Spending a Month in Southwestern France, Episode 485

Spending a Month in Southwestern France, Episode 485

This is join us in France episode 485 bour I’m Annie sergeant and join us in France is the podcast where we take a conversational Journey Through the beauty culture and flavors of France today I bring you a trip report with Regina Logan about spending almost a month exploring the southwest of France

They went to the Aon the D and the Bas country and were surprised how lovely it all was and these are not parts of the country that we talk about every week so I think you’ll enjoy this episode this podcast is supported by donors and listeners who buy my Tours and Services

Including my itinerary consult service my GP PS self-guided tours of Paris on the voic map app or take a day trip with me around the Southwest in my electric car you can browse all of that in my Boutique join usinf france.com Boutique there won’t be a magazine part of the

Podcast today again because I was away in Paris all week writing my new GPS self-guided food tour of Paris on the voic map app when will this food tour come out before the end of March for sure I will give you more details in next Sunday’s episode I don’t have any

New patrons to thank today because I’m pre-recording all of this but I want to thank all of you who keep this podcast going by donating on patreon to join this wonderful community of Franco files go to patreon.com for/ jooin us that’s p a r e o n join us no spaces or dashes

And to support Elise Go to patreon.com elart e l y s a r t and please don’t click on the join for free button because if you do Elise and I get no support and you get nothing extra either so it’s a lose lose situation next week on the podcast first

Of all I’ll be back at my desk in to lose so I’ll be back to business as usual with an episode with Elise on the trailblazing female artist who defied 18th century conventions to become Mary Antoinette’s favorite portraitist and a celebrated figure across Europe her her

Name was Elizabeth V LeBron and you need to hear about Her bour Regina Logan and welcome to join us in franceour Annie I’m very happy to be here very happy to talk to you you had quite the trip it was a long trip wasn’t it it was it was a month a month wow yes

So so tell us when this was and who all was with you sure it was from early September to early October like the 7th of September to the 7th or 8th of October of 2023 I started out with my older sister we were together for maybe

10 days or so and then my partner joined us the three of us for a few days and then my sister peeled off and it was my partner and me for the last two weeks uhhuh very good you went a lot of places so tell us quickly all the places that

You hit on this trip okay well first of all your itinerary plan was awesome because honestly I had not heard of most of this so we’re in Southwest France right in general the A and the do mostly right and then the pay Basque and we

Ended in Paris for a few days well okay so what you had asked me was because we did an itinary planning session and what you had asked me was to what I remember is that you wanted me to keep the great bits when your partner was going to join

You but you want also wanted to do stuff with your sister so I was like H okay I have to save the best bits it’s hard to do like it’s really hard to do keep you moving and also take you to all these beautiful things but of course in the

Southwest there’s a lot that you can see that’s really great and the Aon I thought was it’s a part of France that most people haven’t heard of very much it doesn’t come up that much even on the podcast because you know most people go to Paris honestly

And they keep it at that but you were more adventurous so that’s wonderful okay so tell us some of your favorite thing we’re not going to take your trip in order that you had it so that’s just uh not that interesting but I want to hear about the your favorite activities

And places on this trip sure well because we drove which we can talk about later the mostly wonderful things about driving a few challenges but not terrible our favorite things is really going to the small Villages primarily or smaller towns we hit a lot of Le PLO

Vage and there are also small towns that are just as beautiful that are not on the official PLO Village exactly yes um but what we really want to do is something that we can’t do in the United States which is go to medieval towns right that was probably our favorite

Thing was going to some of the medieval towns of course there’s castles every turn of the road it seems like there’s a castle which is quite wonderful and then we ALS o went to two different caves with the prehistoric paintings and because of your oh you know your podcast

Are so amazing but especially the one about Pak we went there and that was those caves were wonderful um and then some of the bigger towns that again hadn’t heard of but pretty well known like sarla we loved sarla yes and we also loved Al be and

I’m trying to think of where else we tried to stay more than two nights in any once in a while we were just like had to just do one night going through but we tried to say more and cahor was another another place that we really enjoyed and Bayon those are towns the

Ones that you enjoy and you know what it’s also a challenge when you don’t want to keep moving every day but you want to see a lot you have to consider you know the pros and cons of changing hotels every day yes and and you know

Seeing as much as you want to so the way you go around that is that you pick a place that has more than one interesting thing to do right and then you can see more and you mentioned the pl Village that there were some that were really

