Little town, little quiet village. ? Far off the international tourist trail, this is what we chose to represent most of our time in France. This first took us to a 13-day housesit in Le Dorat, in Nouvelle Aquitaine, aka “Little Britain” thanks to the heavy influence of British expats, who in large part moved down to France to escape Brexit and increasing prices.
In addition to having local chums, Le Dorat had many medieval touches including a 15th Century fortification gate, and partial ramparts surrounding the town. Living here, we got to experience the local weekly markets, the superbly friendly French faces, who seemed extra understanding of our effort to speak the language, and…not much else. It really was quiet.
To get there, we traveled north by bus from Toulouse to Limoges (4 hours/8.50€ each) and then from Limoges to the tiny village of Le Dorat by train (1 hour/11€ each) because a bus wasn’t available!
As expected, it was very easy traveling.
Limoges
Before getting to solitude, while in transit, we spent one night in the porcelain capital of France. It was interesting to see a French city, virtually unknown to international visitors. This mid-size city hosts a stunning, albeit slightly phallic train station, a cathedral with some seriously stunning stained glass and symmetry,
Other than looking like a penis, this station is unique because it was built completely above the tracks rather than alongside them. Between 1942 and 1945, the station was occupied by German troops. The Germans used an underground passage, located under the railway tracks, as a passive defense shelter. This towering 67-metre high tower is taller than that of the Gare de Lyon in Paris. It holds a clock with four faces.
We read that the Limoges Cathedral has the sort of flamboyant gothic cathedral you normally only get north of River Loire. Since flamboyant and gothic aren’t really words that get tossed together often, we didn’t know what to expect.
An area of Limoges that was particularly charming was Rue de la Boucherie. It felt a bit German to us.
The diminutive little Chapelle Saint-Aurélien built in the 1400’s is easy to miss.
The Town Hall of Limoges looks undeniably French in its 19th Century elegant neo-Renaissance style.
We found Limoges to be surprisingly diverse, including many people of Middle Eastern and African descent.
Le Dorat Housesit
From Limoges we piled onto the regional commuter rail, which was an absolute hot box. Fortunately the conductor shuffled us to another one with A/C where we got to sit across from three teenage girls, all wearing Converse sneakers with doodles all over them. They couldn’t have spoken any quieter for their age.
Arriving in Le Dorat, were greeted by an 85-year-old quintessential British cat lady complete with a darling tea tray in our room. We immediately couldn’t help but notice there were a lot of faces looking at us in this house. <See upper right, middle photo.> Susan was incredibly kind and offered us meals and champagne, but talked incessantly in one-sided conversations about courgettes, her neighbors, and of course, her cats.
Naturally, she also ended up sticking around way longer than expected. So, we got to take a road trip to the grocery store where she comically watched over Greg’s driving skills like he was a 15-year old student driver. When we arrived to the Lidl, we stuffed our cart full of French goodies including cheeses, shrimp and wines. We found groceries to be about 30% cheaper than in the States. We got about a one week supply for 79 euros which was almost equal to the dollar during our time in France.
Susan finally departed, piling into her camper van which she took van-lifing up to to Holland for 12 days. She left us with the responsibility to cater to her four cats, in a large three story home, which was on the edge of town and about a 10-minute walk to the center.
And, the backyard also offered a pool and some unexpected finds like a robot operated lawn mower and robot pool cleaner. The heap of clothes is our laundry getting ready to be freshly lined dry. Unfortunately, she did not have a robot to take care of that service.
What she did have was some other spiky and slimy surprises. This was the first time we’ve ever actually seen a hedgehog in the wild. There were two and seem to sift through the dirt looking for bugs and snails. Stop it Hedgie! Those are for escargot in this part of the world!
The pool was a nice addition, but unfortunately, the weather hadn’t really been hot enough to appreciate using it. One day, when Mandy was trying to use it, the neighbor (with the phenomenal garden) asked how the pool was (in French.) Mandy’s response was “un peu frío!!” Who gets why this is funny?! <Sigh> ?
The friendliest of our Fab Four: Ronnie. Short for Veronica. All the cats had human names seemingly plucked from the 50’s UK, or the Archie Comic Books. Betty, Wilson, Reggie and Ronnie.
There was also a lot of ummm…stuff….in this house. Much of it unused and collecting layers of life on it. One of those items includes a full-on outdoor rotisserie oven. So, of course being that we’ve never had access to our own rotisserie oven, Greg had to give it a whirl. (Or, rather the chicken did the twirling.)
The village of Le Dorat itself was super tranquil and according to Susan, offered “at least one of everything.” We were also warned before we arrived that you’re gonna need French in this tiny rural village of 2000 people. And, while it was definitely helpful, during our time there, we ran into equally as many British people who we astonishingly could communicate with quite efficiently. ?
