This past week has been a vacation from our vacation. This region is certainly one of my favourite areas in France and our campsite happened to be conveniently located within walking distance of many of the area's top sights. We’ve really slowed down our pace of sightseeing and have even been in a single campsite for eight nights (we were averaging about 2-3 nights previously). In the past three days, we’ve had some beautiful weather and although we’ve been tempted to be out and about the whole day, we did succumb to just sitting with a cup of tea in hand and playing a couple games of canasta, too. Meghan leads two games to one and I’m still flabbergasted by her 3,400 point hand (she got all four red threes, too!) in which she rallied from almost certain defeat to win the game by 55 points….but I digress.

We woke up and had a cup of tea as we do most days but we didn’t rush to get going that morning. We had to be on the laptop by 10 am local time sharp as we were queuing for tickets to a FIFA World Cup 2014 qualifier match between Spain and France. We had been planning to watch a local football match while in Europe and it turned out that this one would be taking place when we were planning to visit Paris. We were extremely determined to get tickets as we would get to see the world’s best team play against another top-class team. The website crashed on us a couple of times and after about an hour and a half of trying to get in, we were about to give up and just get on with our bike ride. We decided to try one last time and luckily, we got through! We ended up with two decent seats that weren’t even in the nose-bleeds! We were extremely excited to have gotten tickets in the end and made up our minds to pick up some French colours to wear to the game (perhaps a scarf and a toque since it was expected to be hovering around zero the night of the match). We finally got out around mid-day and went for a lovely, relaxing bike ride along a tiny road that traced the path of the Dordogne river. We rode out from camp towards Castelnaud, about four kms away. We could choose to go on a bike path that wound its way further inland but instead we opted for the one that went by the river. It was a tiny, single lane road most of the way but there was hardly any traffic on the road. We passed by the château des Milandes, walnut groves, farms with horses out grazing and got some great views over the river to the town of Beynac. When we stopped to turn around and head back to camp, we commented on the beautiful weather and the idyllic countryside we had just cycled through. We got back to camp for a late lunch and it was so pleasant out that we set up the picnic table and dined outside.

The next day, we had another lazy start and wandered into Beynac around mid-day to check out the château perched on top of the cliff. Richard the Lionheart had a brief stay at this castle but it did not see much action when it was occupied. This medieval castle was very sparsely furnished but since it was the off-season, we were king and queen of the castle and had fun imagining what it would have been like back when it was in use. The highlights of the castle were definitely the kitchen area and the rooftops. You rarely get to wander up onto the roof and the views from there were just splendid. It gave me goosebumps to look over the side of the parapet down at the river, a sheer drop of probably a hundred meters or so. The kitchen was the most interesting because it had a ramp inside it so horses could be ridden through it and into the inner stables. Funnily enough, the kitchen is usually the most interesting part of any château/castle/residence we’ve visited to-date. We also noticed that the dining tables in the kitchen had a slot cut out of the table at one end for swords to stand upright. We thought that was quite a clever design but I could definitely picture people getting their swords all mixed up when they left the table. Since we had the castle to ourselves, I also decide to try on some armour from the crusades, dating back to 1190. I found it to be quite cumbersome and I can’t imagine that it would have helped them much while in combat.

On Saturday, we returned to Sarlat, once again, for the market and to go for a nice lunch. We were hoping to pick up a couple things we had seen last time but the vendor wasn’t there this time around. Instead, we had a wander through the market and had timed our arrival for lunch. We checked out a couple of menus and decided to go for the one at "L’Instant Delice" which had a 16 euro menu with plenty of regional cuisine to choose from. The restaurant was brightly lit but housed in an old stone building with a timbered ceiling that gave it lots of character. The restaurant was quite busy which we thought was a good sign. I started with the foie gras, accompanied by fig and onion chutney, to be eaten with small pieces of toast. Megs had a green salad with walnuts and cured duck breast. The foie gras was quite tasty and even Megs tried some – it was essentially the consistency and texture of butter that hasn’t quite reached room temperature and thus went easily with toast. For our entrees, we both went with the confit du canard, served with a cèpe (local mushroom) sauce and pomme sarladaise (potatoes cooked in duck fat). It was all mouth-watering and even though they served a very generous portion, we managed to tuck into it without any problems. For dessert, we both opted for a walnut cake in a crème anglaise (essentially a light custard sauce), which had us both licking our lips in satisfaction when we finished it. It was a delicious meal and we would definitely head back there on our next visit to Sarlat. On our way out of town, most of the vendors were packing up and getting ready to head off. We were just in time for Megs to pick up a bunch of daffodils to add some colour to liven up our living room. We had been planning to go for a bike ride after lunch but at that point, both of us just felt like heading back to camp for an afternoon nap. We didn’t have a nap when we got back but instead a cup of tea and couple games of Canasta to round out the afternoon.