Trip Diary Part II - Beaulieu and Gagnac

France, 9-26-27/05
The trip down to Beaulieu was...long. We had to get to Gatwick airport, fly to Toulouse and then take a bus to the train station, take a train to Soulliac and then an hour long taxi ride. For a good portion of the day we were arguing with Inntravel (the tour group) over a major misunderstanding about 1 leg of the trip; in the end we paid a bit more and got what we wanted: a night at a very nice hotel with a Michelin starred restaurant.
When we got to Soulliac, the driver who picked us up was a very funny old guy who drove like a madman and critized everyone else on the road. We finally got to Le Manoir de Beaulieu, and went for a 2 1/2 hour walk, which seemed to me to be almost all uphill. We toddled back to the hotel and had a very nice meal:
- smoked duck on a red pepper puree
-goat cheese terrine
-poached sea perch with beans in a coconut sauce
-cheese
-palate cleanser of chocolate mousse and banana puree
-tiramisu with fresh figs
We also had a white wine, which I can't quite remember, I believe it was a Sancerre.
Dinner conversation was fairly amusing since we were all pretty tired. But at one point we were discussing the whole kiss on the cheek bit and Jack was doing some demonstrations for us. We chatted up the maitre d', who was actually from Montreal. There was a bit of a language barrier and at points we had no clue what he was saying, but we laughed at what we assumed were jokes anyway. After dinner we sat by the fire in the lounge for a bit and I had a nice talk with Kerrin.

The next day we didn't start out till very late - Debbie needed medicine and Kerrin needed sunglasses. I took a short walk around the village and walked by the Dordogne river for a bit. Finally at 2:30, we headed out of Beaulieu. The first hour and a half were basically all uphill and my calves felt it later on. Granted the views were gorgeous and we passed by some really pretty houses in some pretty tiny hamlets, but the first part was murder. There are a lot of farms in the region; everywhere we went we saw apple and walnut orchards, pumpkin patches, tomato vines and vast fields. We eventually stopped at the top of the mountain we were climbing and had picnic lunch packed for us by the hotel. We stopped for about an hour. When we started up again, after only a few minutes we ended up in front of a barbed wired fence, which was not supposed to be there. It took around 25 minutes and a conference with a local farmer on his tractor to find out we were on course. Of course we had to trek some nice thick mud to be back on that track. A bit later we started our descent and walked thru parts of a forest that can only be described as "fairy tale spooky", with some dense foliage and it seemed almost nighttime as we walked through. And did I mention the tons of mud and gigantic red slugs? We had seen some the day before and I had hoped that was the last of them. But no, they reappeared in the forest and since they looked just like red leaves you had to be very careful where you stepped.
Just before the sun went down and it got pitch black, we hit the hamlet of Port de Gagnac and headed to our hotel, the Auberge du Vieux Port, Gagnac. As soon as we arrived the owner asked us if we had gotten lost, since the walk is usually only 3 1/2 hours, and chastized us when we told her we just got a late start. Everyone got changed and we went down to dinner, which was quite fantastic:
-tomato surrounded by puff pastry and covered in melted bleu cheese, with a salad with figs and walnuts
-duck breast in some wine sauce, with potatoes and zucchini
-a serving of Cabecou, a goat cheese which struck me as slightly brie-like
-a lovely sorbet trio surrounded by chocolate: strawberry, blackberry and pear
Everyone else had trout almandine and pears with chocolate and whipped cream.
With dinner we had a nice Bordeaux and infusion tea with dessert.
We were all just exhausted after the meal and went to back to our rooms right after we ate. I took my shower before I went to bed and managed to slip and fall, giving myself a gigantic black bruise on my butt that hurt for the next three days.