversation about our route. There were 3 main routes, and we picked the one keeping in mind what the owner of our Uzes apartment wrote to us. She recommended we try to fit in a stop in a place called "La Couvertoirade" when she wrote us the following in an email (the links are hers too):
La Couvertoirade (http://www.tourisme-aveyron.com/fr/decouvrir/incontournables/couvertoirade.php) right in the middle of the Causse du Larzarc. The village is beautiful, away from civilisation. It was created along the XII-XIIth centuries by the Order of the Knight Templars. The landscape on the Larzac is just gorgeous (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larzac).
Based off that recommendation, we programmed "La Courvertoirade" into our GPS and went down the road. It was amazing. That is really the only word to describe it. As we drove along, we zoomed on every type of road possible. And I mean that. We went on high ways. We went on cow paths. We went on super modern bridges. We went across bridges that were one lane in the middle of no where. On that 5-6 hour drive (which took us 'till 8:03 PM) Dan and I were awe-struck. I think we were mainly so pleased by the drive because we didn't know what to expect. The vistas were amazing. Just amazing! Mountains, rocks, cliffs, green oasis, farms, a few rivers, a few tiny towns -- it was all on this drive. Dan kept saying "look right!" "look left" - and I was thinking it would be fun to go back and do the whole drive again.
But naturally we had 2 goof-balls in the back seat. They found holding hands with each other more interesting than the view. Sara asked a million questions. Julia giggled, cried, laughed, slept. They asked for food, they asked for water, they asked for time to play. We gave them food, we gave them water, and we stopped at Mc Donalds to let them play.
Going to Mc. Donalds was actually perfect. After all this French-ness, it was good to be in somewhat familiar territory. But when I asked for a "Mc. Chicken, Diet Coke, and Petit Salad" (a choice on the picture menu) I had to say it 3 times before the cashier understood me. By the way it cost 7 Euros (!) and the chicken was okay, the diet coke actually had ice (the first ice of our trip) and the petit salad was restaurant quality. We repeated the order, once that first meal was gone, and this time we got fries instead of the salad. Our fries in the US are better. The girls *loved* the play area there. They smiled, laughed, and I swear Sara's feet hardly hit the foam-padded ground as she climbed, played, slid, and had the best fun ever. Julia got right in there too. She did fine playing around 2 older rambunctious boys. She held her own - never got knocked down, and she made me very proud by how adventurous and sure of her self she is. Once we were full of Mc. Donalds food, and used their bathrooms, we got back on the road. (That pit stop was 16 Euros.)
We took the tiny lanes, so tiny that sometimes Dan said, "no, the GPS must be crazy. We took roads that were more like bike paths - and they were for 2 way traffic. And they were curvy - and beautiful. I felt like you could film the whole thing and it would be an interesting movie.
The best views were in the Larzarc - (I think) since that is were it was so beautiful you had to rub your eyes. There were these sheer rock cliff-mountains jutting up all around, in the distance and also right along side of the road. And as we zig-zagged along the landscape I thought about how amazing France is. They have the Mediterranean stuff (with cities like Nice and near Monico); they have the French Alps (where we have skiied); they have wine country; they have wet lands in the Carmargue; they have gorges, they have river valleys --- it is an amazing country. And all for 20% less space then our state of Texas. We have 6 weeks here - and I feel like we are just scratching the surface of all the neat things to see and experience here.
When we finally got near "La Couvertoirade" we were hungry. Not the girls, but Dan and I. The girls had been eating a steady stream of baguette and were happy to fling them selves out of the car. "La Courvertoirade" was neat. It was kind of like a "hill town" where everything is out of rock/stone. There were a lot of tourists there. That is a switch for us since the places we've been are more local and not really shiny-happy tourist places.
We noticed a windmill and hiked up to it. Sara lead the way. She loves scampering up rocks - and I do mean UP. The grade must have been a 30-45 degree angle - where you have to really climb to take steps. Dan carried Julia. We enjoyed seeing the windmill up close when we got to the top and we paused to take in a 360 view of amazing landscape. It was green, rocky, and blue sky as far as the eye could see. Pinch me, am I dreaming?
We took our time with the walk up to the windmill, but Dan and I kept the visit to "La Couvertoirade" a bit speedy. It was so touristy (it was a neat place so I can see why) and didn't have good options for us to eat. We wandered around it's cute stone lanes, marveled that real Knights lived there - and left. The whole thing was 3 Euro, which was the parking fee.
Finding lunch was tricky. These places don't have food all day. If it is lunch time you can have lunch. If you are late, they will send you away. We were sent a way from 2 places. I was glad. I didn't want to spend the hour (or more) to have a sit down meal anyway. We ended up at the perfect thing. A cafeteria style meal place connected to a food supermarket type place. Within minutes of entering we had a plate of warm ham, carrots, and rice (8 Euro) and another plate of chicken, ratatouille, and pasta (8 Euro), and a plate of fruit (3 euro). We found a seat and ate. No waitress no fuss, just eating - it was exactly what we needed after being on the road - and wanting to get back on the road with out fuss.
After that the girls were quiet and we savored the landscape more. Though by this point the landscape was not as magnificent - it was more like rolling hills and stuff. Still pretty, but not unbelievably pretty like it had been. We arrived in Sarlat at 8:03, and met with our owner.
All the places we've been staying are on a site "homeaway" that I've used many, many, many times. I've used it both in Europe and in the US. This one is probably the best one - it is an oasis in the hills near Sarlat. It has a pool, a view, and is a house on a lot of land - but is also a 10 minute walk to town! The owner was lovely, and showed us around the property when we arrived. It has three bedrooms (a nice change from 2 bedrooms) and it has a dryer! The other places only had a washing machine for clothes and we let them air dry. You get crispy clothes that way - and your clothes take a while to dry. With a drier it is amazing! You have clean dry clothes so quickly! Oh, and we have a dishwasher here. We didn't have one for the last 2 weeks. There is something satisfying about cleaning up the kitchen and washing all the dishes, but I can know say that I'm fully satisfied - and I'm happy to have a dishwasher again.
We went right to bed after we got the girls into their PJs. No fuss. Although we did make Mac n' Cheese (that we brought all the way from home in the US!) for dinner. They ate every last bite.
Dan and I both went to sleep around 10 and it was a packed, memorable, long, crazy, wow, sort of day all wrapped up into one 17 hour day (for me).
Quote of the day:
Sara: "Mom! Can we play there! Look at that!" (Upon seeing the Mc Donalds play area.)
End of Post
(I don't re-read these - I hope what I wrote makes sense!)
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