August 31, 2025 • 56 mins
Have you ever dreamed of exploring French villages at your own pace? In this episode, Village-Hopping in the Dordogne and Beyond: A Traveler’s Guide with Jackie Barnes, host Annie Sargent talks with traveler Jackie Barnes about her recent road trip through one of France’s most beautiful regions.
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Jackie shares how she and her family designed a flexible Dordogne road trip that let them visit charming towns, sample local food, and enjoy the landscape without feeling rushed. From famous stops like Sarlat and Rocamadour to less crowded villages along the river, Jackie explains what made each place special. She also talks about driving in rural France, finding parking in small towns, and the importance of leaving room in your schedule for spontaneous discoveries.
Annie and Jackie compare notes on French markets, restaurants, and the kind of authentic encounters that happen when you stay in smaller inns or gîtes instead of big hotels. They also highlight cultural differences, from the rhythm of French mealtimes to how Sundays feel completely different compared to North America.
This episode is packed with practical tips for anyone planning to go beyond Paris and explore provincial France. You’ll hear why renting a car is essential, how to balance sightseeing with relaxation, and which Dordogne villages Jackie would happily return to again.
If you are searching for advice on exploring the Dordogne, planning a Dordogne road trip, or simply want inspiration for your next journey to France, this conversation will help you see what’s possible.
Subscribe to the Join Us in France Travel Podcast to get weekly episodes with trip reports, itineraries, and deep dives into French culture and history. Don’t just visit France—experience it like a traveler who knows where to look.
Table of Contents for this Episode
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
This is Join Us in France, episode561, cinq cent soixante et un.
Bonjour, I'm Annie Sargent and Join Usin France is the podcast where we take
a conversational journey through thebeauty, culture, and flavors of France.
Today, I bring you a conversationwith Jackie Barnes about her
enchanting visit to the Dordogne.
(00:37):
She went village hopping, and not justthe Dordogne, she went further as well.
I think, you know, if you're dreamingof cobblestone streets and medieval
castles and wonderful local cuisine,you're going to enjoy this episode.
This podcast runs on chocolatine,caffeine, and the support
of lovely humans like you.
(00:57):
You book my itinerary consults,take my Voicemap tours, ride shotgun
in my electric car, come to theboot camp, or slip me a few euros
on Patreon, and I love you for it.
Want to keep me going and skip the ads?
There's a link for thatin the show notes as well.
And for everything else, headto joinusinfrance.com/boutique,
(01:20):
where you can purchase anyof my products or services.
For the magazine part of thepodcast, after my chat with Jackie
today, I'll discuss the Weekend duPatrimoine, or Heritage Days, and
how you can make the most of itif you're in Paris or in France.
If you'd like to find all the linksthat we discussed and the full episode
(01:44):
transcript for this episode, you'llfind everything on the page that
lists all the episodes by month.
It's at joinusinfrance.com/episodes.
And if you'd like a handy summary ofthe conversation with all the useful
links, subscribe to the newsletterat joinusinfrance.com/newsletter.
(02:04):
It is the best way to stay in the loop.
Bonjour, Jackie Barnes, andwelcome to Join Us in France.
Thank you.
How wonderful to talk to you todayabout your experiences in the
(02:25):
Plus Beaux Villages de France.
It was kind of the themeof your trip, wasn't it?
Yes.
I had gotten a book on the most beautifulvillages, and it had a map in it.
And I researched them and figured out anarea that I could hit a bunch of them,
and that's what my husband and I did.
All right.
And so when was this trip?
(02:47):
This trip was in March and April of 2022.
Oh, so it's been a while.
It's been a while.
But you know what?
The Plus Beaux Villagesdon't change that much.
Well, that's kind of what I was thinking.
You know, when you've been around sincethe 13th, 14th, 15th century, ah, there's
probably not a whole lot of change.
Okay.
So what made you choose this?
(03:08):
Is this because you had been toFrance a million times and you
didn't know what else to do?
Well, I had been to Paristwice, and I loved it.
I love planning driving vacations.
And my husband and I havetraveled a lot of the world
and most of the United States.
And I love planning car tripswhere you stay a few nights,
and so that's what we did.
I positioned ourselves in fourdifferent places, so we could see
(03:32):
the most Beaux Villages per minute.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
A lot of parts of France havesome, but they're kind of far and
few between, whereas in the areaswhere you went, the Aveyron and the
Dordogne, there are a lot of them.
Yeah.
That's why I picked that because I sawthe pictures, and I have a friend who
writes French, or France walking guides.
(03:56):
And I love walking in France.
And she had a walking route from Martelto, well, it started in Martel and ended
in Martel, and it goes on the GR trails.
I asked her like what was herfavorite towns, and so I had an idea
of where I wanted to go as well.
Oh, maybe you can tell us the name ofone of her books or something, so I
(04:16):
can put a link to it in the show notes.
Well, hers is Ilovewalkinginfrance.com,and sells walking guidebooks,
just PDFs and they're fantastic.
She is such a great person.
She lives in Australia, and we justfound each other on the internet
because of our love of travel.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I have to say that, I mean,nothing wrong with what she's doing,
(04:37):
because I don't know it and it'sprobably great, but there's also a
website that does this sort of thing.
It's called Komoot, and it's a Europeancompany that lists very good walks and
cycling paths and things like that.
Oh, okay.
And the advantage of a website is thatit's constantly updated because people
(05:02):
submit photos and opinions, and submittips about this particular trail.
To me, one of the most difficult thingsabout going to a trail or bike ride
or something is finding the trailhead.
Like sometimes it's not obvious, is it?
No, I agree.
No, and she, every vacation shetakes from Australia, usually once
(05:22):
a year, involves her walking eitherthe same GR to update her guidebooks
or new ones that she wants to do.
That's fantastic.
It is pretty cool.
That's great.
That's great.
Okay.
So you had chosen this part of France.
One other tidbit to get out of theway, did you find it ... So you like
driving vacations in general, is it verydifferent in France than in other parts
(05:48):
of the world where you've done this?
I think, well, because you'redriving on the same side of the
road as we do in the United States,and so that is not an issue.
We've driven all over Spain.
The only time that we ... you know, it wasIreland on the opposite side of the road
that... But really, my GPS worked well onmy phone and I use T-Mobile, I didn't have
(06:09):
to get a separate GPS and it only tookus off the beaten track once or twice.
We usually stay in Airbnbs, and so Icarry an extra bag that has my spices
and my foil and my plastic bags andcontainers to heat things up in.
It's the only bag we check.
So if it got lost, oh well.
But otherwise we just travel with carry-onin a backpack and we're ready to go.
(06:31):
And we're usually gone for, youknow, three, four weeks at a time.
Wow.
That's fantastic.
If you use Airbnbs, then obviouslyyou probably have a place to
wash your clothes most places.
Yes.
I look for that at least halfwaythrough a trip so that, you know
...Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Another good possibility, that I thinkis developing more and more in France,
(06:54):
but you wouldn't find them in a PlusBeaux Villages, would be aparthotel.
'Apart' is the beginning of apartament,but it's the hotel that's kind of like
an apartment because you have a commonkitchen and you have a ... Well, actually
maybe it's just a laundry that's common,but you have a small kitchen in your area.
(07:15):
You have a little desk, youhave more than a hotel room.
And it's not fancy, but for people whowant to cook their own meals and want to
do their own laundry... I mean, we alsohave laundromats in France as well, so...
Yes.
Well, and sometimes goingto the laundromat, I meet
some of the best people.
You meet locals and you meet othertourists, and so I don't mind doing that.
(07:39):
On this particular trip we stayed, andso we were four nights in each place,
so we really got a chance, I mean,it's like obviously it's not forever,
but four nights is a really nice...You have three full days to do things
and not have to move your things.
Yeah.
That's really good, if you had askedme before you went, I might have told
(08:00):
you, "Oh, that might be a long timeto go in," but if you have several
beautiful villages around where you'restaying... So did you typically stay
in one of the Plus Beaux Villages?
Yes.
The first one that westayed in was Sarlat.
And well, we took the train from Parisdown to, from Austerlitz to Brive-la-Gard?
(08:20):
Gailliard?
Brive-la-Gaillarde.
Thank you.
And then we rented a car from there.
And then we drove to Sarlat, andso that day we... it was actually
snowing in the end of March.
I know.
We have beautiful pictures.
There's nobody in Sarlat.
We stayed in a great Airbnb calledApartment Le Cardinal, and it was
(08:43):
on a little tiny square, and it wasreally, really a great place to stay.
There were only a few restaurantsopen in town, so our host told
us where to go eat dinner.
It had a small kitchen.
The next day was market day, so Iwent to the market and bought, oh,
strawberries from the strawberry lady.
Like, there's nothing like thestrawberry lady, and cheeses.
(09:06):
And I saw this huge thing of bread, andI thought, "We can't eat all that bread."
And they will cut how much you want.
And I was like, "This is, like, the best."
So anyway, we stayed in Sarlat for fournights and from there we took day trips.
So the first day we were just in Sarlat,because that was kind of our travel day.
And then we went out to our first BeauxVillage, which was La Roque Gagiac?
(09:29):
La Roque Gageac.
Okay, Gageac, thank you.
And so that we went inthe morning and, oh,
it was beautiful.
The wisteria was blooming even though ithad snowed the day before, overlooking the
Dordogne River, and it was a steep climbup, and we really, really wanted to canoe
(09:52):
that day, but it was still pretty cold.
So, they were renting canoes, but wewere like, "Nah, we're not going to do
that." But we were coming back to thearea later, so we knew that maybe if
the weather was better, we could return.
Which we did.
And so we hiked up to the top,overlooked the river, and again, there
were hardly any people, because that'swhat's nice about traveling in March.
(10:15):
Weather doesn't bother me, you know?
I'd rather travel withless people and bundle up.
That just... it's just the way I travel.
And so yeah, so we did that, andthen we went to Domme, or D-O-M-M-E.
Domme, yes.
We went to Domme, after we wentto La Roque, and again, high cliff
overlooking the Dordogne River.
(10:36):
And that's where we saw thegraffiti from the Knights
Templar, and that was really cool.
They were just carved in the walls,and the people in the town were
really nice to point out where it was.
There were a few restaurants open,and there were a few more people
because it was the afternoon, soit had warmed up a little bit.
So we had a nice lunchoverlooking the river.
(10:58):
We did not sit outside.
I would have liked to have,but that was not in the cards.
But the Knights Templar stuff, that'sin Domme, the Knights Templar were,
they were actually imprisoned there.
So I thought that was kind of interesting,and anyway, that dates back to 1307.
Sorry, that would be my... I'ma teacher, I was a teacher, so
I like to provide information.
(11:20):
And that was pretty much our whole day.
Hang on, hang on, I got to stop you forjust a second, because the strawberries...
Okay, so I was just in Paris, and oneof the things I did is, I wanted to
do something special for my patrons,and so I did a special walk that I'm
not going to do a VoiceMap of, I justwanted to walk it and give them details
of where I went and all of that.
(11:42):
And that included a couple offoodie streets, Rue des Martyrs,
Rue Cadet being two of them.
And they are very close together.
And on Rue des Martyrs, becauseit's a very popular... I mean, it's
a very famous street in Paris, Iactually saw strawberries for €40
(12:03):
a flat, which I was apoplectic.
So this was the first half of March,where... I don't know where they were
getting the strawberries from, becauseit's not strawberry season yet, right?
And so, just be careful, when youhear about fabulous strawberries in
France, if it's off season, they're notgoing to be that great at any price.
(12:25):
I have no idea, this lady was just sellingthem by the pint.... and my friend who
writes the guidebooks had said... I posteda picture, she goes, "Oh, my gosh, you
met the strawberry lady at the market."I said, "Yes." And they were red all
the way through, and they weren't big.
They were just a regular-sizedstrawberry, and they were so delicious.