Pretty that were not a PUO Village and that’s because there are some strict criteria to be a PUO Village you have to have under 2,000 inhabitants and you have to pay pay into a charter so every year you have to pay your dues to be part of the PLO Village and some

Municipalities don’t really want to do that or they have too many people so you know between 2,000 people and 2010 people while the village hasn’t change that much right but they have to have a cut off point and that’s just how it works um so that’s one of the reasons

Why some Villages that are just stunning are not on the list and you know that’s just how it is and there are so many especially around the Doon there’s so many that are pretty that you could very easily spend a few hours in rarely more

Than a few hours to tell you the TR did you find that you know once you have walked around the village and seen the castle or had a meal or whatever you were done right yeah except for we stayed in Otto which is quite small yeah

So it was kind of fun just staying there I mean again using it as a base to go out and another thing I want to point out about Leo vage and it’s a very famous One the name of which is escaping me right now is that they’re on everybody’s list including the tour

Buses yes when a tour bus arrives at a at a small village it’s pretty much overrun so the nice thing about going to the just as beautiful Villages that are not on the list is that they don’t have tour buses right and that’s the beauty of renting a car because

I talk to an awful lot of people who know that in France we have good public transportation and we are very happy to have good public transportation but it’s mostly between cities it is rarely between Villages so you might have public transportation between a city and

A village but not between Village a and Village B so you know you wanted to move on to another next beautiful Village but you can’t because you have to go back to the city and back out to the other Village and the other thing that you

Have to be careful about is that Google is very good at listing all public transportation including some that will never work for tourism because they are designed for students so just this morning I was working on an itinerary for somebody else and noticed that they had said oh

We’re pretty sure we can go between this Village and that Village well that small town in that Village and I looked into it and yes there’s a bus but it’s a school bus so don’t trust everything you read online about public transportation just in general do not expect public transportation between

Village a and Village B and we never did I mean because we had the car except for Paris of course we did not have any interest in driving in Paris we had spent like four days in Paris at the end and we had turned in our car in Bordeaux

And we actually flew from Bordeaux to Paris at the end that’s unusual yeah um it was a little bit quicker actually even though uh the train you know there’s a t t yeah it’s very fast anyway we we flew and it was wonderful to then use public transportation in Paris yes

Big cities you don’t need a car but I’m talking Villages so you know a thousand people 2,000 people that’s what I have in mind bigger than that yes we have public transportation so you particularly liked all these beautiful Med medeval Villages that you saw you liked your markets so I want to hear

About the markets that you enjoyed well probably like a lot of the people who listen to your podcast we’re kind of Foodies yeah and so we just love everything about food including the beautiful market so we planned most of our itinerary using your recommendations to be in the villages on their Market

Day and since they’re different every place sarla has a pretty famous quite large Market on Saturday and Wednesday and we were staying there so we actually went both Saturday and Wednesday great and staying somewhere another nice reason is that we could get there early before it got too crowded which was

Great and just looking at all the fruits and vegetables and the cheese the wonderful cheese and everything else in the market and then of course the markets have a lot of nonf food items which is always fun to look yeah Salat has a lot of you know they sell I

Remember buying some really funky bowls in s L you can buy you know tablecloths things like that that you don’t perhaps not expect to find in a market recently I was recording an episode with my sister-in-law and she was surprised that there was a person at the market selling

Underwear she was like who would buy their underwear at the market and I told her lots of people do because if you’re an old granny and you have this one pair of panties that you like like you just want that one and you know the lady at

The market will get it for you right right and that’s why that’s why yeah the only clothing item that we bought at markets was um mostly scarves because the scarves are very nice and very inexpensive and then my partner bought a couple of at two different times

Hats very French kind of um not quite a beret more like a workman’s hat anyway and then we actually did buy some Basque Beret uh when we the back country which was kind of fun yeah have you worn them since he wears his every day I’m wait

Waiting for my I’m in Chicago so it’s not quite cold enough yet for me but um it will get there it will get there yeah that’s great yes and so the the market in salad is very nice and I think a lot of items are overpriced but you know

It’s a popular Market where there’s lots of visitors it’s fair game you’re going to try and you know get a little more money out of the people I just how it worked and the other thing the markets bring me to the thought that because we stayed PR maybe you’re gon to ask me

This later but we stayed primarily in airbnbs except Paris we only stayed in airbnbs kit so that we had the fun of shopping for food occasionally and then we could cook in our Airbnb because they had full kitchens and a couple times we had a complete house small but complete