The village dates form 950 AD. Some say that Le Dorat (which means ‘golden’) owes its named to the gilded angel located at the summit of the “Lou Dora” bell tower. Originally there were four imposing entrances through the fortified walls of the village but of these only the Porte Bergere remains today. It was given this name because it was originally the gate for bergeres (shepherds) to use.
Tranquil streets. Most of the architecture dated from the 16th & 17th Centuries. The reason most people stop by Le Dorat (which isn’t a lot) is for the Collegiale Church of Saint-Pierre, which was originally constructed in 12th Century.
Mandy squats upon one of the very intact ramparts.
The local market came to town every Thursday. We were mostly into it for the produce, particularly the peaches. And the CHEESE. We’ve never seen such an abundance of artisan delights. We typically bought them in wedge of 100-200 grams, which ranged from 2-3 euros.
The local hospital.
A view from the top of the ramparts.
Oooo!! What kind of character lives here??!
One of the local restaurants. In reality, there were about eight to choose from.
The main square, sadly swimming in a pool of greenless concrete.
A well-turned-flower-basket near Petit Fontaine, a popular place that the expats liked to congregate.
The local pharmacy, with certain services available 24/7.
Just a house we loved.
Because we had a kitchen and grocery store, we didn’t eat out much while here, saving a ton of money, but on the last day we decided to splurge on our first official French meal at Le Vieux Cedre, which is “decent, but where the truckers hang out,” according to Susan. Well, truckers have good taste in food. We got a four course meal for 14 euros each (currently $14!)
Greg’s appetizer: Beet Salad
Mandy’s appetizer: A creamy herring & potato salad. Yum.
Greg’s Man Meal: Ah, at last…traditional steak & frites.
Mandy’s Man(less) Meal: A croque monsieur, which is a traditional ham and melted cheese sandwich. Unfortunately, of the literal 8 choices of entrees, not ONE of them was free of red meat and since it was pre-made, she sawed the ham off to add a “cherry on top” to Greg’s steak. The croque monsieur was….heavy. Like figuratively and literally.
Agh. 3rd course. More cheese. At this point….it finally had happened. Mandy was “cheesed out.” Greg, growing very Pooh-like, still moused a few nibbles from the tray which the servers bring around.
Mandy’s dessert: Agh! More cream! Vanilla Cream with Grand Marniere. She choked it down.
Greg’s dessert: Coconut Flan. Equally chokable.
Greg devouring his first official French steak & frites.
And of course, when in France, it’s pretty much mandatory to collect cheeses and puzzle together a phenomenal cheese platter. Although we had many, our favorite was one we took to a nearby park and were able to enjoy it as an official picnic charcuterie platter…(minus the meat.) This park is also where Mandy practiced daily walking (sans crutches!)
We were pretty good about procuring the pungent cheese to balance with the mild cheeses, as well as mixing sheep, cow and goat, although we missed the boat on grabbing a firm cheese. The cost of putting together this platter was about 5 € (currently $5!) because each block of cheese is about 2-2.50€ and there was plenty left for 2 more platters.
Row 1: of course a traditional bakery baguette. It’s not uncommon to see Frenchmen (people) gnawing on a baguette and nothing else, or riding down the street with one tucked in the bike of their bikes. So, it’s basically like kale in Portland. Minus the health factor ?
Row 2: Cranberries, Tomatoes (just mouthwatering and cheap in France) and gerkins/olives
Row 3:
- Roquefort-sheep cheese from Southern France. One of the world’s most delicious blue cheeses (Greg’s platter fav)
- Tome du Limosin-a raw cow’s milk cheese, with uncooked pressed paste and natural crust, made in micro farm production in Limousin, the region we’re in. It was wildly stinky and Greg liked it a little more than Mandy who couldn’t stop making “gag-me” faces when she sampled it. The important thing…she tried (even though the smell was equally repulsive to her?)
- Tomme de Pyrenees: A semi-hard cow’s milk mild cheese which has a buttery taste and is melts divinely
- Peaches: maybe the best we’ve ever had in our lives. Cost was .25€/each at the local market.
Row 4:
- Galet—a soft goat cheese from the Loire Valley. Very creamy and delicious!
- Traditional Brie-soft cow milk’s cheese with the perfect amount of mild earthy pungency named after the region in France. (Mandy’s platter fav)
Our full picnic set-up also, of course, included a bottle of delectable French wine for 2.50€. (Not the cheapest!) But even the 1.50€ bottles put Two bucks a Chuck bottles to absolute shame.
At this park, we also found an idyllic boardwalk trail at the edge of town for Mandy to walk. While in Le Dorat, she started to walk some without crutches in the bootie. And at that time, she was increasing in increments of 100 steps every day. These steps had to be quite focused because she was literally counting and it was also meditative. Dealing with chronic pain, she was committed to going very gradually because this is where she had continued to have setbacks from pushing herself.