And I try when I plan, I look to seewhen these towns are going to have
(12:48):
market days, because I do enjoy cooking,and I like to go to the... We're more
likely to eat lunch out than... and theneat dinner in if I can go to a market.
so anyway, the strawberries wereamazing, and that was the end
of March, beginning of April.
I don't care if they're hothouse, it didn't matter.
They were delicious.
Well, she probably has a greenhouse,because it would have been too... But
(13:11):
if she grows them herself, then theycome back every year, and she's babied
her strawberries because she can makea living out of that, and that's great.
But I mean, don't pay ridiculousprices, is what I'm trying to say.
Oh, no.
No, I think they were maybe likeeuro for a pint, or four euro.
Exactly.
So this was 2022.
By now, it's a little more.
(13:31):
Like, maybe six or seven euros for a pint.
But never 40.
That is not right.
No, that's ridiculous.
Yeah, yeah.
So anyway, that's just whatI... what I wanted to interject.
A lot of these places have wonderfulmarkets, and some of them are very
popular, like the one in Sarlat.
I discussed with one guy aboutthe price of his foie gras,
(13:53):
because it was very high.
And I was just like, " Are you justtrying to sell your foie gras to
visitors, because I'm never going to buyit at that price." And he just shrugged
and, "Ah, whatever." Yeah, well, youknow, it's... French people are very
price sensitive is what I'm saying.
And sometimes visitors arenot price sensitive enough.
(14:16):
For our own pocketbooks, I'm like, "Pleasedon't go paying, you know, outrageous
prices for things, because then wecan't afford them when we go after you."
Right.
That actually is areally, really good point.
Because sometimes as atourist, you're not sure.
I mean, I know what I pay at home forchicken, and so I tend to cook a lot
of chicken when I'm on the road, it'sjust easy, because it comes in parts.
(14:38):
Like, if I buy hamburger meat orsomething, then I have to say,
"Oh, how much is that and how manykilograms?" I'm like, "Oh, I don't know.
I don't know," Becauseof course we use pounds.
You know, a lot of it,I just buy vegetables.
I guess I'm not overpaying,because I never went like,
"Oh, wow, that's ridiculous."
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, that's... You can totally buythings that... without being ripped off.
(15:00):
But some places
...Right.
No, but that is good to know.
I've been in places where I go,"Well, I guess we're having..."
Well, I always carry peanut butterand jelly with me just in case.
And I go, "Well, guess whatwe're having for dinner
tonight?" My husband will laugh.
He goes, "Oh, peanut butterand jelly again?" I'm like,
"Yes, yes." On a croissant.
Yeah, on a croissant, it's not so bad.
(15:21):
Oh, it was the best.
It was the best.
But it was nice.
When we went out the nextday, we went to Château des
Milandes, Josephine Baker estate.
Oh, my gosh, the gardens there were great.
I loved the whole story.
It was well documented, andso I knew what was going on.
That's a particularly good one.
I mean, honestly, Château des Milandesis not to be missed, because it's kind
(15:44):
of old and dusty the way the museumis done, but it's very well done.
You see a lot of photos of herand her kids and her performances
and her dresses and all of that.
And also her participation in theFrench Resistance is also outlined.
She was just an outstanding person.
(16:05):
So, I think that one is not to be missed.
And they also have a bird show.
Yeah, I agree, and the garden was great.
Right, the garden's beautiful,and the bird show is fun.
They were not doing the birds that day.
We were just a little bit offseason, but I had read the reviews
on it, and it sounded really good.
Yeah, they don't do them everyday, and some of these birds, they
(16:27):
don't want to work when it's cold.
That's so funny.
So then in the afternoon, wewent to Castelnaud-la-Chapelle?
Yes, Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, yes.
We saw all the cool weapons.
We saw the trebuchet being launched.
So if you had kids, or your husbandreally likes armory stuff and weapons,
(16:52):
or you like armory stuff and weapons,that was... The view was spectacular,
and I would recommend going there justbecause it was really... It was well done.
And what was cool about that is... whatI had read about it was that it had
fallen into disrepair, they were actuallyusing it as a stone quarry until, I
guess, about the '60s or something.
(17:13):
I think it was about the '60s.
They decided they could make ita historical place, and so they
stopped ripping it down and theyrestored it, and I was glad they did.
It was worth going to see.
Yeah, and it is one where definitelythey emphasize the weaponry and the
war machines, and so if you want tosee that, the Castelnau is excellent.
Sometimes they do, like, wholefairs with kind of tournaments,
(17:38):
jousting, things like that.
Oh, cool.
But it's only on specific days whenthey know they're going to have a
big turnout, on school holidays,or vacation times or whatever.
Yes.
No, we saw school groups there, butthey were there basically to watch
the trebuchet launch, you know, thethings that they were launching.
You know, I mean, I'dlike anything so that's...
As a teacher, you probably noticed schoolgroups in lots of different places.
(18:02):
Yes, very much so.
French kids are lucky.
We get taken to a lot ofcool stuff with school.
Yes.
They really, really are lucky.
I look and go, "Oh, I wish, I wish."And then, another thing we did
from Sarlat that I loved and wouldrecommend, was we rented electric bikes.
We were probably the onlyidiots out there riding.
We bought garden glovesbecause our hands were so cold.
(18:25):
We didn't bring mittens with us.
But it's a flat trail, the Voie Verte.
La Voie Verte.
So there's a million of Voie Verte,I'm not sure which one you took.
It was from Sarlat?
Yes, it was from Sarlat to... ohgosh... Cazoules, C-A-Z-O-U-L-E-S.
(18:45):
Cazoules.
Okay.
Well, I'll look for it.
I'll try and find it andput in the show notes.
Okay.
It's a 29-kilometer one.
We did half because we were cold.
And so we stopped in Rouffouillac?!
Rouffouillac?
Yeah, Rouffouillac, and weate lunch at their restaurant.
They had a fire going in the fireplaceand... But the electric bikes,
(19:08):
we rented through Liberty Cycleand they're little... They have a
kiosk set up for people to rent thebikes, but we were probably the only
ones stupid enough to ride bikes.
So the guy just delivered them tous, met us, and then gave us his
phone number and said, "Call me whenyou're done and we'll come pick the
bikes up." And we said, "Well, okay."
Nice.
(19:28):
It was nice.
We stopped in a town and got some coffeeand then rode as far as we wanted.
They go through a... it's an oldrail line, and so you go through
a really long train tunnel.
So that was cool.
And the walnut treeswere starting to blossom.
And it's flat.
And on electric bikes, you know,it was like, "Okay, fine, we went
nine miles each way," or what is it?
(19:50):
15 kilometers each way.
And it wasn't exhausting at all, you know.
You just... Oh, and you stopand took pictures, you know,
stopped in little towns.
And so that was... I wouldrecommend that from Sarlat.
These Voie Verte are absolutely a gem.
We didn't have them when I was growing upin France, we didn't have them as a kid.
I love that we have those things.
And most towns in France, you canask if there's a Voie Verte...
(20:14):
Mm-hmm.
... and it's going to be the placewhere people go for either walking,
riding, walking their dogs.
On a Sunday afternoon,you see whole families.
And they might not be going very far,but they will just take an afternoon
stroll, you know, a 5K or something.
And it's just a very fun partof French life that city people
(20:36):
don't experience as much.
I mean, they can go to parks...
Right.
Right.
... but we have these places that willtake us somewhere, to another village
or to another town or something.
And often it's on old railways,which we have a lot of in France.
Yes.
Yes.
Well, and actually, in Texas,they've started doing that too
with some of their old rail lines,and it's called Rails to Trails.
(20:58):
You bring your bike and you can cyclefrom a town out to a state park and back.
I think everyone's trying tofigure out, "What do we do
with these leftover railways?"
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
And very often, you will have...somewhere, somebody can give you a map
that will show you where the restaurantsare, where the bathrooms are, where
you can refill water, things like that.
(21:19):
Usually, the local touristoffice can tell you.
If you're going to be on there longenough, you should find out these things.
For 15 kilometers, probablyyou can just wing it.
Yes.
Yeah.
Well, that we were like, "Okay, we'regoing to have lunch and we're going to
eat at this restaurant," because it'sthe first one that we saw that was open.
And they gave us the biggestmeal I have ever had.
And my husband, like, was... I'm like,"Honey, I think we have more courses."
(21:41):
And they just kept bringing it.
And I'm like, "Ugh." But it was delicious.
And we took some of it home andhad it for dinner, so no big deal.
Because I carried... I know this is bad.
I carry a plastic bag withme, because I know some
restaurants, they... I don't know.
Is this true or not?
They don't like to give you a takeaway?
Okay, so this has changed.
Okay.
(22:01):
Again, because French peopleare very much anti-gaspillage,
anti-gaspi is what we say between us.
They just say, "Well, it would make moresense to give people their leftovers."
And so some places they don't have,like, styrofoam boxes or whatever but
they'll wrap it up in some foil foryou, and you can take it home that way.
It's getting more and more common.
(22:22):
Well, I just... I took home one ofthe last courses to come was some
meat, and I just took a plastic bagout of my purse and my backpack, and
I just put it in there because I waslike, "I can't eat one more thing,
but I want to know what dessert is,"because I was going to eat that.
So we had some leftover meat fordinner, but it was a fun day.
(22:43):
That's great.
That's fantastic.
Did you run into any problemsbecause you don't speak French
from your own admission?
Was it difficult?
Because these are rural places.
Okay, my husband speaks basic French.
He can read it really well and if youspeak really slowly, he may be able
to, but my favorite one is we went intoa restaurant and he wanted to say, "I
(23:08):
have a great hunger," and so he saidsomething: "Oh, I have", let's see,
faim, and but, "I have a big hunger,"but he said, "I have a big wife," femme.
And the lady looked at him andlooked at me like, "Aren't you mad
that he's calling you big?" Andshe walked away kind of huffy, so
(23:30):
I said, "What did you say to her?"
He goes, "I don't know. Let me lookit up real quick." So we pulled up
Google Translate, and just said, andhe goes, "Oh, my gosh. I just said
I have a big wife." Or a big woman.
Faim et femme.
It's almost the same,but not quite, is it?
That's funny.
Right.
Exactly.
But anyway, no, I have found... Ithink I'm a pretty good traveler.
(23:54):
I have found that I never say,"That's not how we do it." You know?
I try really, really hard toenjoy the culture that I'm in.
If it's a slow-paced town, and I reallydo like those small towns, I try really
hard to just be slow-paced, and goand see and do, and be polite, and
know the please, thank you, excuse me.
(24:16):
Like, know those basicwords before I go anyplace.
And also, if you smile and pantomime,you can get just about everything.
Yeah.
I'm, like, really good with usingmy hands, and pointing to things.
And I'll use Google Translate if Ireally, like, if I'm checking into
an Airbnb or whatever, and I reallyneed to know something specific.
(24:39):
I'll just pull out the Google Translate.
Yeah, I can tell how you would get along.
I mean, you're a smiley, friendlyperson, and that's what it takes, really.
I try.
I don't even have to try.
I pretty much, that's my, you know...
That's who you are.
... they're like, you know, "Comeon, man." I'm like, "No, no.
Let's not be down," you know?
All our luggage was stolen in Italy onday three of a 20-day trip, eight women.
(25:01):
Yeah, that was hard.
And we just, you know, we figured it out.
But anyway, the next village wewent to was, is it Cahors or Cahors?
Cahors.
Cahors.
Oh, I was really wrong.
Cahors.
And Cahors is not a Beaux Villagesbecause it has too many people.
Yeah.
It's a big, it's a city,
Yeah.
It really is.
And so, but it was a great jumpingoff point, it's the birthplace of
(25:22):
Malbec, which I love Malbec wine.
That's one of my favorites.
And I didn't know that that was actuallywhere Malbec, it's not from South America.
And so I was very surprised the vineswent to South America from Cahors.
So I thought that was cool.
But we stopped on the way to Cahors,we stopped at Grotte de Font-de-Gaume.
It's the cave with the cave paintings.
(25:45):
Yeah.
Font-de-Gaume.