So that was shopping for food even more fun exactly if you have a kitchen that’s even you know you can try things did you try anything adventurous did you cook anything adventurous we didn’t cook anything adventurous but we did try a few things I mean there there’s my

Partner loves escargo which these days isn’t that adventurous we all like escargo so we tried those but we didn’t make them ourselves we got those at a restaurant yeah but nothing too out of the ordinary okay that’s good the number three thing that you list Is AO while

People watching up oh yes that’s a favorite for a lot of people yes and I had had cure before but I had not had K Royale ah for your listening Kier is very typically French what particularly and the regular Kier is white wine with cassis I think it’s the

Creis y but the K is champagne yes Cris which became quickly my favorite at that’s very nice yes that’s a so not every place will offer that but when they do it’s usually very nice yeah and you especially liked it on inat that’s great so every day at the end of the day

You just knew you could go back and have some AO and watch and and the fact that there were enough people to make people watching wonderful and fascinating but not the huge crowds by the end of the day the market had you know closed up and cleared off but there were still

People hanging around so that was fun so you were there in you know September through October and it’s actually High season in Doon September is quite High season in the Doon so is October and then at the end of October by the time School vacations end for French kids

Everything shuts down so to we’re recording this on November 21st if you went to sahat this month it would be dead and a lot of the restaurants would not even open unless it’s the weekend or unless there’s something special going on because the full-time population of

Salot is not that great you don’t need hundreds of restaurants which you do in High season sure you know so we did have one little funny little anecdote so OT which is very small village where we had just Charming little house and there’s two restaurants and one a p little

Grocery with a banger yeah neither of the restaurants were open for dinner and the Baker from The Banger was on vacation oh so there’s really no food and so one of the things that was quite nice there was another kind of a combination food type shop and um

Souvenirs and we start chatting with a woman luckily my French is decent so I could do a lot of chatting which I’m love to do yeah and she said oh there’s no bread here we said yeah we noticed and she said well on my way in the

Following day I’ll stop at the bakery in my town where she lived and she brought us some bread oh nice lovely just lovely her to do for because we the only thing about driving is no one in our party wanted to Drive in the dark on those

Rural roads that there’s no light and you don’t know where you’re going and so luckily it was still light out at that point until I don’t know maybe 8 or so but we weren’t going to venture out somewhere to drive home in the dark yeah so for people who don’t know and most

People wouldn’t know it’s a little bit north of fijak and it’s just east of sahat so you were not staying in sahat you were staying in otwa is that what it is no we stayed in both both okay yeah oh okay oh they’re not that far from

Each other are they I honestly don’t remember because I’d have to look at our itinerary but done a little bit of a circle yes yes I don’t recall but they were so different from each other because otar is tiny tiny is it’s a good size down yeah it

Goes dead in the winter but it’s a good size to yeah yeah wonderful you enjoyed the cave painting so the Cave the painted caves those are always a big hit yes and the one thing it we rarely made Advanced reservations anywhere for anything including Paris except for the

Goof Pak which is a regular cave is you I don’t remember what your which episode it was but your wonderful episode and that I remember you used to go there a lot as a child yes so we did get those tickets in advance and then the two

Different we did not go to let’s go let go no because we wanted to go original ones and so we went to yes we went to L PES I have a story for that in a second okay went to font yes and both of those

You had to reserve in advance but you do you had to wait until like a month before you were going to go there so the websites are pretty pretty easy to from the US we got our tickets yeah but can I tell you a little story about pesaro of

Course so we use our GPS to get around on our phone on my phone and we put in pesh Merl not knowing that pesh Merl means there’s a lot of pesh merals in the gr La pesh Merl so we’re try just at this point it was just my older sister

And me we’re driving and driving and we’re going down like this little road and then we’re go do you know what a two track is we’re going down a two track which is basically through an orchard to just little dirt tracks I don’t know tractors or something yeah

And we’re going we’re sign you know this doesn’t right not right no no not right so we figured out how to turn around we came back and we got to a place where there was a farm and there were a couple guys outside and uh we asked him about

Pesh Merl and he said and this was by the way kilometers away from where like an hour’s worth oh my goodness oh so I think has Merl in general I I’ve forgotten what it what it mean might mean hilly place right or something right right I’m not sure what it means

But it’s a common name like you know you could find another one yeah so if you don’t say then you’ll find the right one it’s same with rock four if you just say I want to go to rock four because you know about rock four cheese there’s a lot of rock four in

