Ahhhhh Dordogne. When we told people that we were heading to the Dordogne Valley in France, the common response was "huh, what, where's that?" Ryan told me as we were driving, "this place better be worth it, no one seems to have ever heard of it!". Well it's been a little piece of paradise awaiting our visit, and in the end we are so glad we got to experience it.
I have to admit, the beginning was a little rough, well okay that is an understatement. We've had a fast learning curve with driving in Europe and have concluded several things:
A.) we don't miss having a car, okay an inkling here and there but in the grand scheme of things cars are highly over-rated.
B.) I had visions in my head of gleeful driving across the French countryside, arriving in time for dinner to beautiful weather and great food. We hopped on a 7:30am tram by our house and were taking a direct train to Geneva, supposed to arrive at 11 am where we'd pick up our rental car and make our short 6 hour driving journey. The only thing missing from my stack of printables was a weather report! Switzerland was hit with a massive snow storm slowing up just about every train in the country. To top that off some poor soul got hit by a train on the tracks where our train was supposed to go, so we were told to get off the train and wait until further notice. All this was happening in French, so we were reduced to acting like sheep and following the crowds...I should have done a little more than bare basics with my French studies last month. So we arrive 2 hours late in Geneva, still hopeful of a good driving experience. We get our cute little French Renault Clio car and our TomTom and set out.
C.) Hire a chauffeur = Buy a TomTom (GPS navigation system). Best $300 ever spent. The best part yet of the drive was our new chauffeur TomTom that Ryan bought for us in the airport. I have to admit I thought it was an unnecessary extravagant purchase in the beginning, but that thought was squelched as TomTom got us thru snow and standstills that backed up for miles. We are convinced that we would not have arrived at all without him. Ryan was thanking me for letting him buy his new toy, and I was thanking Ryan for buying the new toy and saving me the agony of hearing Ryan bitch about poor driving directions I had prepared!
D.)Repeat: Double the Google Map's estimated time......due to snow and Easter weekend traffic we arrived to our destination 12 hours later........yes at 2 am in the morning instead of 6 p.m. like estimated. It rained or snowed the whole time then got dark so we have no clue what the French countryside even looked like! Chance was such a trooper though, and TomTom got us there like a pro.
E.) The Frenchies have a different concept of safe driving: One funny sign we saw was warning us to be safe and follow not one car distance but 2 car distances behind the other cars, while traveling at 130 km per hour down a 6% gradient in an ice storm. We thought that the average smart car is 9 feet long, and they are telling us to "play it safe" and follow 18 feet behind the other car at those steep grades and speed?
F.) The Frenchies are thieves, and Americans complain a little too much without reason. We do have to say that never again will we complain about US gas prices and tolls again.......We filled up ole Clio and paid a whopping 100 dollars for 10 gallons of gas......(close mouth) yes that is $10 per gallon. We went through 3 or 4 toll booths and each time paid either $16 or $24. And I am laughing now at how cheap $3 per gallon or 75 cent tolls sound! These frenchies are taking the bank!
G.) Switzerland really does have a lot of rich people. I didn't realize how many nice cars I see driving the streets of Zurich everyday until we came to France. People drive Porsche SUV's like they are Chevy's.
Saturday morning the skies cleared and we awoke to a new day in France. The valley was so charming, and reminded me a little of the area driving towards the Salt Lick in Austin. Rolling hills, gorgeous houses everywhere. We visited Sarlat, a little medieval town complete with a market and tons of great old French looking buildings. We bought some delicious garlic cheese from some nice lady and snacked on it for lunch the next day with a French loaf. The specialty of the region is Foie Gras, or goose liver, and I am pretty sure that something to that effect made it on to my salad at lunch. Chance liked it but I don't know that my palate will be adapting to that type of French cuisine!
Sunday was Easter, and I hope Chance ingrains this one in his brain cause it will go down in Baganz family history as the best Easter hunt ever. We went to some magnificent manicured gardens, the Jardins de Marqueyssac (check it out at http://www.marqueyssac.com/)........basically cut and shaped box woods everywhere. The place was so big that it took 30 minutes to walk from one side to the other. The children poured in by the hundreds to hunt out the 5 different colored eggs that were placed in a different zone of the gardens. The hunt wound us through the entire estate. Chance LOVED it.......I'd have to say it will go down in history as the best ever. They were real eggs which we thought was peculiar. Then unbeknown to us at the end you turned in your eggs (this is after we tried to feed our kid one of the eggs.......apparently you don't do this).......and got a bag of chocolates. For dinner we discovered the town grocery store....much like HEB (so nice to have some selection back). We bought ourselves a huge rib eye that we grilled at our place and had an Easter feast.
On offer from our hosts is their 16 year old daughter. This has been the best find yet! She came over Monday at lunch to stay with Chance for 4 hours so Ryan and I could tour a castle like real adults and enjoy some incredible French cuisine without having to say "sit down" or "be quiet" between bites. We found a great restaurant and we devoured every bite of our set 4 course lunch menu. Ryan branched out and tried the Escargot as an appetizer and duck for lunch. I'm more on the boring side and stuck with a salad and steak.....tried and true seems to work for me.
The next couple days were spent touring more castles, more towns hanging on cliffsides and eating up the French cuisine. We had two lovely nights out ALONE with the sitter watching Chance. The streets of Sarlat light up at night with candle-lit street lamps and it makes for a romantic experience. And one night in honor of being in France, we watched Ratatouille with Chance.
All in all the French vacation was the way to go. Super relaxing, super charming, great food. It gave me the itch to find a B&B to run in the Texas Hill Country. I'll work on that adventure when we make it back home to Austin.
Where we stayed:
http://www.lepetit-manoir.fr/welcome.htm
R&C got to experience the Swiss countryside and mountains on the trains during our 4 hour train ride. Chance decided to prove us liars and he behaved beautifully the ENTIRE time while there. 
Monday Ryan took R&C out bar hopping while Chance and I stayed in and relaxed a little. What a nice visit! Chance cried all day Tuesday asking for his Aunt Chae to come back - he too really loved seeing his Aunt and Uncle.