...Okay.
Yes.
But hang on, that's, that's in the
Dordogne, that's in Les Eyzies.
That was on the way from... We droveon the way from Sarlat to Cahors.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it's a littlebit out of the way.
Okay.
Yes.
And so we went there and they justhappened to have two tickets left because
their online ticketing wasn't working.
(26:05):
And so it was in French.
I didn't care.
I just wanted to see the cave paintings.
They only let 78 people in, 13 at a time.
So definitely you have to haveyour tickets ahead of time.
I enjoyed it.
I like, you know, all ofthat prehistoric stuff.
Yeah.
So, Font-de-Gaume is a bit tricky tovisit because they used to have big
problems with this reservation system.
They've made a little better, I think.
(26:28):
I wrote a blog post about howto get tickets to Font-de-Gaume.
If you go to joinusinfrance.com,there's a tab that says blog, and one
of the blog posts is specifically abouthow to get tickets to Font-de-Gaume.
I don't remember all thedetails, so I'm not going to
say something wrong here, but...
I just said, "Hey, you know, let's justgo in and see," because we couldn't
(26:50):
get the online tickets and somebody hadeither canceled or not showed up in time.
And so I just said, "Well, let'sgo. I don't care it's in French."
So the next day in Cahors, we didone of my favorite, favorite things,
which was the hike from Bouzies?
Bouzies.
To Saint-Cirq-Lau- La Popie?
(27:10):
Yeah.
Saint-Cirq-Lapopie.
Yes.
It's a 10 kilometersround trip, 6.2 miles.
It's flat until you hit the Cirq.
Saint-Cirq.
Oh my God.
And then it is not flat.
You've got to be kidding.
But the walk along the canal,we saw people on boats, and then
they have these beautiful artsculptures carved into the wall.
(27:35):
And the hiking is, it wasprobably one of my favorite walks.
I just absolutely loved doing it,and I would highly recommend it.
Yeah.
The other thing that's of interestin that area is the Pech Merle cave,
which is technically in Bouzies, Ithink, in the village of Bouzies.
I mean, although it's upthe hill a little ways.
(27:57):
And that's a painted cavethat you can also visit.
So when I take people in this area,I take them to the painted cave, then
to the walk, and then to Saint-Cirq.
I usually drive them to Saint-Cirq.
I mean, we do part of the walk.
The first part of the walk has allthe art and is very interesting.
And then after a while it's justa, you know, river, river, river.
(28:18):
So mostly we just, I just drive them.
But I'm, oh, hoofing.
I did it once.
I'm good.
I did it once.
Yeah.
No, no, I get that.
And if I were to bring my friendsback, I would do it again.
I lived in Las Vegas for a while,and when people would come,
they'd want to see the Hoover Dam.
I went twice and then I justsaid, I'll drop you off at the
(28:39):
bus station that will take you toHoover Dam." It's the same thing.
There's just things that you go, "Idon't want to see that again ever."
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, but it is beautiful andit's a very, very nice walk.
Yes.
And so both, Bouziesand Saint-Cirq-Lapopie
are both Beaux Villages.
So we got two for one in one day.
Oh, I didn't realize that Bouzieswas a Plus Beaux Villages.
(29:01):
I think that they hadjust gotten that status.
Okay.
Because they had signs kind of everywhere.
And I hadn't really investigatedit because it was not on my list
of like, "Oh, what else is thereto do?" It was a place to park
our car, to be honest with you.
Exactly.
They have a big, nice parking area.
And then I saw, you know, we wentacross this little tiny bridge and
(29:21):
then it was like, "Oh, well, wait,this is a Beaux Villages too." But
I didn't know what to do there.
And I knew that the hike was going totake us pretty much all day because
we spent a lot of time in Lapopie.
But I loved, I loved that.
Yeah.
And there's also boats that you can takebetween Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and Bouzies.
So you can also do it by boat.
Oh, okay.
Well, we just saw rented boats,like they were taking a vacation.
(29:46):
They got to go through the canal thing.
So we saw all that, the dams and stuff.
So that was kind of cool.
And then our next day, from Cahors,we went to Saint-Vincent-Rive-d'Olt.
Okay, that one I do not know.
Okay.
It is a tiny town with a beautifullittle river running through it,
(30:06):
and you could tell like it wasdefinitely a charming village.
I see why they picked it.
The streets were cute.
We just did a quick walkthrough, took somephotos because they had just beautiful
bridges and they had some flowersblooming and it was pretty gorgeous.
And then we went to two wineries thatday, Chateau Eugenie, and then my
favorite was La B-E-R-A-N-G-E-R-I-E,Berangerie, and it was a Malbec.
(30:35):
I showed up, I didn't knowI needed a reservation.
We just pulled up like maybe, you know,dumb tourists and the lady said, "Oh, I'll
see if my son can do a tasting right now."
And over the walkie-talkie her son said,"I am loading a truck right now for Paris,
mom, you know that. I can't do that."
So the owner invited us into herhouse and did a wine tasting with us
(30:57):
at her kitchen table just for the twoof us, and we got to meet her family.
It was one of those, you know, specialmoments that happens during a vacation
that you couldn't have planned it.
And, she said, "Oh, yeah, we'rejust really not open for that right
now and usually you call and makea reservation." I'm like, "I am so
(31:17):
sorry." And then we bought two cases ofwine and it was absolutely delicious.
I have a picture with her and shesaid, you know, "Oh, please come back
sometime and visit." And her Englishwas quite good, thank goodness, and it
was definitely a magic moment for us.
That's wonderful.
Yes, some of these wineries arehoity-toitys, and will not talk to
(31:40):
you unless you have a reservation,but some of them are really easygoing.
Like in the Southwest, you know, go,"Oh, we're not... We're simple people."
Right.
No, it was great.
And then in the afternoonwe went to Belcastel.
Yes, Belcastel yes.
That's gorgeous.
The reflection of the bridge onthe water was worth stopping for,
(32:02):
and cobbled streets and stone tileroofs and 15th century church.
And a nice, steep high walk as well.
Oh, yeah.
I just... I mean, Ireally got my exercise.
I really got my exercise.
Okay.
And then, the next day we droveout to Conques for one night.
We only spent one night there becausethere, we just really wanted to see the
(32:23):
Sainte-Foy abbey or church or whatever,and the gray stained-glass windows.
But the thing that I like the best are thereliquaries that are in the treasure room.
All over the world, I lovefinding the reliquaries.
When I was in Italy, I piecedtogether most of... I had Saint
Catherine's finger, her head,her... All in different churches.
(32:47):
And that's pretty terrible, but youknow, that's kind of one of my things.
I read a fascinating book.
There's a French historian, I mean,a legit historian, okay, she has a
PhD. She decided to do an inventoryof saints' bits and parts, and...
I would love her.
Yes, yes.
I don't know if her book havebeen translated, but she has
(33:10):
found out that there are, somesaints have a lot of fingers.
We can account for a lot offingers of saints, and a lot
of femur bones, and things.
Like, oh, they probably had fivelegs because we can... You know?
Right.
Everyone has a leg.
So, that's a very interesting hobby.
(33:33):
Well, what I also found was interestingwas that they stole some of the
reliquaries because Cahors, thecathedral wasn't on the Saint James
Route into Santiago, and so theywanted to be on the pilgrimage route.
And they sent the people out to steal thebones of Sainte-Foy and other reliquaries.
(33:55):
And so their treasure trove is fullof reliquaries stolen by priests.
And I thought that was just like, wow.
Yeah, just like, Let's just befamous," so... And it took them like
six years to do a- go undercover,and so I thought that that was cool.
And then the story of Sainte-Foy,you know, being 14, and she was
basically barbecued and beheaded.
(34:18):
It was pretty bad.
My husband had studied architectureand so that was one of the things
that he had studied was Conques,and he loves medieval history and...
Yeah.
So that's a beautiful, Romanesque church.
The church itself it's not very big.
It's one of those places thatis surprisingly accessible.
(34:39):
A lot of these villages are really notaccessible to people who have, you know,
limited mobility, wheelchairs, et cetera.
That one is pretty good.
So just want to mention it just in case.
Yeah.
No, because I did notice that there was,we stayed, and I'm not going to mention
the place we stayed because it wasn'tgreat, but it was at the bottom of the
(35:00):
hill so we drove up as far as we could gobut I did notice that up close there was
handicapped parking and there was, youknow, a nice grade that you could, you
know, get a wheelchair up or stairs toclimb, and so you are correct with that.
But, you know, I liked it.
Four nights in Sarlat and four nights inCahors and this was just one night, like
(35:21):
see the church and... so worth seeing.
Gray and white stained glasswindows, I had never seen anything
like that and it was interesting.
It was really interesting.
We left Cahors, we stoppedin Capdenac, C-A-P-D-E-N-A-C.
Okay.
And there were towers to climb andramparts to walk and fountains, and they
(35:42):
had a, and I would particularly likethis for children, they had a sensory
walk, and it was medicinal herbs and agarden of five senses, and they had a
big wall that held these little bambootubes where like all different insects.
They called it an insect department.
All the little insects were inside.
And we saw some kids there and they werejust, you know, pointing to things and
(36:06):
so I thought that was worth mentioning.
Anytime you have kids it's niceto know, oh, that would be a
cool place to take them and...
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's great.
And so I thought that that was cool.
And so then we spent four nightsin Martel, and I love that town.
I have a great picture of my husbandwalking back from the boulangerie
(36:27):
with a baguette under his arm,looking as French as he possibly can.
It was a great town and again,but we missed the market day.
I was like, "No, no,"but that, you know...
It happens.
We stayed at Evelyn's place.
It's an Airbnb, and I really enjoyed that.
They live next door, and then therewas an apartment with a washing
(36:49):
machine and a nice little kitchen,and the bedrooms were upstairs.
One bedroom for adults.
They had a bunk bedroom as well.
But they were just the sweetestpeople and spoke no English, and
I pantomimed my way through it.
We enjoyed their company.
We had a glass of winewith them one night.
And it was well located in thetown, like right around front of the
(37:10):
market where they have the market.
Martel is not a very touristytown, even though it's lovely.
No, I agree.
I liked it, it was a good jumping offpoint because, then we went to Rocamadour.
We made the big mistakeof parking at the bottom,
and then we walked and we walked, andthere is a tram that will take you,
but because we were kind of off season,the tram wasn't running frequently.
(37:34):
So we just like, "Okay, let'sjust walk this and then we can
eat more for lunch." And so, youknow, that was kind of our thought.
And then we get up to the levelwhere the town is and we realize...
Not done.
No, we're not done.
Not done, not done.
And the station for the cross andwalking up and... it was gorgeous.
(37:54):
The views, we would juststop and turn around.
The views and just the townstreets, and it's a little touristy.
You know, they do have a lot of, yeah, Icall them like T-shirt shops and all that.
It was absolutely UNESCO World HeritageSite and I could understand why.
So Rocamadour, you have totry and park at the top.
Drive up, and up, and up, and up asfar as you can and park up there,
(38:16):
and then they have elevators.
If you park at the bottom and youfind the elevators, I think you pay
15 bucks or whatever, and you canride the elevators all the way up or
all the way down or back and forth.
And it makes your life a lot easierbecause that is seriously steep.
Well, I ate a lot of bread that day...
There you go.
It's like, "Oh, I can eat that. Oh, Ican have an ice cream. I can..." Yeah, I
(38:38):
justified a lot of eating that day so...
That's how we do it.
Yes.
Yes.
Well, that is... I get that.
I get that.
So then we explored Martel.
They have seven towers andthat's what Martel is famous for.
But I wished I had been there duringtruffle season because evidently they
have a big truffle walnut festival,and I would want to go do that.
(39:00):
I would want to hunt trufflesand I love truffle flavor, so
that's... You know, that wouldbe something that I'd like to do.
So then we returned because we wereactually pretty close, and I told you
I wanted to canoe on the Dordogne sowe went back to La Roque Gagnac...
La Roque Gageac.