France you might be in the wrong one yeah m is a beautiful cave and it’s not that big it’s fairly accessible I mean there are some steps when you first enter you have to go down perhaps 50 steps but then it’s fairly flat you know it’s well developed so for people who

Have mobility issues it’s doable unless you cannot take steps obviously and it’s not very large but it’s got some really nice stuff and it’s well lit yes unlike the other one that you liked which is fond where they really don’t turn on the lights very much not very long at all

It’s like seconds and then it’s off although they were very nice there my partner sees fine in the light but he doesn’t see very well in the dark at all ah they let him use a flashlight oh M time but just so he could see it where

His right a little better that was great yes and both places had lovely guides who spoke English which was great because neither well my sister speaks a little French my partner speak no French but they were they also limit the number of guests that that can in any Group

Which is great and I don’t remember if it was pesl or fum but we decided to go early in the morning because they check for if there gets to be too much carbon dioxide because it degrades the paintings so they will close they they check it they’re very careful which is

Great they but they will close the tour if it gets to the CO2 gets too high and it has to do with the temperature because the temperature in the cave is pretty steady but it does I mean the outside temperature does affect it some

And I wrote a blog post about how to get tickets from Fond gum there is a definite trick to this and so if you go to join usinf france.com and you go to the blog tab you’ll see a blog post called tips for visiting fond Inon

Because so many people just they give up in frustration they can’t get tickets yeah I believe you can’t get them more than a month before you want exactly they open them so it depends on the season so for July and August they open them a little bit earlier but the rest

Of the year I think they just open them until the 30th I don’t remember just read the blog post I I wrote it but it was a long time ago so I don’t remember all the details but yes there’s a question of when the tickets become available and people get frustrated

Because they try to get tickets six months in advance and you can’t fantastic you really enjoyed the G the Pak we have to talk about this for a second G the pedak is a beautiful place it’s so goof how do you translate that into English it’s a big hole in the

Ground yeah I mean just seeing the picture is just crazy it looks like a big hole in the ground huge and the elevator their steps go down down down down down down down yes so you have some steps elevator some part of the way and

When you get to the bottom it’s you get in a boat and you get a boat ride underneath this cave it’s just so much fun and it’s fantastic for kids so we did it several times when I was a child and they take your picture as you get

Close to the end and that’s the one picture my parents always bought was the the picture of us because we knew where it was so you look up you know and so I have pictures of me at different ages that’s they took our picture and we that

We you know so a few years yeah it’s a few euros and that you should also Reserve because it fills up and so it’s not as restriced because it’s not a Painted Cave but it fills up it’s very popular with people so go in advance you

Took a private Winery tour in gak oh Dom tell me about that well first of all we’ve never heard of gayak before you’re you know for you and Alise and it was a really lovely it was just us and one of the women who works there there were no

Other people and it was just really fun to see everything you know we could see the fields well both of the the we went to another one in Sant milon um but you could see the fields where everything’s grown and then you walk through the Vineyards and you see the well the

Grapes had been harvested but you know the explanation of how they do the harvesting and then what they do the whole everything from the vineyard the fields Vineyards then you go inside and see what all the different Machinery that they use and then of course you have a tasting afterwards and you can

Buy some and especially things that you wouldn’t any certainly I don’t think they export especially from this little tiny yeah only the very big Vineyards can export it’s not worth it otherwise you have to have you know imagine selling wine to Costco you’d need to produce so much

Like or or any grocery store any grocery chain yeah wonderful so you like gak wines yes it was different we tend to be red wine drinkers and I’m pretty sure that’s where we got the white wine but yeah it was different and that was fun because I believe and I think I learned

This from your podcast that there are grapes there that are not anywhere else am I about that yeah a lot of areas in France have a typical local grape I think what’s it called in gayak I know this it’s going to come back to me when

It’s too late anyway they do have a a great variety that’s specific to gayak you have to have that otherwise you can’t get an AOC pretty much so yeah that’s important well now I’m going to have to go check out because I’m looking for a place to

Go with a boot camp so I tried three of them already but I didn’t try that one so I’m going have to go try it’s not very far from my house so it’s easy and I like to go buy some wine it’s good all right another Wine Place you enjoyed

Santon yeah so obviously Sant milon is very famous for its grapes and its wine but we wanted again to go kind of off the beaten path we didn’t want to go to one of the great big cob one of the great big chatau rather and so we went

To this another little family Run play I mean it’s been in existence for several hundred years the one in CTI million but it was small and once again we got to walk out into The Vineyards and there’s one of the roads they’re using to get around in their property has been there

