Move along, move along. Nothing to see here, except vacation pics. (Oh noooooooooo, vacation pictures?!) This is a self-serve post–you can jump ship now, or you can take a gander at our trip. I’ve put together three different galleries, to help with a bit of context. St. Cirq Lapopie and the Sud-Ouest. Meursalt and the Rando-Gourmande. And last of all, Paris.
St. Cirq is about 70 miles north of Toulouse, which puts it in the Southwest corner of France. We spent a week there, using our lovely renovated 15th century digs as home base for forays to Toulouse, to the market at Cahors, Rocamadour, to the Gouffre de Padirac and to Pech Merle, one of the last sites of neolithic cave painting open to the public (alas, no photos allowed, for all the right reasons). We spent a couple of days in Meursault, visiting our friend and Provencal biking guide Thomas Keville-Davies. Tom’s renovating a 15th century mill, transforming it into a small inn for people looking for a launching pad for cycling or culinary adventures in Burgundy. As luck would have it, we timed our visit for the annual Rando-Gourmande, an incredible 8-kilometre hike through the vineyards surrounding Meursault, with stops for food and wine all along the way. We wound things up with a visit to Paris in order to catch up with another friend, Jody’s college roommate and our frequent host in Provence, Amy Cohen. After dinner in the wonderful Lou Tiap the night before our flight home, all of us were walking back to Bastille when the commotion from an open bar made us peer inside. US versus Belgium, overtime just starting. How could we not stop and watch? French fans moaned right along with us the US eventually yielded to the Belgians. It almost made me forget about the ten extra pounds of fois gras and smoked duck breast I was packing around my middle. Almost. Enjoy. Ken
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St. Cirq Lapopie, with various shots of Cahors, Toulouse and environs.
Meursault, Tom’s mill, and the Rando Gourmande.