4th: Leaving Agen - Return to Paris

Hardly slept at all last night. I had taken some 24 hour sudafed the day before and I was completely wired. I always overreact to medication, and this time was no different than others.

At 8am, Mrs Smith came to wake us up, but I was already awake. John showered and then we both quickly dressed, stripped the bed, and packed up our things. We dropped of the three children at their riding lesson (Roge) and headed to the gare in Agen.

Adjacent to the gare, in the same building, was a small cafe where we all stopped to have cafe et croissants. There was a strange woman that was exiting when we were entering...she stared at Mr Smith and made a funny movement with her mouth...like she was going to say something but was terrified. It was too funny and was the brunt of much of our breakfast conversation. We speculated about what must have been going on in her mind at that moment. Mr Smith said to her, "Ca va?" and she said nothing so he said next, "No ca va?" and she just stood there stupified. It was hilarious.

So we had our cafe grande, croissants, said our goodbyes. We had a spectacular visit with the Smith family and wished that we'd had more time to spend with them. They'll be coming to the US on the 12th to stay for a month - hopefully we'll get to see them again before they head back to the chateau.

Our train to Bordeaux was an older train, lots of stops along the way. Once in Bordeaux, we swtiched to one of the highpowered bullet trains. My ears ached all the way to Paris. In Paris we exited the Montparnase station and found that we needed to book a hotel for the night. We walked around the station a bit, checking for an internet pub but there was none. There were a few hotels, but it seemed we were in a bit of a red light district of sorts and figured that it wasn't the best place to stay. John's patience was running thinner and thinner so I suggested that we return to the Pont du Neuf cafe where we knew we'd be able to have wine, food, and surf to find a place in which to stay for our last night in Paris.

Pascal wasn't our waiter tonight. Instead we had the rude yound man that we'd had on our first visit to the cafe. (He refused to sell us a pichet of wine because we were "in the wrong room"). We ordered some fries, an omlette, and a small pichet of wine, and then logged on. I wrote to a number of ads posted on the Paris version of Craigslist and amazingly one person wrote back immediately. While he didn't have a room for us in one of his rentals, he kindly offered to help find us a place for the night. He found us a room in the Hotel Metronome (Marais/Bastille border) for a meager 65€ a night. It had a double bed, a twin bed, a private bathroom. What more could we want on short notice on a Saturday night in Paris? Most places require a two night booking on a weekend so we were really in luck!

The room was on the 3rd floor (deuxieme etage in France) and was on the cheesy side. It was faily clean and didn't smell like smoke so I was rather happy. We left our suitcases and headed out almost immediately. The clerk asked to hold our key for us and I felt very weird about that. It wasn't until later that I realized that we had paid for the room in cash, received no receipt, and then he had the key. I panicked and feared that we might have lost not only our cash, but our bags. That thought loomed in my mind for most of the night.

So our last night in Paris was a bit strained. John's patience was thin as it took us a few hours to find a place (not unexpected), and we hadn't done ANY shopping at all for friends and family. It was getting late and all of the major department stores were closed (Le Bon Marche, Samaratain, etc). We walkd the Marais, and luckily a few places were open, however, there really wasn't anything that we saw that we wanted to buy for anyone. Most items are "made in China" and bringing a gift from France should be FROM France, made in France, by REAL French people.

We gave up and decided it was time to grab a bite. John's blood sugar dangerously low, and he on the verge of a nuclear meltdown. We tried to find a street parallel to Rivoli that houses a good number of Japanese and Vietnamese restaurants, but we didn't find it. We did find a nice veggie restaurant in the Marais (Le Marais) and dined on the following:

Soy Protein Lasagne 9€
Tea 10€ (yes, TEN EUROS...insane!)
Pizza Napolitaine 9€

The service was slow, very slow, the pizza came to the table with the champignons that I was so looking forward to, and then there were oodles of people smoking adjacent to us, despite the fact that we were in the no-smoking area of the restaurant. Can't really recommend going back to this one ever again. The waiter was friendly enough, but the rest of the experience just didn't cut it.