Since Roman times which is oh wow cool so and it’s been in the same family I I want to say three or 400 years that particular Vineyard so again we had a very lovely guide who spoke English which was again nice for my partner so I would really recommend if people want to

Go to Vineyards I think it’s fun to go to the small ones that you’re never going to hear about unless you’re there I agree I tend to agree because if you go to the big famous ones but it’s always like a balance you want to see

The famous places or do you want to see the more genuine local things and we should mention that milon is a Bordeaux Vineyard it’s not very far from B Bordeaux at this point so you were making your way west and also I will say something about San million which I’m

Disappointed from my perspective or our perspective it was so crowded we could hardly drive through the streets it was just jammed and so we stopped for maybe 15 minutes and then we said there’s just too many people here as famous as it is and as beautiful as it is and so we

Continued on from there yeah Sant million is a place where you have to book to go into the they have a church a very interesting church but you have to book to get in and it attracts a lot of people they have a few restaurants and

Stuff but it’s best if you book in advance or you’re not going to get in it’s just really popular especially September October it’s really Harvest yeah yeah yeah yeah it’s it’s Harvest Time number seven that you list is driving back country road so I want to hear about your Driving Experience you

Said you me you might get back to it so let’s talk about it okay so I would say a th% if you can drive that you’re comfortable driving taking the backcountry roads were great and sometimes a little Well there’s almost no traffic except for when you get to a

Larger town where there’s traffic the things that th I drove the first part when it’s just my sister and me I drove the whole time she was my navigator and then when my partner joined us he drove and I so even with a GPS you still need a

Navigator and for me one of the hardest things was turnab snow what do you call them roundabouts roundabouts yes the roundabouts really yes and I’ll tell you why yes Siri and her Infinite Wisdom on the GPS I was using Siri would say something like take the second exit she

Also has a really bad French accent but take the second exit onto bouar Char so you get to the second exit there’s no bouar Sam you know anything Bou charal or anything else listed it’s like d83 or you know it’s like yes country road yeah

So you have to know that you have to know which D because these are mostly dlev smaller roads but once I kind of got used to that and then the only other thing about driving that we had to get used to well there’s two things actually one is

Parking and the other is gas so can I yeah yeah as a hint so we’re American and we had American credit cards from Big Banks Chase Bank City Bank and there were a number of gas stations that would not take our credit cards so we finally

Figured out and this was even on the big Tollway we would take the auto route to the tollway to get from point A to point B if we had lot of territory to cover so we had to figure out how to pay for gas and what one very lovely man helped us

And if there’s a person sometimes they’re not there’s no humans there at all then you’re kind of like oh what are we supposed to do wouldn’t take credit cards um but the ones that had people attendant attendant thank you they weren’t gas station attendants they were attendants inside to sell food or

Whatever yeah but could pay like give them 40 EUR or however how much worth of gas you thought you were going to get yeah and then they would set the pump out yeah go back get that much so that turned out we figured that out after a

While when you’re at Big the freeway gas areas they usually have a a little restaurant they have a store they have all sorts of things yes and there’s a person you can say okay I’m on pump number three and I want to put in 50 EUR

Worth of gas exactly yeah and I have to say something about the little stores which I thought was qu essential France I loved it in these little gas station stores which in the US we might call an oasis on a Tollway they had for sale wag in the gas station which I thought

Was you know they also had like I don’t know other junky food but I said that was pretty funny yeah the gas stations in France are very different from the ones in the US aren’t they yeah yeah and then the only other thing and this has

To do with going to Villages and folks should be aware that there’s no parking first of all they often times don’t even let cars in which is good they’re very tiny very windy roads and so you park on the outside of the town and then you

Have to walk five or 10 minutes whatever to get into but so don’t we learned this very quickly don’t put in your GPS the center the Sant Village or the Old Village or anything because it’ll take you somewhere you can’t really go so you can map to the parking lot yeah and then

You park aside all of these GPS’s can show you the nearest parking lot so yeah that’s what you should look for yeah good to know yeah and when I do itinerary I mean I didn’t know all the places you were going to stop but I often give the address of the most

Central Parking Lot you can use for that town because it’s helpful you know but yes don’t expect to be you know parking right by the city center in a lot of these Villages you can’t they won’t let you in but even towns as big as like ALB

And kahar which I don’t know but they’re a lot bigger than the little Villages even those we had to park on the outskirts not the out it makes it sound like it’s five miles away it’s not no no no but it is there are parking lots for

