Woke up early and dropped Claire off at Villefranche sur Saone to take the commuter train to Lyon where she will catch the TGV to Brussels at 0915. I will really miss her.
We had another nice breakfast and talked with a nice Belgium couple from Duvel where the beer is produced. We have decided to take some of the smaller highways vs the toll freeways to see some of the countryside. We drove via Pommiers to Frontenas to Oignt...a beautiful hilltop village made of that lovely warm sandstone. It's pedestrian only so we walked around....lots of galleries and art dealers, thn to St Laurant d'Oingt...also a very pretty village and now downhill to hwy D385 via little roads to Les Olmec to route Panissieres to Feurs. The area is hilly with small towns all with a chateau , walled garden and vineyards. Some in better repair than others. Closer to Feurs there are many dairy farms with Holsteins grazing on the hillsides....very pastoral! We decided to take the Toll road and get off closer to Angoleme rather than spend more time on the mountain roads. We are quite high in elevation and passing through first Monts de la Madeleines, the Les Bois Noir, then, Monts du Forez, then we came down a very steep pass to the valley below just past Thiers and now we are getting close to Clermont Ferrmond.......finally one of the toll booths took our Visa card so we were able to pay the 9€ on the card. Still 4 more hours to go and we now have high clouds and are leaving the sunshine behind.
Now we have left the one toll hwy and are changing to the toll hwy A 89 to Bordeaux.....we are still traveling through a wide valley.. Now going through Correze area where there are forested hills and deep gorges....Limosin cattle and deer and Boar. Sunny again but some rain showers to the south. We are earlier than expected so we are thinking of leaving the motorway at Brive-Gaillarde and going a bit south in the Dordogne area to Sarlat-Caneda which is supposed to be a pretty town.....Dordogne is famous for Foie gras, truffles and generally foodie paradise type markets....well that was a mistake....we drove forever on very small winding roads to find Sarlat a large pretty but very touristy town....tons of signs in different languages advertising touristy, kitschy stuff....and very crowded..... So we drove via the D 47 through a valley of sandstone cliffs and grottos...near the Cave of Lescaux where the famous cave drawings were found. It's beautiful to see the high cliffs and the green lush. Alley. Unfortunately the road is only 2 lanes so we took about 2.5 hours to reach Angoleme around 7:45. Fredo left almost right away to fetch JF from the train station and then we had rose and appies, then quiche, salad, lamb and beans for dinner. Slept very well for sure.