We headed back to the hotel room and our desk clerk was there watching the Miss France competition. He unlocked the door promptly and let us in. I was relieved that all was fine and that we hadn't "been taken" for a ride. We asked for a 6:30AM wake up call even though I was fairly certain we wouldn't need it: I never sleep well before a day of travel. No idea where that behaviour stems from, but I's been that way my entire life.

I left the computer on so that if I got up in the middle of the night I'd be able to check on the time. I stayed up for about an hour writing in my blog and then crawled under the sheets. I didn't bother to even take off my clothes as the room was cold and I figured that the cold would be just one more thing that would keep me up that night.

Day in Villeneuve-Sur-Lot and Surrounding Countryside

We awoke about 10am. I showered, freed the little beetles that had made their home in the bathroom, and then we were off for the day.

Mr. L drove us to Villaneuve. I finally bought some hair conditioner at a very modern hair stylist place. We stepped into a newer red brick church for a moment. I lit a candle and asked for a safe voyage home for John and I. We left the church and went for coffee and crepes at Jardin de Gormand, right around the corner in the town square.

Aften coffee, we wandered by an immobilier (ie, realtor) office and I spotted a lovely castle in the window for 561.000E ($734,910USD). It's a tad out of our range, but it IS an asking price and we could easily come in at 500E and see what they make of it. John and I both took a flier of the property and stuffed them away.

We dropped off two of the three children. One child didn't feel well (too many crepes on an empty stomach?) and another went along to keep company.

Back on the road, we went to the bastide of Penne D'Angenais where Richard the Lionhearted fought his last battle. The bastide is atop a high hilltop and is covered with winding cobblestone drives and pathways. The views are stunning. Richard the Lionhearted is reportedly buried at the fort at the top of the hill there. There are very old remains of an old fort which date to 1000AD +/- 80 years (?) There's also a neat old church (maybe a cathedral...what's the difference? When is a church large enough to become a cathedral?) Underneath the church we inspected the old caves that were the original place of worship for the inhabitents of this area more than 1000 years ago. There was a statue of Mary and a stone altar.

We ran into friends of Mr. L on the way down the bastide path and stopped to chat a while with them. Afterwards we visited a tapestry store and perused their wares, and then visited a 'christmas boutique' where the village was selling locally produced goods for a benefit of some sort. I bought a bottle of local wine, and John a packet of handmade water color paper.

After our purchases, we slipped into a small coffee shop for some espresso. A local man came in carrying his abysinnian cat (lovely creature) and we oohed and ahhed over the little fur being. After finishing our caffeinated drinks we headed off to visit Roge, a horse riding school.

We then went to visit the friends of Mr. and Mrs. L that we had run to at the foot of the bastide. Their home is lovely and has an expansive view that seems to go on forever. Two unique elements to their home were, (1) their fireplace dates to Roman times and, (2) their staircase pole is carved from a single log that has been hollowed out. I didn't get pictures of either of these and am now wishing that I had. Sigh.

After our visit, we departed and stopped at a paint store briefly, then headed home where we snacked on a massive plate of cheese and crackers (yes, I popped some Sudafed that morning!) Mr. L opened a nice red to go with the cheese (1999 Chateau Les Cavailles Bergerac, Biaussat)

At 7:15PM we all piled into the car and John and I were dropped off in the town square while the L family went to dine at a friend's house. John and I had a 7:30PM reservation at:

La Gallerie
38 Bd de la Marine
47300 Villaneuve Sur Lot
Tel 05-53-71-52-12

Okay...for the menu, as always!