People who can visit that’s what they’re made for daytime kind of visits well I have one more thing that I’d like to add again I don’t know about non-american credit cards but in France credit cards have a pin you know in the US credit cards do not have a pin debit

Card card s do but credit cards don’t exactly so a lot of times when you’re you parked and then you’re go you’re leaving the parking lot you know to get the arm of the parking so you can get out you know you put your money in or

You put your credit card in and then it would ask for your four-digit pin but we didn’t have a four-digit pin or we found that if you just wait long enough the machine I guess figures like oh okay and then it would open we can get out without the

P those people are just not going to do it want you out of there oh that’s funny that’s funny all right all right let’s see oh you enjoyed send Di’s discoveries let’s see tell us more about that okay two of the coolest things that who knew you know so we went

This is when I was with my sister we went to the chatau of belcastel and there was a beast a medieval beastiary you know mythological Beast kind of like a display so you had to go up to the castle which is up on top of

The hill and you pay a little bit to get into the grounds and they were do do you know what animatronics are yes often times in the United States they’ll be like mostly for children like dinosaurs that are that move these were animatronic mythical beasts o and they were scattered throughout the grounds

And also inside the castle and it was very cool and there’s an explanation how the moonage in the Middle Ages people believe these beasts were real they were just very very cool because we certainly something we were not expecting so that was very unusual and it’s not permanent exhibit it was

There for a couple months maybe right so that was cool yeah and then other thing that we particularly found serendipitous in love it was the feta Gastronomy in and solot and which I believe it was annual but we didn’t know it was there what was when we were there and we saw

Him setting up and you know I stop and say oh what do you sitting up here the vendor told us you know come back this evening and there’s all these vendors with different kinds of food there’s a dance floor there people who were dancing mostly sound like Po music to me

And then you sit at these big long tables with people as it turned out at our table there was a French couple there was a couple from Australia and there was a woman from Vancouver Canada and so it just it’s really fun and you get to try sample all these Local Foods

From local vendors meet new people it’s really fun sounds really Pleasant yes so you mentioned belcastel before and that’s in the Aon so that’s kind of if you know where the D is Aon is east of there quite a ways an hour and a half Drive perhaps two hours drive from there

But it’s a gorgeous gorgeous area and we were not staying we were not staying in sarlot when we went to B Castell can’t sing somewhere near yeah you can’t it’s not a day trip it’s too far for a day trip Yeah but I we had I remember we had

Worked in some time in the Aon area because I I think it’s gorgeous it’s just really belcastel per se is also a very nice little village M Bas in Bayon I hav I don’t think I’ve been to that one tell me about it oh it was really gave a very interesting history there’s

A little video vintage video in black and white that you can watch but then the exhibit just really explains the Basque people where they came from folks may know that the Basque language is extraordinary and that it is not related to any other known language very unique

Yes very unique and just how they ended up where they are both on the French side and the Spanish side we only wanted to stay in France for this trip we didn’t go to the Spanish side the museum was a really good introduction to the bass culture and I highly recommend it

And we loved Bion also that was your recommendation you said yeah you might not like be no how you got to know me through our working together and we loved by you we liked it a little bit it’s not like it’s back of the Bey but

It’s a little less known I think than beit yeah so there’s pros and cons to both but if you want the more genuine French Town Bion is it bit not that bit is not a genuine French town but it gets a lot more visitors it’s a town with

More money you know nicer hotels nicer restaurants Bion is more like you know it’s pretty it has pretty parts and obviously it has a very good M Basque in Bion I remember going to the chocolate Museum which I thought was fun yeah I didn’t know anything about

Chocolate when we went so I learned a lot about that and they have they also had a nice market and they also had plenty of restaurants that you know that you could go to and at a mar a market also so we likeed it it was fun so of

All these areas so you were in tulus you were in Aon you were in Adon you were in BAS country if you had to go back to one of them which which one would you pick oh man that’s a really hard question for TW I know it’s your hometown so we only

Were there overnight yeah I can’t really talk about tulos other than i’ like go back to it and explore it honestly Annie I don’t think I can choose they were one they were all wonderful I just can’t I think uh they’re very different aren’t they I mean these are regions with a lot

Of Personality very specific personality that comes from the land from the landscape from the foods from the you know the wines in the area and they are quite different all of them so you know but you talked more about the Doon though you spend more time

