Day 7 Friday 9/16/11

There is something very magical in going for a run at sunrise amoungst endless fields of grapevines, in the French countryside, while listening to "Cello Sonata in G Minor" on my iPod.  Ah, C'est la vie, une bon vie!

And now after a shower and a cup of coffee, I am sitting in the garden.  It is just after 8:00am, and I am enjoying another croissant (eat your heart out Steph!), with some strawberries, just listening to the birdsong.  If only I could package this tiny bit of the trip and bring it home with me!  But alas, this is the final  full day of our trip.  It has gone by all too quickly.

Today the plan is to head east and explore some of the local towns but not venture too far afield.  After a leisurely morning of relaxing in the garden and conversation with Carol, we left La Forge with a picnic lunch just after noon, and set out toware Monsegur, a bastide town to the east.

We stopped in a small town (Rauzan) with a 12th century castle to explore. Tami and I got separated from each other.  As I learned from past experiences to stay in the place where you last had contact, I stayed put at the entrance to the castle, and eventually Tami returned to find me.

We then headed farther to the southeast.  We passed L'Abbet du Blaissmon.  It was a pretty little ruins among the field of wild flowers.  We continued on to Mensegur, another bastide town.

we parked and walked around the city centre and took a brief tour of the church, which was a juxtaposition of old and new as this was very much a working church.  We stopped in a few shops along the collonade and bought a few souvenirs. We then went back to the car to see if we could find the ramparts of this city.  Driving around the outskirts of the city walls, we finally found the ramparts, but as it was a steep ascent to the top, Tami opted not to climb.

It was then that the GPS stopped working as it had been running on battery and not charging.  So, we had to navigate back to St Quentin de Baron by way of maps.  Tis proved difficult as not all route numbers and village names appear on the maps.  But eventually we wound our way ack, stopping briefly at the 8 a huit for some wine, baguettes, and last minute items.

We had a very pleasant dinner with our host, Carol and her husband Bruno.  I prepared the remnants of our food stores for our contribution to the meal. carol had prepared a starter of smoked trout on toast points which was so flavorful and fresh.  This was followed by a smiple green salad, cod fish cakes and our contributions of fingerling potatoes and a cheese plate.  Our meal was accompanied by sparkiling water and Margaux-St Emilion wine.

The conversation was interesting as we learned more about Bruno and his field of psychiatry tied with both his interests in nutrition and speech (workings of the human vocal chords). Tami and I found his specialities fascinating and could realte to them in our own respective journies of learning and speaking foreign languages and trying to transform our bodies through eating well and working on physical and psychological transformations as well.  We also learned more about Carol's interests with theatre and puppetry and her job as Cultural Affirs Director.

The meal was completed by a wonderful apple tartine which Carol had prepared and served with a very light, whipped cheese.  It was a nice end to a hectic vacation, albeit a sad one, to have to come to the realization of saying goodbye to this amazing tapastry of wine, food, culture, history, people and their stories...  All woven together to form the south west, (Dordogne Valley and Gironde) area of France.