And the weather was beautiful that day.
We rented a canoe and so we could go by,we went by all of the cool places, you
(39:24):
know, the towns and things that ratherthan looking down, we were looking up.
And there was so muchcurrent to the river.
Honestly, we dipped our paddlesmaybe three times and just floated.
And then they met you at a place, youknow, they're like, "Oh, well, there's a
giant beach ball hanging out there. Justpaddle towards the shore," and then they
pick you up and take you back to your car.
And it was absolutelystunningly beautiful.
(39:46):
What was the company thatyou rented your boat from?
In that town La Roque Gajac, inthat town there are canoe companies
just right down by the river.
Okay.
Just pick one.
Yeah, pick one.
Pick one.
I think they all did the same thing.
And, you know, we picked the onewe picked because the guy smiled
at us and waved and he seemed nice.
(40:06):
And the price seemed like whatI would pay in the United States
with transportation to and from.
But it was really, really fun.
I definitely enjoyed that.
We also went to Gouffre de Padirac.
It's the underground cave.
The Gouffre de Padirac.
I would highly recommendthat for people with kids.
We went... honestly, itcouldn't have been any better.
(40:30):
There were hardly any people therewhich I can tell how many people
could possibly be there by how theyhave like, "Wait in this line, wait
in this line, wait in this line."
And we had a reservation.
We walked up.
Climbed down into the cave usingthe stairs and, oh my gosh, got
down there, it's magical under therewith the water and all the lights.
(40:51):
And in our boat there wasjust one other couple.
That was it.
Wow.
And you just floated along and the guidewas, you know, talking to us in French
and English and just talking aboutthe cave formations and I loved it.
So I would suggest, you know, going earlyin the day, having a reservation and
(41:11):
going at the beginning of April, like,not during Easter time or, you know?
Exactly.
Yeah.
So there are times in the year where youreally need a reservation for this one.
Other times, it's not sobad like you experienced.
I've only been there whenit was very, very mobbed.
And actually, one time we stoppedby hoping to get a ticket,
(41:31):
and we couldn't get a ticket.
So, it can happen that if you don't havea reservation, never mind, not today.
And I had no idea because theyhad us kind of in groups and so I
thought, oh, you know, this... itmight be... have a lot of people.
And then I got down there and I'mlike, I'm taking pictures of this
and there's nobody in the pictures.
I'm like, this is amazing.
Like I said, this was anamazing, amazing trip.
(41:54):
And after that we went toAutoire, A-U-T-O-I-R-E.
Okay.
And there's only 350 peoplethat live in this village.
And they have a waterfall hike.
And so we hiked up to the waterfalls.
We went through the little village.
They had some wine tasting and theyhad some cheese tasting places open.
(42:18):
You know, not much going on.
I saw a house that, if I was in the marketto buy a house, I would have bought it.
It was the most charming stonecottage, and it was so beautiful
and the people were very lovely.
And we had our peanut butter andjelly on a croissant in that village.
So I remember that because myhusband looked at me, he goes,
(42:39):
"This is the best peanut butterand jelly sandwich I've ever had."
Aw.
It happened to be on the way up, like,"Oh, we have to stop there. It's a
Beaux Villages." You know how youjust, you know, we were kind of...
I mean, I'd planned this around thevillages, so, you know, that was...
We're going to have to wrapup, I'm afraid, because we've
been talking a long time.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, the only one I want to mentionis, okay, we went to Carnac and
(43:02):
that was cool, but Collonges-Rouge.
Collonges-la-Rouge?
Yes.
The Red Village.
Oh, my gosh, I loved thatand we ate at La Maraicher?
Okay.
Anyway, I had the best duckburger in my entire life.
(43:24):
It was so good and I love the village.
And then our last one was Turenneand, that was, you could climb
up to the top and they had aFrench garden on top of the roof.
Turenne.
How do you spell that?
T-U-R-E-N-N-E.
Turenne.
Okay.
And so you parked and then you hiked upto the top of the castle and there was a
(43:45):
beautiful French garden up there and wetalked with the gardener, kind of talked.
And so I would highly recommend these.
Wonderful.
Wonderful.
It sounds like you had an amazing time.
Are you planning more trips to France?
Not yet.
Not yet.
I've got a couple othertrips I'm going to do.
Other places.
Yeah, other places.
I'll get back there because I havesome picked out in Southern France,
(44:06):
so that's... might be the next.
Wonderful.
And I like that you just stayedfour nights in each places.
You didn't try to rush.
You had plenty to do everywhere you went.
I mean, you didn't get bored, right?
No, and that's the whole thingis like, you have to look.
I mean, that's why itwas one night in Conques.
That's what we had to do.
But the other ones I'm like,you know, "Have a home base and
just keep coming back to it."
(44:26):
No, I wasn't bored.
As a matter of fact, I was like, "I wishwe had four more nights to do," because
I had a couple more Beaux Villagesthat were nearby that we didn't see.
But it was wonderful.
I love your country.
I really, really love your country.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Jackie, it's been adelight talking to you.
Thank you so much for sharing all of thatand well, whenever you come back I hope
(44:48):
you have just as good a time as last time.
I will.
I will.
And thank you so much andI love your walking map.
Oh, the VoiceMap stuff?
The VoiceMap of Montmartre is fantastic.
My husband and I did that when we werein Paris this last time and I will want
to go back and do the rest of yours.
Thank you.
And thank you for being you and puttingall your time and effort into this.
(45:10):
I appreciate that.
Thank you very much, Jackie, and bonvoyage, wherever that takes you next time.
Okay.
Thank you.
Bye-bye, Annie.
Au revoir.
Again, I want to thank my patrons forgiving back and supporting the show.
Patrons get several exclusiverewards for doing that, you can
(45:33):
see them at patreon.com/joinus.
I don't have any new patrons to thankthis week, but I'll be chatting with
all my current patrons on Zoom thisweekend, and that's always a fun time.
I would love for you to join them too.
(45:53):
You can do it for as little as $3 a month.
But if you can afford it, I would loveto have you pledge some more so you
can have access to more of the rewards.
And to support Elyse, goto patreon.com/elysart.
Every September, France celebratesLe Journée Européenne du
(46:15):
Patrimoine, or Heritage Weekend.
This year it will be on Saturday,September 20th and Sunday, September 21st.
And this year they havea theme, architecture.
It's a chance to step behind thedoors of places that are normally
closed to the public all overParis and every region in France.
(46:36):
Millions of people line up toexplore government buildings,
private mansions, museums, archives,even parts of the Elysee Palace.
And best of all, these visitsare free for that weekend.
I will not try to list every one ofthem, because every arrondissement
of Paris will have events.
(46:57):
Every city in France will do the same.
The list is very, very long.
Here's the thing.
Some of these visits are so popularthat the minute tickets become
available, they'll be sold out.
Those visits are free, butyou need a free ticket.
That's how they know how manypeople they're going to let in.
So if you're in France that weekend,my recommendation is that you start
(47:21):
searching for your particular town orarrondissement and select what you'd
like to visit, and keep searching forthat place, the name of the place,
and just say tickets and Journée duPatrimoine or something like this.
Most of these pages are not going tobe in English because, you know, it's
efemeris, it's just two days and there'snot much point translating a page that's
(47:44):
only relevant for two days, right?
So search in French and do it everyday until you find what you want.
You have to be determined toenjoy this really to the fullest.
Some highlights this year include inthe first arrondissement of Paris,
the gorgeous building of the Banque
(48:07):
de France, Le Palais Royal.
So there's severaladministrations in there.
La Cour d'Appel, and the Arcde Triomphe du Carrousel.
So that's fun because it's neveropen to the public, normally.
It's the small Arc deTriomphe by the Louvre.
La Comédie-Française is alsoopen, normally you can only see
some of it when you go to a show.
(48:27):
In the second arrondissement,La Tour Jean Sans Peur is fun.
La BNF and they're, it's usuallyopen some, but they open more things.
And then the third, theLycée Henri-Quatre, is going
to be open to the public.
And we've mentioned it a ton on thispodcast because it's a place where a
lot of very smart and famous people,French people went to high school.
(48:52):
You get me, there are 20arrondissements, I can't list them all.
But if you start Googling for theplaces nearest you or places that
you've heard might be open, don't giveup until you found something for you.
Heritage Weekend, Journée du Patrimoine,is one of the most exciting ways to
experience France, not just the postcardsites, but the hidden layers of history
(49:17):
that usually stay behind closed doors.
I know near me we have several chateausthat are never open to the public, but
one of the deals when they get publicmonies to help keep the chateau in good
repair is that they have to open it acertain number of days in the month, and
(49:41):
so that's why almost all the chateausin France that get public monies will
be open on the Journée du Patrimoine.
So it's worth checking and good luckgetting tickets, especially if you
want to go to the Elysee Palace.
Good luck with that.
So we had a kind of a scary/funexperience the last few weeks at my house.
(50:02):
We had an old fridge, it wasn't, wasn'tthat old, but it was an Electrolux fridge.
It's a French brand, shittiestfridge we've ever had, okay?
Just never buy an Electrolux fridge.
Anyway, it was not working properly.
It was giving us all sorts of problems,and so my husband decided, last time I was
in Spain he decided to get a new fridge.
(50:24):
And when they came to deliver this fridge,they removed the old one and tried to
put it in and they couldn't fit it in.
It's a standard 60 centimeter sizewidth, but it wasn't going in.
And the guy said, "I'msorry, we can't put it in.
What would you like us to do?" So he said,"Well, let's keep the old one and put the
(50:46):
new one in the garage, and when my wifecomes back, we'll see what we can do."
And in the meantime, I thoughtabout it, thought about it,
and mulled it over, whatever.
And then I decided, okay, I canscrape off a couple of millimeters
of... See how crazy I am?
Of... plaster.
But when I looked at it more carefully,that wasn't gonna happen, because...
(51:08):
well, because there's some metalbits, and there's some brick bits,
and I could scrape off plaster, butI cannot scrape off brick, okay?
I'm not that good.
Then my brother-in-law said, "Oh,you could..." I could put a... I had
a seven centimeter wall there, hesaid I could redo that piece of wall
(51:29):
and do just a five centimeter wall.
Okay, but then you have tomess with the baseboards.
You have to mess with thetile, ugh, it was just... yeah.
Or we could just redo that section ofthe kitchen, which is getting older.
It's probably 15 years old, butI just wasn't enthusiastic about
(51:50):
spending all that money on apart kitchen that's fine for now.
I mean, eventually, we're gonna haveto replace it, but for now it's okay.
So, a couple of nights ago, I told myhusband, "Okay, I want to try to shove
that thing in, because the delivery peoplecouldn't get it in, but maybe I can."
And I had been looking at thiswall very, very carefully.
(52:11):
In the meantime, we got rid of theold fridge and plugged in the new one
in a different part of the kitchen,where we didn't want it to stay, but
it was just a temporary solution.
And so we emptied the fridge, push it inthe right position, and I swear to God,
we pushed so hard to get that thing in,and we did it at an angle a little bit,
(52:35):
so that I thought if we can get it a fewmillimeters in at that angle, then we
can straighten it out and push it in.
Because the previous fridge was the samewidth, so there was no reason why this new
fridge, which is a Liebherr fridge, it's aGerman Liebherr fridge, much better brand.
And we've had a Liebherrfridge before, and it was good.
(52:56):
And we pushed and we shoved and weshook, and it took 20 minutes, but
we got that thing in, and it wassuch a relief to have the fridge.
And so it's very, very tight in there.
It has room in the back forventing, but it's a tight spot.
So there you have it, the adventures ofAnnie's kitchen, in France this time.
(53:18):
I'm stubborn.
That's probably why this podcaststill runs, is because I'm stubborn.
Once I get it in my head that I willdo something, I will do something,
including shoving a fridge intospace that's too small, according
to the professional delivery people.
I can't believe that when they weredoing the delivery, my husband tried
(53:42):
to argue with them to try harder,and he said, "Well, talk to my wife."
