Saturday 10.16.2010


Moving Day

There is one big concern with our rental house in Arles and that revolves around Friday night/Saturday morning and the ensuing Saturday market. There are very specific areas in front of the house where if one is parked there overnight, one will be towed away. There are signs in the house reminding us not to park where we shouldn't and all of our documentation for the house screams at us to be careful where we park. Apparently it is a big deal. We think concern number one was resolved in that we found a legal parking place on the other side of the road and since others were still parked there last night we "assume" we're ok.

Concern number two is that with the market people setting up on Saturday morning, will we be able to get out to get Pat to the airport? Yes. Pat and John take off at 7:20 to the airport in Marseilles for her 10:40 flight to Paris and on home. It is an hour drive into a Great Pumpkin sunrise over the hills above Marseilles and a flashy memory for Pat to take with her on the trip home. Au revoir Pat! The transition goes as smooth as possible and John gets back to the house at 9:15 where Mary has finished packing and is ready to go.


That brings up concern number three which is, will John get a place to park within a mile of our house with the market in full swing out the front door? The answer is "yes'" sort of. He parks like the French in that he pulls into an area that really blocks a little side road just up from our house, but he pretends that he has left enough room for someone to get by. He hasn't. M and J both hustle getting trash out to the dumpster and suitcases into the car before there is a roadblock uproar and they are sucessfully on the road within minutes. No reason for concern.

The Great Pumpkin sunrise has turned into another hazy but sunny cool morning as we head northwest through pretty flat farm country. Our destination is Sarlat just southwest of the center of France and we have an all day drive to get there. We stop for some supplies near Montpelier and take turns driving the next five hours. The sun gradually gives way to clouds and occassional drizzle and our farmland turns into low slung mountains and heavily rolling countryside that feels like our eastern mountains in Pennsylvania. On a clear day this would be a beautiful drive and even today it is pretty good. We stop at a rest stop on the motorway for a couple of pretty bad tuna sandwiches and turn up the heat in the car as the temp has dropped into the low forties.

Sarlat is in the center of goose and nut country, as in over-stuffed geese for foix gras and walnuts for everything else. There are walnut orchards (?) along every roadway and signs for farms where we can view the feeding of the geese and purchase a few tins of their product. Much more than anywhere else on our trip, this really feels like France. We have an easy check-in at our B&B with Amanda and Chris, a couple of fiftyish Bristish ex-pats who moved here for the climate. Our room is huge with a street view and a bathroom as big as many hotel rooms in Europe.


There is a square across the street that leads into the historic center of town. There are lots of people still milling around late on a Saturday afternoon and most of the shops are still open. If you would like to buy a supply of foix gras from the goose, from the duck, in combinations together, whipped into pates, or blended into spicy spreads, this is your spot. Or maybe walnut cake, candy, pastries, bread or any other conceivable thing "walnut", you won't go wrong here. There is still a spitting drizzle but for a change we don't mind and really think we will like this place.


Le Bistro de l'Octroi is a block from our new home and comes highly recommended. Most tables are reserved for the night which means we are hustled off to a small table somewhere between the door to the kitchen and the door to the toilette. Once again, Mary is not pleased since others after us are led upstaires to tables that she assumes are much better than ours. She seems to be done with French service. Anyway, she has a good shrimp risotto and John has the "Grand Plat" which is about 12 different things on one plate from salad to dessert including various goose and duck products. Very tasty. In spite of the lying, thieving, cheating waiter at our restaurant, we still think we will like Sarlat.


No TV in our room so it is reading and bed tonight.

Todays weather:  Sunny early turning to clouds and rain.  low 40, high 52