Ken's ancestral tour through
SW France - 7 - Souliac to Condom via La Force

Monday 30th June 2003

Not a very good night for me, partly owing to Avis taking half the bed - the middle half. It was overcast in the morning & we had breakfast at 0730, so were away at 0815 in the cool. The drive along the Dordogne Valley along the green roads was interesting but one does not see the river very often. There was a big castle of the De Montforts & later, another even bigger one but we stopped to oggle a village, Les Roque Gageac, which was plastered to the rock at the side of the valley, like several others along here. (The de Montforts are probably due for a bad press with the Delaforces, because I would be surprised if 'we' were not up to our necks in the Cathar business, see this link).

Towards Bergerac, it was less interesting, much, & Bergerac itself was nothing special, which I had divined from the Bergerac web site, which is in English. Nor was La Force, although we gave it a good going over. All that is left of the Caumont's chateau is the gatehouse. (See the scrapbook page for La Force - Perigord). We went back to Bergerac, as it has a bridge over the Dordogne & headed South, stopping at Seyches for lunch in the Restaurant du Mistral, €9 each menu of four courses: soup (home made, very good), a salad buffet like Garfunkel's best with meats & fish etc, kebab main course & I had profiterolles for pud & Avis, home made pineapple tart. Super. A 'rat run' road leaves here to avoid Marmade & we took a short-cut from Aiguillon towards Lavardac, which was where we started to look for a hotel, as the sun came out at La Force & things had warmed up quite a lot. Now, the next bit is unusual for Mainland Europe, where finding hotels is usually no problem... The first was shut on Mondays. On to Nerac - no hotels. We tried the Phare at Montcrapeau (that's what I called it) which was also shut but after driving round Condom several times, I found the Logie des Cordeliers (as found on the web) which although modern, is very nice, quiet & has a swimming pool. We flaked out for a bit & got into the pool, chatting as best we could with a couple of medical students. The landlady is our age & rather pretty & the landlord spoke English, so I explained our mission to him. After a shower, we went into the town for a salad at the Pizzeria del Fulvio by the cathedral, €18 for 2 with coffee.