And I talked to them, and I couldn'ttalk them into trying any harder.
And if I had been there, maybeI could have been more menacing.
I don't know.
All right.
My thanks to podcast editors,Anne and Christian Cotovan,
who produced the transcripts.
Next week on the podcast, an episodewith Greg Furry that I'm calling Pont
(54:03):
du Gard, Dog Sleds, and a Dash ofChaos, with returning guest Greg Furry.
It was a great conversation.
Thank you so much for listening,and I hope you join me next time so
we can look around France together.
Au revoir!
The Join Us in France travelpodcast is written, hosted, and
(54:24):
produced by Annie Sargent, andCopyright 2025 by AddictedToFrance.
It is released under a CreativeCommons attribution, non-commercial,
no derivatives license.
This is Join Us in France, episode561, cinq cent soixante et un.
Bonjour, I'm Annie Sargent and Join Usin France is the podcast where we take
a conversational journey through thebeauty, culture, and flavors of France.
Today, I bring you a conversationwith Jackie Barnes about her
enchanting visit to the Dordogne.
(00:37):
She went village hopping, and not justthe Dordogne, she went further as well.
I think, you know, if you're dreamingof cobblestone streets and medieval
castles and wonderful local cuisine,you're going to enjoy this episode.
This podcast runs on chocolatine,caffeine, and the support
of lovely humans like you.
(00:57):
You book my itinerary consults,take my Voicemap tours, ride shotgun
in my electric car, come to theboot camp, or slip me a few euros
on Patreon, and I love you for it.
Want to keep me going and skip the ads?
There's a link for thatin the show notes as well.
And for everything else, headto joinusinfrance.com/boutique,
(01:20):
where you can purchase anyof my products or services.
For the magazine part of thepodcast, after my chat with Jackie
today, I'll discuss the Weekend duPatrimoine, or Heritage Days, and
how you can make the most of itif you're in Paris or in France.
If you'd like to find all the linksthat we discussed and the full episode
(01:44):
transcript for this episode, you'llfind everything on the page that
lists all the episodes by month.
It's at joinusinfrance.com/episodes.
And if you'd like a handy summary ofthe conversation with all the useful
links, subscribe to the newsletterat joinusinfrance.com/newsletter.
(02:04):
It is the best way to stay in the loop.
Bonjour, Jackie Barnes, andwelcome to Join Us in France.
Thank you.
How wonderful to talk to you todayabout your experiences in the
(02:25):
Plus Beaux Villages de France.
It was kind of the themeof your trip, wasn't it?
Yes.
I had gotten a book on the most beautifulvillages, and it had a map in it.
And I researched them and figured out anarea that I could hit a bunch of them,
and that's what my husband and I did.
All right.
And so when was this trip?
(02:47):
This trip was in March and April of 2022.
Oh, so it's been a while.
It's been a while.
But you know what?
The Plus Beaux Villagesdon't change that much.
Well, that's kind of what I was thinking.
You know, when you've been around sincethe 13th, 14th, 15th century, ah, there's
probably not a whole lot of change.
Okay.
So what made you choose this?
(03:08):
Is this because you had been toFrance a million times and you
didn't know what else to do?
Well, I had been to Paristwice, and I loved it.
I love planning driving vacations.
And my husband and I havetraveled a lot of the world
and most of the United States.
And I love planning car tripswhere you stay a few nights,
and so that's what we did.
I positioned ourselves in fourdifferent places, so we could see
(03:32):
the most Beaux Villages per minute.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
A lot of parts of France havesome, but they're kind of far and
few between, whereas in the areaswhere you went, the Aveyron and the
Dordogne, there are a lot of them.
Yeah.
That's why I picked that because I sawthe pictures, and I have a friend who
writes French, or France walking guides.
(03:56):
And I love walking in France.
And she had a walking route from Martelto, well, it started in Martel and ended
in Martel, and it goes on the GR trails.
I asked her like what was herfavorite towns, and so I had an idea
of where I wanted to go as well.
Oh, maybe you can tell us the name ofone of her books or something, so I
(04:16):
can put a link to it in the show notes.
Well, hers is Ilovewalkinginfrance.com,and sells walking guidebooks,
just PDFs and they're fantastic.
She is such a great person.
She lives in Australia, and we justfound each other on the internet
because of our love of travel.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I have to say that, I mean,nothing wrong with what she's doing,
(04:37):
because I don't know it and it'sprobably great, but there's also a
website that does this sort of thing.
It's called Komoot, and it's a Europeancompany that lists very good walks and
cycling paths and things like that.
Oh, okay.
And the advantage of a website is thatit's constantly updated because people
(05:02):
submit photos and opinions, and submittips about this particular trail.
To me, one of the most difficult thingsabout going to a trail or bike ride
or something is finding the trailhead.
Like sometimes it's not obvious, is it?
No, I agree.
No, and she, every vacation shetakes from Australia, usually once
(05:22):
a year, involves her walking eitherthe same GR to update her guidebooks
or new ones that she wants to do.
That's fantastic.
It is pretty cool.
That's great.
That's great.
Okay.
So you had chosen this part of France.
One other tidbit to get out of theway, did you find it ... So you like
driving vacations in general, is it verydifferent in France than in other parts
(05:48):
of the world where you've done this?
I think, well, because you'redriving on the same side of the
road as we do in the United States,and so that is not an issue.
We've driven all over Spain.
The only time that we ... you know, it wasIreland on the opposite side of the road
that... But really, my GPS worked well onmy phone and I use T-Mobile, I didn't have
(06:09):
to get a separate GPS and it only tookus off the beaten track once or twice.
We usually stay in Airbnbs, and so Icarry an extra bag that has my spices
and my foil and my plastic bags andcontainers to heat things up in.
It's the only bag we check.
So if it got lost, oh well.
But otherwise we just travel with carry-onin a backpack and we're ready to go.
(06:31):
And we're usually gone for, youknow, three, four weeks at a time.
Wow.
That's fantastic.
If you use Airbnbs, then obviouslyyou probably have a place to
wash your clothes most places.
Yes.
I look for that at least halfwaythrough a trip so that, you know
...Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Another good possibility, that I thinkis developing more and more in France,
(06:54):
but you wouldn't find them in a PlusBeaux Villages, would be aparthotel.
'Apart' is the beginning of apartament,but it's the hotel that's kind of like
an apartment because you have a commonkitchen and you have a ... Well, actually
maybe it's just a laundry that's common,but you have a small kitchen in your area.
(07:15):
You have a little desk, youhave more than a hotel room.
And it's not fancy, but for people whowant to cook their own meals and want to
do their own laundry... I mean, we alsohave laundromats in France as well, so...
Yes.
Well, and sometimes goingto the laundromat, I meet
some of the best people.
You meet locals and you meet othertourists, and so I don't mind doing that.
(07:39):
On this particular trip we stayed, andso we were four nights in each place,
so we really got a chance, I mean,it's like obviously it's not forever,
but four nights is a really nice...You have three full days to do things
and not have to move your things.
Yeah.
That's really good, if you had askedme before you went, I might have told
(08:00):
you, "Oh, that might be a long timeto go in," but if you have several
beautiful villages around where you'restaying... So did you typically stay
in one of the Plus Beaux Villages?
Yes.
The first one that westayed in was Sarlat.
And well, we took the train from Parisdown to, from Austerlitz to Brive-la-Gard?
(08:20):
Gailliard?
Brive-la-Gaillarde.
Thank you.
And then we rented a car from there.
And then we drove to Sarlat, andso that day we... it was actually
snowing in the end of March.
I know.
We have beautiful pictures.
There's nobody in Sarlat.
We stayed in a great Airbnb calledApartment Le Cardinal, and it was
(08:43):
on a little tiny square, and it wasreally, really a great place to stay.
There were only a few restaurantsopen in town, so our host told
us where to go eat dinner.
It had a small kitchen.
The next day was market day, so Iwent to the market and bought, oh,
strawberries from the strawberry lady.
Like, there's nothing like thestrawberry lady, and cheeses.
(09:06):
And I saw this huge thing of bread, andI thought, "We can't eat all that bread."
And they will cut how much you want.
And I was like, "This is, like, the best."
So anyway, we stayed in Sarlat for fournights and from there we took day trips.
So the first day we were just in Sarlat,because that was kind of our travel day.
And then we went out to our first BeauxVillage, which was La Roque Gagiac?
(09:29):
La Roque Gageac.
Okay, Gageac, thank you.
And so that we went inthe morning and, oh,
it was beautiful.
The wisteria was blooming even though ithad snowed the day before, overlooking the
Dordogne River, and it was a steep climbup, and we really, really wanted to canoe
(09:52):
that day, but it was still pretty cold.
So, they were renting canoes, but wewere like, "Nah, we're not going to do
that." But we were coming back to thearea later, so we knew that maybe if
the weather was better, we could return.
Which we did.
And so we hiked up to the top,overlooked the river, and again, there
were hardly any people, because that'swhat's nice about traveling in March.
(10:15):
Weather doesn't bother me, you know?
I'd rather travel withless people and bundle up.
That just... it's just the way I travel.
And so yeah, so we did that, andthen we went to Domme, or D-O-M-M-E.
Domme, yes.
We went to Domme, after we wentto La Roque, and again, high cliff
overlooking the Dordogne River.
(10:36):
And that's where we saw thegraffiti from the Knights
Templar, and that was really cool.
They were just carved in the walls,and the people in the town were
really nice to point out where it was.
There were a few restaurants open,and there were a few more people
because it was the afternoon, soit had warmed up a little bit.
So we had a nice lunchoverlooking the river.
(10:58):
We did not sit outside.
I would have liked to have,but that was not in the cards.
But the Knights Templar stuff, that'sin Domme, the Knights Templar were,
they were actually imprisoned there.
So I thought that was kind of interesting,and anyway, that dates back to 1307.
Sorry, that would be my... I'ma teacher, I was a teacher, so
I like to provide information.
(11:20):
And that was pretty much our whole day.
Hang on, hang on, I got to stop you forjust a second, because the strawberries...
Okay, so I was just in Paris, and oneof the things I did is, I wanted to
do something special for my patrons,and so I did a special walk that I'm
not going to do a VoiceMap of, I justwanted to walk it and give them details
of where I went and all of that.
(11:42):
And that included a couple offoodie streets, Rue des Martyrs,
Rue Cadet being two of them.
And they are very close together.
And on Rue des Martyrs, becauseit's a very popular... I mean, it's
a very famous street in Paris, Iactually saw strawberries for €40
(12:03):
a flat, which I was apoplectic.
So this was the first half of March,where... I don't know where they were
getting the strawberries from, becauseit's not strawberry season yet, right?
And so, just be careful, when youhear about fabulous strawberries in
France, if it's off season, they're notgoing to be that great at any price.
(12:25):
I have no idea, this lady was just sellingthem by the pint.... and my friend who
writes the guidebooks had said... I posteda picture, she goes, "Oh, my gosh, you
met the strawberry lady at the market."I said, "Yes." And they were red all
the way through, and they weren't big.
They were just a regular-sizedstrawberry, and they were so delicious.
And I try when I plan, I look to seewhen these towns are going to have
(12:48):
market days, because I do enjoy cooking,and I like to go to the... We're more
likely to eat lunch out than... and theneat dinner in if I can go to a market.
so anyway, the strawberries wereamazing, and that was the end
of March, beginning of April.
I don't care if they're hothouse, it didn't matter.
They were delicious.
Well, she probably has a greenhouse,because it would have been too... But
(13:11):
if she grows them herself, then theycome back every year, and she's babied
her strawberries because she can makea living out of that, and that's great.
But I mean, don't pay ridiculousprices, is what I'm trying to say.
Oh, no.
No, I think they were maybe likeeuro for a pint, or four euro.
Exactly.
So this was 2022.
By now, it's a little more.
(13:31):
Like, maybe six or seven euros for a pint.
But never 40.
That is not right.
No, that's ridiculous.
Yeah, yeah.