Talking about the do you listed more do stuff oh interesting I don’t think I actually even knew like it’s not like a line that says you are Le that’s true that’s true I might not even know what was wear out yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah it’s interesting okay so I’m going to skip

Rud we’ll get back to that in a second you like K as a city that’s also one that doesn’t get visited that much what did you enjoy there oh my gosh it’s the P the bridge vantre which is a UNESCO world heritage site one of the most beautiful beautiful bridges you will

Ever see it’s from the moonage also the Middle Ages I’m pretty sure yep and it’s just it’s gorgeous the bridge is wonderful I mean that’s the thing I remember we spent a lot of time taking pictures there and then I don’t remember what river is there but

We took a because we had two different boat rides but we took a boat ride there whatever that river is so hak I’m pretty sure that’s the dordon no that was I think that was the second we also took a boat ride um in kahor oh in cahor you

Did okay yeah I don’t remember I don’t remember what the river was sorry I look it up I don’t know it off top of my head either is it a lot why is it a lot L lot so you know it’s always fun to take a

Boat ride yes I love the bo rid you could also read kayaks I think there at as well on the D we weren’t quite that adventuresome to try kayaks we were younger but we’re not well anywhere you go you can rent Kayaks you can rent

Bikes you know anywhere you go I know I sound like a broken record but there are great hikes to be had anywhere in France if you’re looking for that just go to Kut and look for bike rides hikes whatever anywhere and you’ll find some there’s some everywhere so let’s talk

About rud in Paris this is not one that comes up a lot so we want to talk about it so because we don’t have a lot of time left well first of all thanks to you we stayed in the Kum the 14th risma which is not I don’t it’s not one of the

Main I think lot of tourist because there’s not a lot of touristy stuff there which was totally fine with us it’s still super convenient to everything we did not go very famous tower M Paras Tower which we did not go up in but we he here it has a wonderful

View anyway that’s the 14th but the rud de was just this great little street with all kinds of markets and restaurants and full of life we went once in the evening and was still going strong when we left probably after dinner around 9 or 10 o’clock and then

In the when our last morning we went back up and we had breakfast there it was all just very Lively and I think again a little bit off the beaten path for most American tourists yeah well and and the crazy thing is it’s right across from the catacombs it’s really close to

The catacombs it’s also really close to the um M which is one I highly recommend so this is a part of Paris that has plenty of things to do you’re also not very far from the which is just as cool as Peres but people don’t really talk about it as

Much so you know people don’t know but if you’re going to spend a day in monar area definitely there’s more that you can do in that area and there’s some really cool restaurants as well so yeah a really nice area we did end our trip at laand which is a famous restaurant I

Like it good food they have really good ve liver oh the best in France actually I tried real liver but we had good fish there you go there you go so you list a few favorite restaurants and and that’s going to be all in your guest notes

Including one in to L that I have not been to Gotta Go Gotta Go it was it’s a little tiny place and we all we only stayed one night there as I mentioned but our Airbnb hosts were adorable young couple cute little kid and they lived in the apartment building right next to

Where the Airbnb was and we asked them where would you where would you go we want to walk when because it was dark and we didn’t even have our car yet anyway and so we just walked over there and a very youthful I don’t know if it’s

In your University but there are a lot of young people there which was pretty cool I will have to I will have to go uh yeah I’ll have to try it you have one in Cel you have one in you have one in Bayon yeah you have a bunch of them

Restaurants just go look at the guest notes they’re really good what did you learn about France on this trip because this was not your first rodeo so did you learn anything honestly it just confirmed the ziv that we find in France that you know just taking it easy really

Enjoying food wine talking with friends company being with friends company yes being with friends family or and just you know you could FL you could be a flanner flanners just you know wondering through the streets it just confirmed what I already knew and loved about France I have to be really honest it

Wasn’t anything particularly nothing new but except that now I want to go back every single year and go to a different part of France or go that’s always a hard one do you go back to where you were because you loved it or do you try something new because you haven’t been

There yet Ah that’s the question that’s always the question so same at restaurants do you go back to a restaurant you really like did you eat the same thing you already got or do you try something new that’s hard and there’s people who will answer that question very differently depending on

Their personality and there’s no good or bad answer any Pearls of Wis that you want to uh share that didn’t come up yet the only thing and I think you had asked me to sort of give a name to this trip yes less is more I cannot

Say it enough less is more don’t try to do everything you know if you’re lucky you’ll get back another time but even if not go for for depth rather than breadth you know you really stay somewhere for a few days don’t try to do eight million things you know in particularly maybe in