1/2 boutille Puisseguin St. Emilion
Chateau L'Eglise 2000 (15E for 1/2 boutille)

Green and black olives (yum!)
hors d'ouerves (meats and bread)

John's dinner:
2 eggs poached, atop bread rounds, smothered in morels and a brown gravy
Lotte kebabs in sauce w/vegetables and rice timbale
Assiette des fromages (blue brie et salade)
Tarte des pommess with glace vanille

Linda's dinner:
Tagliatelle carbonara with a egg yolk right in the center...very rich, lots of jambon
Tarte tatin with fromage blanc (which tasted like sour cream...dessert was too sweet for my palate)

We finished dinner at 10:50PM and although I suggested to John that we call for a cab right away, he thought that we should wait until we had a little walk. Well, by 11:15PM we had discovered that there were no taxi cabs to be found AT ALL at the time in the night in Villaneuve. We tried calling a cab ourselves using the taxi devise...alas, it didn't work. We also went back to the restaurant, but they had all gone home. We then found a bar and pleaded with the bartender to help us find a taxi. He called at least three taxi companies, and none answered.

Worried that we were doomed to either walk home or have to wait longer in the cold, I made off to the local police station where in my best french, I asked them to please find us a cab. On the first call they had success but at that instant, Mr L, his family, and John arrived at the front door of the Villaneuve police station TO THE RESCUE! I apologized profusely and thanked the police for their efforts...and then quickly departed. John and I were so happy to have the good fortune of Mr L driving by as he did. Whew...

So...back at the house, we stayed up for a short while chatting with Mrs L about local real estate, and with the children about how they could build their own websites. Before going to bed I promised to help the children build their own blogs. Maybe I will do this by Tuesday!

From Paris to Aquitaine!

Had a hard time sleeping last night...too much beer, wine, champagne?? Got up at 8am, made coffee, cleaned the apartment for Bill, and set off for the TGV train station. The TGV is the bullet train that you can get from a handful of train stations in the Paris area. (I think they also have non-bullet trains, but who wants to ride those?)

Took Rue Saint Maur metro (3?) to Montparnasse Gare. Bought pastries at the Paul bakery and had my first rude encounter with a Parisian boy with a unibrow. I asked him if the croissants in the back were "Pommes" (ie, apples) and he said "oui" and tossed one into a bag. Well, John came down from the train station and wanted something different. It was near impossible to tell this boy that I no longer wanted the apple croissant. He rolled his eyes at me, sighed loudly, and mumbled about me to his coworkers. He was so impatient.

Grabbed a sandwich and slice of tart for the train at another place near to Paul. We're seated in 2nd class so the seats aren't as roomy, but everyone says it's not worth it to travel first class.

As the train went through the tunnels it created a pressure vacuum that caused my ears to hurt intensely. Usually I can open my eustachian tubes rather easily, but with my cold (?) I found it near impossible to equilibrate. This is something we weren't warned about at all. The ear pressure is more severe than ANY plane ride either John or I have ever experienced before.

We arrived in Agen without delay, and right at the train exit was our friend who lives with his wife and two children near to Agen in the town of Villaneuve. (They'd like to remain private in this blog so I'll just refer to them as Mr. and Mrs. "L"). Mr. L took us to their home on the outskirts of Villaneuve and then ran off to retrieve his children. I was rather exhausted and took a short nap while John read downstairs. Their home was simply stunning and dates to the late 1600's. The oldest reference to the house was in 1693 or 1694, but it might be a tad older. The land was conveyed in about 1500 to the builder of the house, so he could have commenced thereafter....such intrigue! If I owned such a house, I'd have a hard time not studying every nook and cranny and would likely take a shovel to excavate as well. :))

That night Mr. and Mrs "L" had a friend over for dinner, and so we dined with the family, a friend of the children, the house caretakers, and the family's dinner guest.

Menu:
1999 Chateau Duluc Bordeaux
Veuve Cliquot Champagne
Pommery Champagne

Chicken, mashed potatoes, tomato surprise (very luscious tomatoes), cauliflower with onion sauce (I could have eaten the whole plate of it!), carrots, and a lovely homemade gingerbread pudding with a creamy sauce to go atop.

Talk about being spoiled.

After dinner, it was off to bed with the lot of us. I swore I'd sleep in until 1:00PM the next day.