So anyway, that's just whatI... what I wanted to interject.
A lot of these places have wonderfulmarkets, and some of them are very
popular, like the one in Sarlat.
I discussed with one guy aboutthe price of his foie gras,
(13:53):
because it was very high.
And I was just like, " Are you justtrying to sell your foie gras to
visitors, because I'm never going to buyit at that price." And he just shrugged
and, "Ah, whatever." Yeah, well, youknow, it's... French people are very
price sensitive is what I'm saying.
And sometimes visitors arenot price sensitive enough.
(14:16):
For our own pocketbooks, I'm like, "Pleasedon't go paying, you know, outrageous
prices for things, because then wecan't afford them when we go after you."
Right.
That actually is areally, really good point.
Because sometimes as atourist, you're not sure.
I mean, I know what I pay at home forchicken, and so I tend to cook a lot
of chicken when I'm on the road, it'sjust easy, because it comes in parts.
(14:38):
Like, if I buy hamburger meat orsomething, then I have to say,
"Oh, how much is that and how manykilograms?" I'm like, "Oh, I don't know.
I don't know," Becauseof course we use pounds.
You know, a lot of it,I just buy vegetables.
I guess I'm not overpaying,because I never went like,
"Oh, wow, that's ridiculous."
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, that's... You can totally buythings that... without being ripped off.
(15:00):
But some places
...Right.
No, but that is good to know.
I've been in places where I go,"Well, I guess we're having..."
Well, I always carry peanut butterand jelly with me just in case.
And I go, "Well, guess whatwe're having for dinner
tonight?" My husband will laugh.
He goes, "Oh, peanut butterand jelly again?" I'm like,
"Yes, yes." On a croissant.
Yeah, on a croissant, it's not so bad.
(15:21):
Oh, it was the best.
It was the best.
But it was nice.
When we went out the nextday, we went to Château des
Milandes, Josephine Baker estate.
Oh, my gosh, the gardens there were great.
I loved the whole story.
It was well documented, andso I knew what was going on.
That's a particularly good one.
I mean, honestly, Château des Milandesis not to be missed, because it's kind
(15:44):
of old and dusty the way the museumis done, but it's very well done.
You see a lot of photos of herand her kids and her performances
and her dresses and all of that.
And also her participation in theFrench Resistance is also outlined.
She was just an outstanding person.
(16:05):
So, I think that one is not to be missed.
And they also have a bird show.
Yeah, I agree, and the garden was great.
Right, the garden's beautiful,and the bird show is fun.
They were not doing the birds that day.
We were just a little bit offseason, but I had read the reviews
on it, and it sounded really good.
Yeah, they don't do them everyday, and some of these birds, they
(16:27):
don't want to work when it's cold.
That's so funny.
So then in the afternoon, wewent to Castelnaud-la-Chapelle?
Yes, Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, yes.
We saw all the cool weapons.
We saw the trebuchet being launched.
So if you had kids, or your husbandreally likes armory stuff and weapons,
(16:52):
or you like armory stuff and weapons,that was... The view was spectacular,
and I would recommend going there justbecause it was really... It was well done.
And what was cool about that is... whatI had read about it was that it had
fallen into disrepair, they were actuallyusing it as a stone quarry until, I
guess, about the '60s or something.
(17:13):
I think it was about the '60s.
They decided they could make ita historical place, and so they
stopped ripping it down and theyrestored it, and I was glad they did.
It was worth going to see.
Yeah, and it is one where definitelythey emphasize the weaponry and the
war machines, and so if you want tosee that, the Castelnau is excellent.
Sometimes they do, like, wholefairs with kind of tournaments,
(17:38):
jousting, things like that.
Oh, cool.
But it's only on specific days whenthey know they're going to have a
big turnout, on school holidays,or vacation times or whatever.
Yes.
No, we saw school groups there, butthey were there basically to watch
the trebuchet launch, you know, thethings that they were launching.
You know, I mean, I'dlike anything so that's...
As a teacher, you probably noticed schoolgroups in lots of different places.
(18:02):
Yes, very much so.
French kids are lucky.
We get taken to a lot ofcool stuff with school.
Yes.
They really, really are lucky.
I look and go, "Oh, I wish, I wish."And then, another thing we did
from Sarlat that I loved and wouldrecommend, was we rented electric bikes.
We were probably the onlyidiots out there riding.
We bought garden glovesbecause our hands were so cold.
(18:25):
We didn't bring mittens with us.
But it's a flat trail, the Voie Verte.
La Voie Verte.
So there's a million of Voie Verte,I'm not sure which one you took.
It was from Sarlat?
Yes, it was from Sarlat to... ohgosh... Cazoules, C-A-Z-O-U-L-E-S.
(18:45):
Cazoules.
Okay.
Well, I'll look for it.
I'll try and find it andput in the show notes.
Okay.
It's a 29-kilometer one.
We did half because we were cold.
And so we stopped in Rouffouillac?!
Rouffouillac?
Yeah, Rouffouillac, and weate lunch at their restaurant.
They had a fire going in the fireplaceand... But the electric bikes,
(19:08):
we rented through Liberty Cycleand they're little... They have a
kiosk set up for people to rent thebikes, but we were probably the only
ones stupid enough to ride bikes.
So the guy just delivered them tous, met us, and then gave us his
phone number and said, "Call me whenyou're done and we'll come pick the
bikes up." And we said, "Well, okay."
Nice.
(19:28):
It was nice.
We stopped in a town and got some coffeeand then rode as far as we wanted.
They go through a... it's an oldrail line, and so you go through
a really long train tunnel.
So that was cool.
And the walnut treeswere starting to blossom.
And it's flat.
And on electric bikes, you know,it was like, "Okay, fine, we went
nine miles each way," or what is it?
(19:50):
15 kilometers each way.
And it wasn't exhausting at all, you know.
You just... Oh, and you stopand took pictures, you know,
stopped in little towns.
And so that was... I wouldrecommend that from Sarlat.
These Voie Verte are absolutely a gem.
We didn't have them when I was growing upin France, we didn't have them as a kid.
I love that we have those things.
And most towns in France, you canask if there's a Voie Verte...
(20:14):
Mm-hmm.
... and it's going to be the placewhere people go for either walking,
riding, walking their dogs.
On a Sunday afternoon,you see whole families.
And they might not be going very far,but they will just take an afternoon
stroll, you know, a 5K or something.
And it's just a very fun partof French life that city people
(20:36):
don't experience as much.
I mean, they can go to parks...
Right.
Right.
... but we have these places that willtake us somewhere, to another village
or to another town or something.
And often it's on old railways,which we have a lot of in France.
Yes.
Yes.
Well, and actually, in Texas,they've started doing that too
with some of their old rail lines,and it's called Rails to Trails.
(20:58):
You bring your bike and you can cyclefrom a town out to a state park and back.
I think everyone's trying tofigure out, "What do we do
with these leftover railways?"
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
And very often, you will have...somewhere, somebody can give you a map
that will show you where the restaurantsare, where the bathrooms are, where
you can refill water, things like that.
(21:19):
Usually, the local touristoffice can tell you.
If you're going to be on there longenough, you should find out these things.
For 15 kilometers, probablyyou can just wing it.
Yes.
Yeah.
Well, that we were like, "Okay, we'regoing to have lunch and we're going to
eat at this restaurant," because it'sthe first one that we saw that was open.
And they gave us the biggestmeal I have ever had.
And my husband, like, was... I'm like,"Honey, I think we have more courses."
(21:41):
And they just kept bringing it.
And I'm like, "Ugh." But it was delicious.
And we took some of it home andhad it for dinner, so no big deal.
Because I carried... I know this is bad.
I carry a plastic bag withme, because I know some
restaurants, they... I don't know.
Is this true or not?
They don't like to give you a takeaway?
Okay, so this has changed.
Okay.
(22:01):
Again, because French peopleare very much anti-gaspillage,
anti-gaspi is what we say between us.
They just say, "Well, it would make moresense to give people their leftovers."
And so some places they don't have,like, styrofoam boxes or whatever but
they'll wrap it up in some foil foryou, and you can take it home that way.
It's getting more and more common.
(22:22):
Well, I just... I took home one ofthe last courses to come was some
meat, and I just took a plastic bagout of my purse and my backpack, and
I just put it in there because I waslike, "I can't eat one more thing,
but I want to know what dessert is,"because I was going to eat that.
So we had some leftover meat fordinner, but it was a fun day.
(22:43):
That's great.
That's fantastic.
Did you run into any problemsbecause you don't speak French
from your own admission?
Was it difficult?
Because these are rural places.
Okay, my husband speaks basic French.
He can read it really well and if youspeak really slowly, he may be able
to, but my favorite one is we went intoa restaurant and he wanted to say, "I
(23:08):
have a great hunger," and so he saidsomething: "Oh, I have", let's see,
faim, and but, "I have a big hunger,"but he said, "I have a big wife," femme.
And the lady looked at him andlooked at me like, "Aren't you mad
that he's calling you big?" Andshe walked away kind of huffy, so
(23:30):
I said, "What did you say to her?"
He goes, "I don't know. Let me lookit up real quick." So we pulled up
Google Translate, and just said, andhe goes, "Oh, my gosh. I just said
I have a big wife." Or a big woman.
Faim et femme.
It's almost the same,but not quite, is it?
That's funny.
Right.
Exactly.
But anyway, no, I have found... Ithink I'm a pretty good traveler.
(23:54):
I have found that I never say,"That's not how we do it." You know?
I try really, really hard toenjoy the culture that I'm in.
If it's a slow-paced town, and I reallydo like those small towns, I try really
hard to just be slow-paced, and goand see and do, and be polite, and
know the please, thank you, excuse me.
(24:16):
Like, know those basicwords before I go anyplace.
And also, if you smile and pantomime,you can get just about everything.
Yeah.
I'm, like, really good with usingmy hands, and pointing to things.
And I'll use Google Translate if Ireally, like, if I'm checking into
an Airbnb or whatever, and I reallyneed to know something specific.
(24:39):
I'll just pull out the Google Translate.
Yeah, I can tell how you would get along.
I mean, you're a smiley, friendlyperson, and that's what it takes, really.
I try.
I don't even have to try.
I pretty much, that's my, you know...
That's who you are.
... they're like, you know, "Comeon, man." I'm like, "No, no.
Let's not be down," you know?
All our luggage was stolen in Italy onday three of a 20-day trip, eight women.
(25:01):
Yeah, that was hard.
And we just, you know, we figured it out.
But anyway, the next village wewent to was, is it Cahors or Cahors?
Cahors.
Cahors.
Oh, I was really wrong.
Cahors.
And Cahors is not a Beaux Villagesbecause it has too many people.
Yeah.
It's a big, it's a city,
Yeah.
It really is.
And so, but it was a great jumpingoff point, it's the birthplace of
(25:22):
Malbec, which I love Malbec wine.
That's one of my favorites.
And I didn't know that that was actuallywhere Malbec, it's not from South America.
And so I was very surprised the vineswent to South America from Cahors.
So I thought that was cool.
But we stopped on the way to Cahors,we stopped at Grotte de Font-de-Gaume.
It's the cave with the cave paintings.
(25:45):
Yeah.
Font-de-Gaume.
...Okay.
Yes.
But hang on, that's, that's in the
Dordogne, that's in Les Eyzies.
That was on the way from... We droveon the way from Sarlat to Cahors.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it's a littlebit out of the way.
Okay.
Yes.
And so we went there and they justhappened to have two tickets left because
their online ticketing wasn't working.
(26:05):
And so it was in French.
I didn't care.
I just wanted to see the cave paintings.
They only let 78 people in, 13 at a time.
So definitely you have to haveyour tickets ahead of time.
I enjoyed it.
I like, you know, all ofthat prehistoric stuff.
Yeah.
So, Font-de-Gaume is a bit tricky tovisit because they used to have big
problems with this reservation system.
They've made a little better, I think.
(26:28):
I wrote a blog post about howto get tickets to Font-de-Gaume.
