the Monday Musings column from that consultant bloke

A number of firsts here; first post for ages, first time back in France in 30 or so years, first time driving on the Continent for about the same time and first time in the Dordogne, so much to muse on.

We last went to France, as a couple, in 1992, although I had been over a couple of times without the Berkshire Belle in 1993/4. It was in 1993 that we discovered America (yes, we know that others had found it before we did), fell in love with the country and have holidayed there exclusively since, going once, twice or even thrice, a year missing just one year up until 2019. We sold the house we had bought over there in 2019, then missed a couple of years due to the pandemic before trying again in 2022 and 2023, but neither of those trips was a great success, the latter one nearly killing me. America is no longer the place that we fell for and so, on that basis we decided to return to Europe, but where?

We wanted to try Italy, but it is a long drive and neither of us speak the lingo. Spain we did not enjoy on our one trip there, and Portugal, whilst we liked our week there on the Algarve in 1993, did not appeal for a repeat visit. We both speak a little French, the Hastings Hottie better than me, and we had enjoyed our holidays in Brittany and the Charente Maritime when we first got together, and so France it was to be.

The Wonder of Wokingham (there, I’ve got all three pet names into one blog) fired up her iPad and found us a bite in the Dordogne, about as far the other side of Bordeaux as the one we stayed at a couple of times in the Charente. It was too far to drive in a single day (the lady does not drive) and so I plotted routes for two days each way with 6-7 hours driving each day with an overnight stop.

The longest drive I have done in recent years has been the four hour slog up from Miami airport to our old villa in central Florida, so I was a bit concerned about that amount of driving, especially in a right-hand drive car on left-hand drive roads. I need not have worried: We got on fine using mainly the Autoroutes, and the little transponder that I bought for the tolls worked fine.

The gite was excellent, by far the most comfortable that we have stayed in, and so good that we have booked it again for next year. The weather was not good though, and very unseasonable. The local farmers are all concerned for their vines and prune crops and we have the ignominy of witting in the gate watching the rain whilst our doorbell camera back home showed our tom cat sauntering down the front path in the Swindon sunshine. Such is life.

Because of the weather we did not get to explore much on foot. We found one Sunday market the first weekend whilst out on the supermarket run, but is was chucking it down and when we went back the following weekend in good weather it was not on. The other market that we tried, a 90 minute drive away, was so packed that we could not park. In the end, having driven around the town twice, I parked illegally for us to use a public convenience (not a pleasant experience) and we headed back to civilisation and lunch.

We ate well though, mostly back at the gate with me cooking. We got by with our, very rusty, French and settled in to the extent that we felt very much at home. At our age we probably do not have too many holidays like this left in us, but we are going to have a short trip back to France later this year, just a quick run over with a specific purpose in mind, and will be back in the Dordogne next year.

The highlight of the trip? For me it was getting my passport stamped both ways: How I missed that in the dire years of open borders.