Paris as well but wherever you are it was great CU then you have time for the serendipitous things that will happen and rather than trying to go oh my God we have this itinerary we have to be here by three o’clock oh the other thing it’s time they not kidding when they say

All the shops closed from 12:00 to 2 but all the restaurants are open you’ve said this before too so if you arrive somewhere like we did till we figured this out oh we’ll go to the tourist bureau first find out about this place where we are and then we’ll go to lunch

While you get to the tourist and is not open so start with lunch if it’s time to eat just go eat exactly exactly I would say that’s my if it’s less is more than under that if it’s time to go to eat yes no it’s really really important and

People don’t you know the most difficult people to convince of this is people who are used to just eating when they’re hungry don’t do that in France because you won’t eat or you carry around a baguette and some good frage exactly or you carry on

Something but if you just wait to if you only eat when you get hungry well you know I mean in Paris there’s stuff open all the time but outside of Paris or in big cities I’m not talking I’m talking about big cities in general you’ll find something but in these quaint little

Villages the chef is not sticking around day and night you know he shows up at 11: and he leaves at 12 at two or something and good luck eating outside of those hours that’s just how it is I know that we’re running out late I think

But I I have to give a plug for your walking tours in Paris oh go ahead they were awesome we had gotten the mar and the K Lan the Latin quarter and we actually couldn’t even there were so much they were so comprehensive we probably only did them for each one for

An hour to two and then didn’t finish because there was just they were great though they were very we did get lost once in a while but we would just go back we follow your directions and go back to where we should have been and turn left instead of right or whatever

They were they were really great yeah they make your life easy and if you enjoy just not being too stuck on your phone then the walking tours are good because you can listen to me telling you where it is you’re supposed to go next now sometimes you miss a turn or

Something but I’m very very careful to tell you exactly you know I test those things so many times I send people who don’t know Paris all of that because you get to get these little things right but thank you so much yes I put in a lot of

Time I’m thinking about doing another one for the Lou area because I really like that area and I know it very well and so I think it’d be interesting to guide people through that area and take them to some of the places I love but we’ll see there’s always more I could be

Doing with my time well thank you so much Regina it’s been delightful working with you and talking to you today and I hope you get many many more Chan to come back to France thank you me too bye Bye the join us in France travel podcast is written hosted and produced by Annie Sargent and copyright 2024 by addicted to France it is released under a creative comments attribution non-commercial no derivatives license Let One Go He

In this episode, Regina recounts her captivating month-long exploration of France’s hidden treasures in Aveyron, Dordogne, and the Basque Country. Joined initially by her sister and later by her partner, they embarked on an adventure through some of France’s most scenic landscapes, medieval towns, and illustrious caves.

Regina shares the invaluable insights gained from an itinerary consultation with Annie, highlighting the importance of strategic planning for adventurous travelers. The journey is enriched by visits to “Plus Beaux Villages,” where the beauty of France’s countryside is on full display. Regina discusses the challenges and rewards of navigating rural France by car, emphasizing the enchantment of driving through less-traveled roads and the logistical nuances of fueling and parking.

The episode delves into the cultural experiences of local markets, the delights of French cuisine, and the tradition of enjoying an Apéro. Special attention is given to the selection of accommodations that allow for immersive local experiences, the strategy for visiting markets, and making the most of vacation purchases like a Basque beret. Regina’s adventure through cave paintings, including a detailed account of visiting Pech-Merle and Font de Gaume, offers listeners a glimpse into prehistoric art.

The episode also covers private tours of vineyards in Gaillac and Saint Emilion, showcasing the diversity of French wines. Closing with personal reflections on the trip, Regina emphasizes the philosophy of “less is more,” advocating for depth over breadth in travel experiences. Join us to uncover the rustic charms and hidden gems of Aveyron, Dordogne, and the Basque Country—a journey through France’s heartland that promises to inspire and enchant.

Table of Contents for this Episode

Intro Today on the podcast Podcast supporters No Magazine segment today Next week on the podcast A Visit to the Southwest Les Plus Beaux Villages de France Markets Cooking for themselves Painted Caves La Grotte de Pech Merle Le Gouffre de Padirac Domaine Duffau, Gaillac – Private Winery Tour St. Émilion Driving back country roads Serendipitous discoveries Musée Basque in Bayonne Cahors Rue Daguerre, Paris Less is more: Go for Depth Rather Than Breadth If It’s Time to Eat, Go Eat! Annie’s Walking Tours in Paris Copyright