Dordogne: September canoeing

We drove from Bordeaux to the Dordogne valley to take a wee canoe trip down the river for a couple of days. Canoeing in late September is completely out of season which meant that we had the river to ourselves, but also meant that there were no campsites open and barely any restaurants or shops. Its a magical time of year to go but make sure that you book your accommodation in advance, and avoid Mondays where the restaurants are likely to be shut. We arrived on Sunday evening expecting to be able to turn up at a campsite and pitch our tent but - no campsites were open. We were rescued by a Chalet Mirandol who let us stay in one of their great chalets even though they don't normally allow one night stays.

Misty mornings on the river. Autumn is a great time to canoe on the Dordogne, early mornings are misty and beautiful and we were lucky enough to have the hot and sunny afternoons. The mixture of sun and autumnal colours is spectacular. We canoed from Vayrac to Souillac with Safaraid rentals and spent the night in Saint Sozy at the brilliant Le Grangier hotel. The trip costs 20 euros each per day for the canoe and you can go for a week or a day whatever you fancy, you just pull your canoe up onto the side of the river and camp or find a B&B.

The canoeing trip was so relaxing, the river was flowing fast enough that meant you didn't need to row - brilliant. Mind you it did take us around 5 hours to go 12km. We drifted down the lovely river, being overtaken by floating leaves, watching dragonflies and kingfishers flitting about, turtles basking on the limestone rocks plopping into the river as we passed. Perfect.

Poitou charentes & Aquitane

Wanderings around Bordeaux

This is the dune of Pilat, the highest sand dune in Europe. Its totally bizarre, surrounded by dense forest on 3 sides it rises sharply out of the trees towering to a ridge and falling back down to the atlantic.

Fishing shacks alongside the northern shore of the Gironde

The landscape around Bordeaux is typified by vineyards, to the north it's Cognac and Pineau territory and around Bordeaux its all about wine

tasting some cote de blaye at one of the many chateaux

Cognac & pinot tasting - apparently for every bottle of cognac that is sold in France, 20 bottles of whisky are sold.

around Talmot-sur-Gironde, it's supposed to be of France's most beautiful villages

graveyards in France are decorated with loads of trinkets and plaques and always seem much more friendly and hopeful than those back in the UK

surfing on the grand cote

collecting pine needles to use as a fire for cooking mussels

at Le Tabac, I love all of the Tabac's in France - newsagents and bars with great chat from le patron

Bordeaux: help x work/fun

We worked for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week at Le Ramet doing all sorts of tasks

stripping shutters with a hot air gun, then filling, sanding and painting them

A finished shutter next to a yet to be started. Renovating the shutters has changed the way I look at all of those rustic shabby french houses, before I used to thing they were so romantic - now I look at the shutters and think all of those bastards need to be sanded.

I spent a lot of time in the potager, podding peas...

weeding

and making rainbows with the hose

Using the tractor to try and rip out a very stubborn fig.

There were so many animals at Le Ramet - 6 jack russels, 3 great danes, millions of cats, horses, donkeys, goats (not all in the house!)

Chinoise & Tigre

My sister and I used to watch a film called the ugly daschund, it was just like that at Le Ramet - hilarious

Daniel & Patricia our hosts/french teachers/chefs...

Gregg concocting a cognac, coffee and chocolate delight called a push push

I have never eaten so well as at Le Ramet, we were treated to delicious French fare every day - eaten in the particular french way

And another amazing help x experience draws to a close, the car is packed and we head off North

Eating like the french

We have been in France for 3 months now observing the mysterious ways of the French. A few months ago at a BBQ in Paris we were baffled by the weird ways of french eating, however, after spending more time with the french I can reveal the secrets:

1. Bread: Baguette is eaten at every meal. In the morning with butter and jam and dunked in coffee and with lunch and dinner it is ripped into small pieces and held in the left hand and used like a knife, or like a sauce scoop. Mini sandwiches are never made midway through a meal, when you do make mini sandwiches (especially with chips) the french will stare with a bemused look.

2. Wine: Wine is drunk with lunch and dinner, but only one or two glasses, certainly not a bottle each (!)

3. Eating order: This is a strange one, you eat your meat first and once that is finished you eat your vegetables/salad. One night I cooked both green beans and potatoes - this confused the french, only one accompaniment with the meat! The separate eating thing doesn't count if you are not eating french food, so if you have (Spanish) paella and a piece of meat these can both go onto your plate at the same time.

4. Cheese: Cheese comes after main course or dessert (plat) and can be used to mop up remaining juices that haven't been got with the bit of bread

5. Other drinks: Aperitifs and digestifs are one of the great pleasures of France and the type depends on your location. So, in the Charante you might have cognac for a digestif and a Pineau for aperitif and in Paris you might have a Ricard.

6. Snacks: No

French Daniel's French dressing

The recipe for French Daniel's French dressing, to be used on grated carrot/chopped tomatoes/miscellaneous French things

To make 1 beaker full:

2 heaped teaspoons of moutard

Du sel

Poivre 5 bailes 13 turns

l'ail seche 2 teaspoons

Les fines herbes 5 heaped teaspoons

1/3 balsamic

2/3 olive oil

 Merci Daniel

Batman

The very funny Remi Gaillard 

Bordeaux: I love you

Bordeaux Bordeaux how I love you

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Twisting cobbled streets, unbroken facades of dusty gorgeousness, more laid back then Paris with a plethora of quirky public spaces overflowing with people. The Gironde flows through the centre, its tides marking time - from lazy red mud slowly meandering east to rushing tides west 

Trees on every balcony

Exotic smells and markets full of tres trendy industrical chic

Central street lights strung from buildings - why were we never allowed to do that in Barnsley?

Canopy of London Planes 

The original mirror pool reflects the Bourse and changes throughout the day, lights reflect at night, cool steam in the heat if the day, teens hang out drinking and laughing, children play, people make music - it's all so animated. Such a simple and successful design