If you go to joinusinfrance.com,there's a tab that says blog, and one
of the blog posts is specifically abouthow to get tickets to Font-de-Gaume.
I don't remember all thedetails, so I'm not going to
say something wrong here, but...
I just said, "Hey, you know, let's justgo in and see," because we couldn't
(26:50):
get the online tickets and somebody hadeither canceled or not showed up in time.
And so I just said, "Well, let'sgo. I don't care it's in French."
So the next day in Cahors, we didone of my favorite, favorite things,
which was the hike from Bouzies?
Bouzies.
To Saint-Cirq-Lau- La Popie?
(27:10):
Yeah.
Saint-Cirq-Lapopie.
Yes.
It's a 10 kilometersround trip, 6.2 miles.
It's flat until you hit the Cirq.
Saint-Cirq.
Oh my God.
And then it is not flat.
You've got to be kidding.
But the walk along the canal,we saw people on boats, and then
they have these beautiful artsculptures carved into the wall.
(27:35):
And the hiking is, it wasprobably one of my favorite walks.
I just absolutely loved doing it,and I would highly recommend it.
Yeah.
The other thing that's of interestin that area is the Pech Merle cave,
which is technically in Bouzies, Ithink, in the village of Bouzies.
I mean, although it's upthe hill a little ways.
(27:57):
And that's a painted cavethat you can also visit.
So when I take people in this area,I take them to the painted cave, then
to the walk, and then to Saint-Cirq.
I usually drive them to Saint-Cirq.
I mean, we do part of the walk.
The first part of the walk has allthe art and is very interesting.
And then after a while it's justa, you know, river, river, river.
(28:18):
So mostly we just, I just drive them.
But I'm, oh, hoofing.
I did it once.
I'm good.
I did it once.
Yeah.
No, no, I get that.
And if I were to bring my friendsback, I would do it again.
I lived in Las Vegas for a while,and when people would come,
they'd want to see the Hoover Dam.
I went twice and then I justsaid, I'll drop you off at the
(28:39):
bus station that will take you toHoover Dam." It's the same thing.
There's just things that you go, "Idon't want to see that again ever."
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, but it is beautiful andit's a very, very nice walk.
Yes.
And so both, Bouziesand Saint-Cirq-Lapopie
are both Beaux Villages.
So we got two for one in one day.
Oh, I didn't realize that Bouzieswas a Plus Beaux Villages.
(29:01):
I think that they hadjust gotten that status.
Okay.
Because they had signs kind of everywhere.
And I hadn't really investigatedit because it was not on my list
of like, "Oh, what else is thereto do?" It was a place to park
our car, to be honest with you.
Exactly.
They have a big, nice parking area.
And then I saw, you know, we wentacross this little tiny bridge and
(29:21):
then it was like, "Oh, well, wait,this is a Beaux Villages too." But
I didn't know what to do there.
And I knew that the hike was going totake us pretty much all day because
we spent a lot of time in Lapopie.
But I loved, I loved that.
Yeah.
And there's also boats that you can takebetween Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and Bouzies.
So you can also do it by boat.
Oh, okay.
Well, we just saw rented boats,like they were taking a vacation.
(29:46):
They got to go through the canal thing.
So we saw all that, the dams and stuff.
So that was kind of cool.
And then our next day, from Cahors,we went to Saint-Vincent-Rive-d'Olt.
Okay, that one I do not know.
Okay.
It is a tiny town with a beautifullittle river running through it,
(30:06):
and you could tell like it wasdefinitely a charming village.
I see why they picked it.
The streets were cute.
We just did a quick walkthrough, took somephotos because they had just beautiful
bridges and they had some flowersblooming and it was pretty gorgeous.
And then we went to two wineries thatday, Chateau Eugenie, and then my
favorite was La B-E-R-A-N-G-E-R-I-E,Berangerie, and it was a Malbec.
(30:35):
I showed up, I didn't knowI needed a reservation.
We just pulled up like maybe, you know,dumb tourists and the lady said, "Oh, I'll
see if my son can do a tasting right now."
And over the walkie-talkie her son said,"I am loading a truck right now for Paris,
mom, you know that. I can't do that."
So the owner invited us into herhouse and did a wine tasting with us
(30:57):
at her kitchen table just for the twoof us, and we got to meet her family.
It was one of those, you know, specialmoments that happens during a vacation
that you couldn't have planned it.
And, she said, "Oh, yeah, we'rejust really not open for that right
now and usually you call and makea reservation." I'm like, "I am so
(31:17):
sorry." And then we bought two cases ofwine and it was absolutely delicious.
I have a picture with her and shesaid, you know, "Oh, please come back
sometime and visit." And her Englishwas quite good, thank goodness, and it
was definitely a magic moment for us.
That's wonderful.
Yes, some of these wineries arehoity-toitys, and will not talk to
(31:40):
you unless you have a reservation,but some of them are really easygoing.
Like in the Southwest, you know, go,"Oh, we're not... We're simple people."
Right.
No, it was great.
And then in the afternoonwe went to Belcastel.
Yes, Belcastel yes.
That's gorgeous.
The reflection of the bridge onthe water was worth stopping for,
(32:02):
and cobbled streets and stone tileroofs and 15th century church.
And a nice, steep high walk as well.
Oh, yeah.
I just... I mean, Ireally got my exercise.
I really got my exercise.
Okay.
And then, the next day we droveout to Conques for one night.
We only spent one night there becausethere, we just really wanted to see the
(32:23):
Sainte-Foy abbey or church or whatever,and the gray stained-glass windows.
But the thing that I like the best are thereliquaries that are in the treasure room.
All over the world, I lovefinding the reliquaries.
When I was in Italy, I piecedtogether most of... I had Saint
Catherine's finger, her head,her... All in different churches.
(32:47):
And that's pretty terrible, but youknow, that's kind of one of my things.
I read a fascinating book.
There's a French historian, I mean,a legit historian, okay, she has a
PhD. She decided to do an inventoryof saints' bits and parts, and...
I would love her.
Yes, yes.
I don't know if her book havebeen translated, but she has
(33:10):
found out that there are, somesaints have a lot of fingers.
We can account for a lot offingers of saints, and a lot
of femur bones, and things.
Like, oh, they probably had fivelegs because we can... You know?
Right.
Everyone has a leg.
So, that's a very interesting hobby.
(33:33):
Well, what I also found was interestingwas that they stole some of the
reliquaries because Cahors, thecathedral wasn't on the Saint James
Route into Santiago, and so theywanted to be on the pilgrimage route.
And they sent the people out to steal thebones of Sainte-Foy and other reliquaries.
(33:55):
And so their treasure trove is fullof reliquaries stolen by priests.
And I thought that was just like, wow.
Yeah, just like, Let's just befamous," so... And it took them like
six years to do a- go undercover,and so I thought that that was cool.
And then the story of Sainte-Foy,you know, being 14, and she was
basically barbecued and beheaded.
(34:18):
It was pretty bad.
My husband had studied architectureand so that was one of the things
that he had studied was Conques,and he loves medieval history and...
Yeah.
So that's a beautiful, Romanesque church.
The church itself it's not very big.
It's one of those places thatis surprisingly accessible.
(34:39):
A lot of these villages are really notaccessible to people who have, you know,
limited mobility, wheelchairs, et cetera.
That one is pretty good.
So just want to mention it just in case.
Yeah.
No, because I did notice that there was,we stayed, and I'm not going to mention
the place we stayed because it wasn'tgreat, but it was at the bottom of the
(35:00):
hill so we drove up as far as we could gobut I did notice that up close there was
handicapped parking and there was, youknow, a nice grade that you could, you
know, get a wheelchair up or stairs toclimb, and so you are correct with that.
But, you know, I liked it.
Four nights in Sarlat and four nights inCahors and this was just one night, like
(35:21):
see the church and... so worth seeing.
Gray and white stained glasswindows, I had never seen anything
like that and it was interesting.
It was really interesting.
We left Cahors, we stoppedin Capdenac, C-A-P-D-E-N-A-C.
Okay.
And there were towers to climb andramparts to walk and fountains, and they
(35:42):
had a, and I would particularly likethis for children, they had a sensory
walk, and it was medicinal herbs and agarden of five senses, and they had a
big wall that held these little bambootubes where like all different insects.
They called it an insect department.
All the little insects were inside.
And we saw some kids there and they werejust, you know, pointing to things and
(36:06):
so I thought that was worth mentioning.
Anytime you have kids it's niceto know, oh, that would be a
cool place to take them and...
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's great.
And so I thought that that was cool.
And so then we spent four nightsin Martel, and I love that town.
I have a great picture of my husbandwalking back from the boulangerie
(36:27):
with a baguette under his arm,looking as French as he possibly can.
It was a great town and again,but we missed the market day.
I was like, "No, no,"but that, you know...
It happens.
We stayed at Evelyn's place.
It's an Airbnb, and I really enjoyed that.
They live next door, and then therewas an apartment with a washing
(36:49):
machine and a nice little kitchen,and the bedrooms were upstairs.
One bedroom for adults.
They had a bunk bedroom as well.
But they were just the sweetestpeople and spoke no English, and
I pantomimed my way through it.
We enjoyed their company.
We had a glass of winewith them one night.
And it was well located in thetown, like right around front of the
(37:10):
market where they have the market.
Martel is not a very touristytown, even though it's lovely.
No, I agree.
I liked it, it was a good jumping offpoint because, then we went to Rocamadour.
We made the big mistakeof parking at the bottom,
and then we walked and we walked, andthere is a tram that will take you,
but because we were kind of off season,the tram wasn't running frequently.
(37:34):
So we just like, "Okay, let'sjust walk this and then we can
eat more for lunch." And so, youknow, that was kind of our thought.
And then we get up to the levelwhere the town is and we realize...
Not done.
No, we're not done.
Not done, not done.
And the station for the cross andwalking up and... it was gorgeous.
(37:54):
The views, we would juststop and turn around.
The views and just the townstreets, and it's a little touristy.
You know, they do have a lot of, yeah, Icall them like T-shirt shops and all that.
It was absolutely UNESCO World HeritageSite and I could understand why.
So Rocamadour, you have totry and park at the top.
Drive up, and up, and up, and up asfar as you can and park up there,
(38:16):
and then they have elevators.
If you park at the bottom and youfind the elevators, I think you pay
15 bucks or whatever, and you canride the elevators all the way up or
all the way down or back and forth.
And it makes your life a lot easierbecause that is seriously steep.
Well, I ate a lot of bread that day...
There you go.
It's like, "Oh, I can eat that. Oh, Ican have an ice cream. I can..." Yeah, I
(38:38):
justified a lot of eating that day so...
That's how we do it.
Yes.
Yes.
Well, that is... I get that.
I get that.
So then we explored Martel.
They have seven towers andthat's what Martel is famous for.
But I wished I had been there duringtruffle season because evidently they
have a big truffle walnut festival,and I would want to go do that.
(39:00):
I would want to hunt trufflesand I love truffle flavor, so
that's... You know, that wouldbe something that I'd like to do.
So then we returned because we wereactually pretty close, and I told you
I wanted to canoe on the Dordogne sowe went back to La Roque Gagnac...
La Roque Gageac.
And the weather was beautiful that day.
We rented a canoe and so we could go by,we went by all of the cool places, you
(39:24):
know, the towns and things that ratherthan looking down, we were looking up.
And there was so muchcurrent to the river.
Honestly, we dipped our paddlesmaybe three times and just floated.
And then they met you at a place, youknow, they're like, "Oh, well, there's a
giant beach ball hanging out there. Justpaddle towards the shore," and then they
pick you up and take you back to your car.
And it was absolutelystunningly beautiful.
(39:46):
What was the company thatyou rented your boat from?
In that town La Roque Gajac, inthat town there are canoe companies
just right down by the river.
Okay.
Just pick one.
Yeah, pick one.
Pick one.
I think they all did the same thing.
And, you know, we picked the onewe picked because the guy smiled
at us and waved and he seemed nice.
