On the road again...and some observations

After leaving Albi, we had quite a long drive ahead of us, all on country roads, meaning slow progress.

Other than a couple of stops at hill-top medieval towns and other photo-ops, we kept on travelling on.  I was still feeling a bit miserable with my cold, so I think I kept my eyes closed most of the way! Arrived at hotel near Sarlat-la-Caneda quite late.  We are very rural here, but very peaceful too.  The hotel rooms are semi-detached and date back to the 17th century.

Anyway, some observations about our French experiences so far:

The people - very friendly and polite, but sometimes only in a 'professional' way, so there is no genuine interaction.  Obviously, the language is a barrier, but only one person has even asked where we come from.

The language - we are able to communicate enough (and lots of French people have some English) but we have had a couple of experiences where the guides' commentaries have been wholly in French and we haven't had a clue. Fun trying though!

The hotels - all of them have been great in their own way, and certainly none have disappointed.  However, they do not offer tea or coffee, hot water, or even cups or glasses.  We stocked up for pre-dinner drinks only to find we had nothing to drink them from.  Fortunately, we discovered a couple of disposable cups in the bathroom.

Food  - we haven't usually had breakfasts included here, so we've been buying a baguette mid morning, with a cuppa, and this has done us for breakfast and sometimes even lunch.

Dinners have been very, very good.  Most places offer three course packages, so we have taken those, and both the food, and the dining 'experiences' have been excellent everywhere we have gone.

Fois Gras - the two most used words we have encountered in this part of France!  It is everywhere - it seems most small towns have an artisan fois gras maker, and every menu has half a dozen fois gras options. Not my cup of tea, but Allan has got in to it.

So far so good!