Beautiful Bergerac

One of the main reasons we were staying near Monflanquin was so that we would have easy access into Bergerac....it had looked so nice in the photos we found of it when we were doing our research of where to go in the Dordogne region.

Many of you may know of Bergerac through the famous play written by Edmond Rostand called Cyrano de Bergerac, based on the real life Hercule-Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac who lived in the early 1600's. He was a French dramatist and duelist, but never actually lived in Bergerac. For those of you that still do not recognise him...he famously had a very large nose and would challenge people to duels that teased him about its size! We found the two statues of him as we went around the town this morning.

The Original Stone Statue In Place de la Myrpe

The Newer Painted Statue In Place Pelissiere

Anyway, enough of the history lesson.

We arrived in town just before 10:30am, and you must have guessed by now......just in time to see one of the markets it is famous for. The market is located around the Notre Dame Church and down a few of the roads branching away from the church, and compared to many that we have been to up to date, is quite large and has a great selection of produce to choose from.

The Market Around Notre Dame Church

Stalls Everywhere

We only bought some big and very cheap punnets of Strawberries and Raspberries as we really did not need any more food, but these looked and smelled to good to resist.

We followed the market down a few of the streets and into a few of the surrounding squares, we even found an undercover section, honestly if you purchased everything that smelled or looked good while walking around this place you would go broke, it is all so good!

The Market Spread Into This Little Square

The Under Cover Market

After shopping in the market we went for a look around the great looking medieval part of the town just north of the Dordogne river, it was great. The buildings were just magnificent, many were now cafes and restaurants, there were quite a few people around that gave the town a good buzz and lively feeling, but not too many that made it impossible to enjoy the place......and with the a nice sunny, warm day moving into the high twenties, who could ask for more?

Lesley found a few nice shops that if we were back home she would have spent a fortune in...she just loves French furniture and decorations!

Ahhhh, The French Cafe Culture

Lesley In Her Version Of Paradise

No End Of Restaurants

Little Bars On Most Corners

It did not matter where you went in the old town, everywhere was beautiful, some of the old squares with trees and well planted gardens were just lovely.

A Truly Beautiful French Scene

Great Medieval Buildings

Looking Into The Place de la Myrpe

Looking Back At The Place de la Myrpe

Soon we were thinking about lunch so decided to walk a bit more and then make a choice of where we would eat. Lesley spotted some tables at a top of a small lane way...the lane way opened up into a lovely little square with a large oak tree in its centre and half a dozen restaurants on its perimeter.

Halfway around we found Villa Laetitia, a restaurant that's menu and interior design could have been designed by Lesley herself....well, that decision was easy, we would have lunch here

We ordered the Menu Du Jour (Menu Of The Day), which consisted of three courses for just 20 Euros each. Each course had a choice of three dishes, all made from good local produce....how could we have ordered anything else?

The young waiter who initially served us spoke very good English, that sounded even better with his French accent.....we commented on how good his English was, his reply came back "That is because I am English")....what?? Apparently he was English born and his family moved to France 10 years ago when he was 9. As we chatted I found out that he was a Chelsea supporter (I won't hold that against him), but the funny thing was that the more we talked about football the more we became aware of his English accent...even he said it altered depending on whom he was talking too or depending on the subject matter, what a nice guy and a great waiter.

We have obviously been together too long as we both ordered exactly the same dishes for each of the three courses.....Entree was the Assiette de Tapas Perigourdine (a selection of local tapas dishes), this was so well presented and so very tasty. This was followed by a main of Magret de Canard with Jus Preigourdine (Duck Breast with a local mushroom jus served with assorted greens) just as tasty as the entree. All ended with a dessert of Morleux au chocolate with noix de coco (a beautifully made chocolate molten centred chocolate cake), the perfect end to the perfect meal. We of course had local wines with each course all finished of with a short black coffee......no need to eat anything tonight, so full!

Restaurants On All Sides Of The Square

Restaurant Villa Laetitia

Happy and Hungry (Happy Is On The Left)

Assiette de Tapas Perigoudine

The Great Staff

My Sweet Wife With Her Sweet Dessert

After lunch we made our way back to the car via the river trying to walk off some of the calories we had just taken in. The scenes along the river were brilliant.

A View To The Other Side

Boats On The Dordogne

From the river we turned back into the town past even more impressive architecture back to the car.

So French...

What a great day, it was nice to get back into a bigger town which still had the beauty of many of the villages we had been visiting.....now we just have to rest up while we digest that beautiful lunch!

 

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