West to the Dordogne

A favourite hiking area in France is the Cevennes Mountains. We stayed at St- Jean –du- Gord; known because it was here that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote “Travels with a Donkey” about his walk through the Cevennes. It’s a beautiful area and we drove the Gorges du Tarn scenic route with Homer; a bit hair-raisingly narrow in places. Heading roughly northwest every route is as scenic as the previous; as mountains give way to the rolling hills, pastures and vineyards of the Lot Valley and the Southern Dordogne. We visited the Unesco village of Conques; a fully preserved Bastide Town with the Medieval Cathedral of St Faith. Her remains and other relics such as splinters of the cross and skulls and bones of various popes are kept rather macabrely in ornately decorated gold trunks and boxes. France definitely has the best street markets in all of Europe and we seemed to catch market day somewhere nearly every day. In Villefranche we bought a great piece of grass fed, well aged Limousin rump from the market butcher. One of the great things about travelling in a camper is the home cooking. We have no microwave or oven but I am getting pretty good at cooking almost anything on a one plate stove. Neil scans the internet for local recipes and then refers to these dishes as “My” Lamb Cassoulet or “My” Coq-a-Vin; without so much as lifting a knife or a spatula. . Oh, the French really take food seriously and the selection in supermarkets is amazing – whole aisles just dedicated to cheese and wonderful deli counters. We discovered an amazing local cheese made by nuns and called Trappe d’Echourgnac; softish and marinated in hazelnut liqueur.

This being Homer’s year of the wine routes; we had a very pleasant stop in Cohors; a relatively young wine region specialising in Malbec. It’s a university town with a great vibe and an excellent Maison-du-Vin for tasting; cheaper than drinking in a bar; and good wine with a very knowledgeable sommelier at hand.

From here we headed to Bergerac for a few nights. It’s a rainy summer in the Dordogne this year and it rained on and off most of Bastille Day ( July 14 ) but luckily cleared up for the most amazing fireworks display that evening. Our campsite was perfectly located on the opposite riverbank to the old city so we had grandstand seats.