Monday, January 18
We wandered into town with Jack and it was a hive of activity as the truffle market was open. They are obviously very big on truffles in these parts as there is a special building in the centre of town called the truffle market. I will get to the bottom of what goes on but it seems that they all get together with their truffles and maybe have them judged for quality. Then at 10am the doors open to the public. Presumably, if they score high with the judges they can sell them for a top price. I had a quick look round and saw one for £30 euros. Like I said, I presumed that was what was going on. It’s really annoying not being able to Google things.
There were also some general market stalls in the square and we got drawn in by one of them who sold us a saucisson (4 euros) and some cheese (6 euros 50). The cured sausage was black pig and tasted pure and fresh. The hard cheese, he told us, was made of only the finest ingredients and had no additives and certainly no water added. He said they would last a good six months in the cupboard and you wouldn’t find any mould, not on any of his products. It’s all too good to resist and I’ll just have to try not to catch anyone’s eye next time I’m in a market.
I’m not even supposed to be eating cheese! I try to walk past it in the supermarket but always end up going back to buy some. Of course, we’re getting through loads of red wine, as well as a baguette a day. I might have to start keeping a note of how much I am consuming. I haven’t brought the scales with me so I’ll just having to keep an eye on my belt holes.
We went to the tourist office to ask about the electricity and she said there was a technical problem and it couldn’t be turned on. She said to try the next town along – Le Bugue.
Back at the motorhome there was nobody about so I got my yoga mat out for the first time. Steve had a shower and Jack lay in his bed in the glorious sunshine.
Out comes the yoga mat - working off those baguettes!
We headed for Le Bugue, which was only a few kilometres away, and couldn’t even find the Aire, let alone electricity. However, it was a beautiful little town and we got our first view of the massive river Dordogne. There’s a spectacular double bridge and it’s such a shame we couldn’t stay. We moved swiftly on to Tremolat and stopped for lunch (baguette, cured sausage and cheese, with a salad to try to balance it out a bit, and, of course, we had a little glass of red wine.)
Young men were playing boules in their lunch break just in front of our motorhome. We had a walk around the village before moving on again. The Aires book described the village as ‘really worth a visit.’ It was lovely but I think I preferred Le Bugue and Ste Alvere.
Young men playing boules in their lunch break at Tremolat
I had found another Aire in the book, yet further away from Bergerac, at Saint Cyprien, which was listed as having electricity. The Tom Tom us round the town a few times down some horribly narrow streets before we finally found the Aire. I like this one a lot. It has water, electricity, quite a picturesque town and a supermarket opposite. I had a Euro Relais token in my purse which had cost 2 euros. You usually get an hour of electricity for one token but this machine offered 12 hours! Perfect – we could charge everything up fully.
Steve’s laptop crashed later that evening and he was not too impressed. He could have lost all this pictures from Oradour sur Glane and other stuff.
