We drove to a couple more Bastide towns today. The first was Montflanquin, which is a fairly small place, but again has lots of stone cottages, a main square in the centre of town, views across the valleys etc. Garth bought a sandwich in a small cafe in the village, and for less than $6, got a baguette at least ten inches long, four inches across and choc-a-block full of ham, Brie, and salad. He ate it over three sittings (possibly because he had already demolished a plain croissant AND a chocolate croissant before hand!).

We then headed to Chateau du Biron and had great fun climbing the towers and the parapets, marvelling at the thickness of the walls, and the beautiful parquetry floors in the suites .
The chateau is in the Dordogne area and the first part was built in the mid 1100s, with many additions built over the following few centuries. The Gontaut-Biron family owned the chateau for 24 generations, before relinquishing ownership in the 20th century. The finished chateau is very impressive - it is absolutely huge and has amazing views over the surrounding countryside. It also has a chapel with floors on two levels - the first one for the Lords is on street level, and the other level for the villagers is below the ground, down a very steep staircase. Apparently the Lords though they should be closer to God than the villagers were!

Finally we visited Monpazier, a small village of 500 or so people in the Dordogne area. It is a 13th century Bastide town founded and built by King Edward 1st of England. Eleanor of Aquitane and Richard 2nd of England also lived there for a while. This probably explains why their are so many poms living in this area - they are probably all descendants of the Kings!

Home to do a lap of Issigeac, then Garth cooked a magnificent Norwegian salmon for dinner.