(40:06):
And the price seemed like whatI would pay in the United States
with transportation to and from.
But it was really, really fun.
I definitely enjoyed that.
We also went to Gouffre de Padirac.
It's the underground cave.
The Gouffre de Padirac.
I would highly recommendthat for people with kids.
We went... honestly, itcouldn't have been any better.
(40:30):
There were hardly any people therewhich I can tell how many people
could possibly be there by how theyhave like, "Wait in this line, wait
in this line, wait in this line."
And we had a reservation.
We walked up.
Climbed down into the cave usingthe stairs and, oh my gosh, got
down there, it's magical under therewith the water and all the lights.
(40:51):
And in our boat there wasjust one other couple.
That was it.
Wow.
And you just floated along and the guidewas, you know, talking to us in French
and English and just talking aboutthe cave formations and I loved it.
So I would suggest, you know, going earlyin the day, having a reservation and
(41:11):
going at the beginning of April, like,not during Easter time or, you know?
Exactly.
Yeah.
So there are times in the year where youreally need a reservation for this one.
Other times, it's not sobad like you experienced.
I've only been there whenit was very, very mobbed.
And actually, one time we stoppedby hoping to get a ticket,
(41:31):
and we couldn't get a ticket.
So, it can happen that if you don't havea reservation, never mind, not today.
And I had no idea because theyhad us kind of in groups and so I
thought, oh, you know, this... itmight be... have a lot of people.
And then I got down there and I'mlike, I'm taking pictures of this
and there's nobody in the pictures.
I'm like, this is amazing.
Like I said, this was anamazing, amazing trip.
(41:54):
And after that we went toAutoire, A-U-T-O-I-R-E.
Okay.
And there's only 350 peoplethat live in this village.
And they have a waterfall hike.
And so we hiked up to the waterfalls.
We went through the little village.
They had some wine tasting and theyhad some cheese tasting places open.
(42:18):
You know, not much going on.
I saw a house that, if I was in the marketto buy a house, I would have bought it.
It was the most charming stonecottage, and it was so beautiful
and the people were very lovely.
And we had our peanut butter andjelly on a croissant in that village.
So I remember that because myhusband looked at me, he goes,
(42:39):
"This is the best peanut butterand jelly sandwich I've ever had."
Aw.
It happened to be on the way up, like,"Oh, we have to stop there. It's a
Beaux Villages." You know how youjust, you know, we were kind of...
I mean, I'd planned this around thevillages, so, you know, that was...
We're going to have to wrapup, I'm afraid, because we've
been talking a long time.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, the only one I want to mentionis, okay, we went to Carnac and
(43:02):
that was cool, but Collonges-Rouge.
Collonges-la-Rouge?
Yes.
The Red Village.
Oh, my gosh, I loved thatand we ate at La Maraicher?
Okay.
Anyway, I had the best duckburger in my entire life.
(43:24):
It was so good and I love the village.
And then our last one was Turenneand, that was, you could climb
up to the top and they had aFrench garden on top of the roof.
Turenne.
How do you spell that?
T-U-R-E-N-N-E.
Turenne.
Okay.
And so you parked and then you hiked upto the top of the castle and there was a
(43:45):
beautiful French garden up there and wetalked with the gardener, kind of talked.
And so I would highly recommend these.
Wonderful.
Wonderful.
It sounds like you had an amazing time.
Are you planning more trips to France?
Not yet.
Not yet.
I've got a couple othertrips I'm going to do.
Other places.
Yeah, other places.
I'll get back there because I havesome picked out in Southern France,
(44:06):
so that's... might be the next.
Wonderful.
And I like that you just stayedfour nights in each places.
You didn't try to rush.
You had plenty to do everywhere you went.
I mean, you didn't get bored, right?
No, and that's the whole thingis like, you have to look.
I mean, that's why itwas one night in Conques.
That's what we had to do.
But the other ones I'm like,you know, "Have a home base and
just keep coming back to it."
(44:26):
No, I wasn't bored.
As a matter of fact, I was like, "I wishwe had four more nights to do," because
I had a couple more Beaux Villagesthat were nearby that we didn't see.
But it was wonderful.
I love your country.
I really, really love your country.
Well, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Jackie, it's been adelight talking to you.
Thank you so much for sharing all of thatand well, whenever you come back I hope
(44:48):
you have just as good a time as last time.
I will.
I will.
And thank you so much andI love your walking map.
Oh, the VoiceMap stuff?
The VoiceMap of Montmartre is fantastic.
My husband and I did that when we werein Paris this last time and I will want
to go back and do the rest of yours.
Thank you.
And thank you for being you and puttingall your time and effort into this.
(45:10):
I appreciate that.
Thank you very much, Jackie, and bonvoyage, wherever that takes you next time.
Okay.
Thank you.
Bye-bye, Annie.
Au revoir.
Again, I want to thank my patrons forgiving back and supporting the show.
Patrons get several exclusiverewards for doing that, you can
(45:33):
see them at patreon.com/joinus.
I don't have any new patrons to thankthis week, but I'll be chatting with
all my current patrons on Zoom thisweekend, and that's always a fun time.
I would love for you to join them too.
(45:53):
You can do it for as little as $3 a month.
But if you can afford it, I would loveto have you pledge some more so you
can have access to more of the rewards.
And to support Elyse, goto patreon.com/elysart.
Every September, France celebratesLe Journée Européenne du
(46:15):
Patrimoine, or Heritage Weekend.
This year it will be on Saturday,September 20th and Sunday, September 21st.
And this year they havea theme, architecture.
It's a chance to step behind thedoors of places that are normally
closed to the public all overParis and every region in France.
(46:36):
Millions of people line up toexplore government buildings,
private mansions, museums, archives,even parts of the Elysee Palace.
And best of all, these visitsare free for that weekend.
I will not try to list every one ofthem, because every arrondissement
of Paris will have events.
(46:57):
Every city in France will do the same.
The list is very, very long.
Here's the thing.
Some of these visits are so popularthat the minute tickets become
available, they'll be sold out.
Those visits are free, butyou need a free ticket.
That's how they know how manypeople they're going to let in.
So if you're in France that weekend,my recommendation is that you start
(47:21):
searching for your particular town orarrondissement and select what you'd
like to visit, and keep searching forthat place, the name of the place,
and just say tickets and Journée duPatrimoine or something like this.
Most of these pages are not going tobe in English because, you know, it's
efemeris, it's just two days and there'snot much point translating a page that's
(47:44):
only relevant for two days, right?
So search in French and do it everyday until you find what you want.
You have to be determined toenjoy this really to the fullest.
Some highlights this year include inthe first arrondissement of Paris,
the gorgeous building of the Banque
(48:07):
de France, Le Palais Royal.
So there's severaladministrations in there.
La Cour d'Appel, and the Arcde Triomphe du Carrousel.
So that's fun because it's neveropen to the public, normally.
It's the small Arc deTriomphe by the Louvre.
La Comédie-Française is alsoopen, normally you can only see
some of it when you go to a show.
(48:27):
In the second arrondissement,La Tour Jean Sans Peur is fun.
La BNF and they're, it's usuallyopen some, but they open more things.
And then the third, theLycée Henri-Quatre, is going
to be open to the public.
And we've mentioned it a ton on thispodcast because it's a place where a
lot of very smart and famous people,French people went to high school.
(48:52):
You get me, there are 20arrondissements, I can't list them all.
But if you start Googling for theplaces nearest you or places that
you've heard might be open, don't giveup until you found something for you.
Heritage Weekend, Journée du Patrimoine,is one of the most exciting ways to
experience France, not just the postcardsites, but the hidden layers of history
(49:17):
that usually stay behind closed doors.
I know near me we have several chateausthat are never open to the public, but
one of the deals when they get publicmonies to help keep the chateau in good
repair is that they have to open it acertain number of days in the month, and
(49:41):
so that's why almost all the chateausin France that get public monies will
be open on the Journée du Patrimoine.
So it's worth checking and good luckgetting tickets, especially if you
want to go to the Elysee Palace.
Good luck with that.
So we had a kind of a scary/funexperience the last few weeks at my house.
(50:02):
We had an old fridge, it wasn't, wasn'tthat old, but it was an Electrolux fridge.
It's a French brand, shittiestfridge we've ever had, okay?
Just never buy an Electrolux fridge.
Anyway, it was not working properly.
It was giving us all sorts of problems,and so my husband decided, last time I was
in Spain he decided to get a new fridge.
(50:24):
And when they came to deliver this fridge,they removed the old one and tried to
put it in and they couldn't fit it in.
It's a standard 60 centimeter sizewidth, but it wasn't going in.
And the guy said, "I'msorry, we can't put it in.
What would you like us to do?" So he said,"Well, let's keep the old one and put the
(50:46):
new one in the garage, and when my wifecomes back, we'll see what we can do."
And in the meantime, I thoughtabout it, thought about it,
and mulled it over, whatever.
And then I decided, okay, I canscrape off a couple of millimeters
of... See how crazy I am?
Of... plaster.
But when I looked at it more carefully,that wasn't gonna happen, because...
(51:08):
well, because there's some metalbits, and there's some brick bits,
and I could scrape off plaster, butI cannot scrape off brick, okay?
I'm not that good.
Then my brother-in-law said, "Oh,you could..." I could put a... I had
a seven centimeter wall there, hesaid I could redo that piece of wall
(51:29):
and do just a five centimeter wall.
Okay, but then you have tomess with the baseboards.
You have to mess with thetile, ugh, it was just... yeah.
Or we could just redo that section ofthe kitchen, which is getting older.
It's probably 15 years old, butI just wasn't enthusiastic about
(51:50):
spending all that money on apart kitchen that's fine for now.
I mean, eventually, we're gonna haveto replace it, but for now it's okay.
So, a couple of nights ago, I told myhusband, "Okay, I want to try to shove
that thing in, because the delivery peoplecouldn't get it in, but maybe I can."
And I had been looking at thiswall very, very carefully.
(52:11):
In the meantime, we got rid of theold fridge and plugged in the new one
in a different part of the kitchen,where we didn't want it to stay, but
it was just a temporary solution.
And so we emptied the fridge, push it inthe right position, and I swear to God,
we pushed so hard to get that thing in,and we did it at an angle a little bit,
(52:35):
so that I thought if we can get it a fewmillimeters in at that angle, then we
can straighten it out and push it in.
Because the previous fridge was the samewidth, so there was no reason why this new
fridge, which is a Liebherr fridge, it's aGerman Liebherr fridge, much better brand.
And we've had a Liebherrfridge before, and it was good.
(52:56):
And we pushed and we shoved and weshook, and it took 20 minutes, but
we got that thing in, and it wassuch a relief to have the fridge.
And so it's very, very tight in there.
It has room in the back forventing, but it's a tight spot.
So there you have it, the adventures ofAnnie's kitchen, in France this time.
(53:18):
I'm stubborn.
That's probably why this podcaststill runs, is because I'm stubborn.
Once I get it in my head that I willdo something, I will do something,
including shoving a fridge intospace that's too small, according
to the professional delivery people.
I can't believe that when they weredoing the delivery, my husband tried
(53:42):
to argue with them to try harder,and he said, "Well, talk to my wife."
And I talked to them, and I couldn'ttalk them into trying any harder.
And if I had been there, maybeI could have been more menacing.
I don't know.
All right.
My thanks to podcast editors,Anne and Christian Cotovan,
who produced the transcripts.
Next week on the podcast, an episodewith Greg Furry that I'm calling Pont
(54:03):
du Gard, Dog Sleds, and a Dash ofChaos, with returning guest Greg Furry.
It was a great conversation.
Thank you so much for listening,and I hope you join me next time so
we can look around France together.
Au revoir!
The Join Us in France travelpodcast is written, hosted, and
(54:24):
produced by Annie Sargent, andCopyright 2025 by AddictedToFrance.
It is released under a CreativeCommons attribution, non-commercial,
no derivatives license.
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