Four more Collonges snapshots

Dans la rue à Collonges-la-Rouge

Collonges-la-Rouge, built of red sandstone, was founded in the 8th century, and some think that it might have been a Roman colony before that time. Here's a link to the English-language Wikipedia page about the village, if you want to read more about it.

Un des plus beaux villages de France

Thirty miles or so north of the little town of Bretenoux in the old Quercy province is one of the most striking plus beaux villages de France. It's built out of red rock. Have you been there? We drove through 20 years ago on out way home to Saint-Aignan after spending a few days in the Dordogne and Quercy areas. We had been there once before. It was a beautiful day. We had lunch at a restaurant with an outdoor terrace. I have more pictures.

Le château de Castelnau-Bretenoux

About 40 minutes by car from Rocamadour, and just 15 minutes from Autoire, stands what is probably the most impressive castle in the old Quercy province of southwestern France. Its name is Castelnau-Bretenoux [kass-tell-no bru-tuh-noo]. The Michelin Green Guide (for Périgord and Quercy) describes it as an énorme masse rouge and says its lacy stonework is de couleur sanguine. It was built starting in the 11th century. It is open to the public and owned by the French government. We didn't take the tour of the interior. Here's a link to Castelnau's web site.

Autoire, a village in the old Quercy province

The village in these photos, called Autoire, is not actually in the modern-day Dordogne, though it is in the Dordogne river valley. It is located only a 30-minute drive east of Rocamadour. It is also one of the plus beaux villages de France, as is another nearby village called Loubressac. There are two châteaux in Autoire. It's a place I'd like to go back to, because 20 years ago all we did was drive through and stop to take a few photos. We didn't go to Loubressac or either of Autoire's châteaux.

More views of Rocamadour

 

Rocamadour: views from on high

At Rocamadour, you can park your car at the bottom of the town and walk up to the top. There's also an elevator you can take for the steepest part of the ascent, if I remember correctly. The other option is to drive up the the top, walk down, and then take the elevator by up. I think we did that, and I took pictures of house farther down.

The price of fuel in France

If my arithmetic is good, the price of a U.S. gallon of diesel fuel in France is just short of 9.75 U.S. dollars right now.

• 1 liter of diesel fuel costs 2.19 euros
• 1 U.S gallon = 3.8 liters
• 2.19 per liter x 3.8 liters = 8.32 euros
• 8.32 euros = 9.73 US dollars at today's exchange rate (1 euro = 1.17 USD)

Two or three days ago I went to the SuperU filling station in Saint-Aignan and put 25 liters (6.6 U.S. gallons) of diesel fuel in our Peugeot's fuel tank. That cost me 55.5 euros. (We have two cars, and both have diesel engines.) Premium gasoline costs just slightly less.

Walt went to the SuperU filling station early yesterday morning to get 10 liters of gasoline for our lawn mower. He said he was the only person buying fuel there at that hour.

We won't be making trips to places farther than 5 miles from our house for the foreseeable future.

Old Rocamadour photos, and...

...some ramblings about French fuel and bread nowadays

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Yesterday I did something that I'd been thinking of doing for nearly a week. I drove our old Peugeot over to our local SuperU supermarket and and filled the car's tank with diesel fuel. It was down to about a quarter full. The Citröen has about half a tank of diesel fuel in it, and I may go fill it up next week if I can.

And yes, the supermarket is where you go to fill your car's fuel tank if you live around here. There are no longer any service stations in the Saint-Aignan area. We used to have a couple, but they but they closed down years ago.

I had been watching reports of possible fuel shortages on the news for while. Prices have been going up too, to about double the price of diesel fuel a month or two ago. I decided the time had come for a fill-up. We can't really live here without a car to go shopping in, even though we have three local supermarkets, each one not more than a three-mile drive from our house. Walking to one of them would take some time, though, and it wouldn't be easy to bring a good supply of groceries back home on foot.

I didn't know what I'd find when I drove to the supermarket. Long lines of cars waiting to fuel up was one possible scenario. Another was pumps closed down because of shortages. There are a dozen or so pumps at the SuperU filling station (for high-test gasoline and regular gas, as well as diesel fuel). I've heard that diesel fuel is in especially low supply right now. Sure enough, at least one of the diesel pumps was not working. Payment is by credit or debit card.

However, I decided to drive over there at about 7 a.m. because I thought that might a time when other people were not out and about yet. In fact there wasn't a single car at the filling station when I got there. One other car drove in a few minutes after I got there. Leaving the gas station, I had a thought: What about bread? It would be good to lay in a supply so we wouldn't have to waste fuel every other day or so driving around to find an open boulangerie. The two bread bakeries remainiing in Saint-Aignan were not yet open at that early hour, so I drove to the village on the other side of the river. The boulangerie there was open.

We buy several baguettes at a time and keep them in the freezer at home to avoid having to drive to a boulangerie several times a week.They thaw well and are good, but they're not as good as fresh baguettes. When we came to live here 20 years ago, there were six boulangeries within two miles of our house. Nowadays, there's only one. All the others have shut down one by one over the years. I think most people buy their bread at the supermarket. Unless you live in a big city, well... la vie en France n'est plus ce qu'elle a été...

"Perched" villages

A "perched" village is one built at the top and/or down the sides of a steep hill or promontory. One of the most famous villages of this type in France is the one called Rocamadour, built on a site about an hour's drive on winding, narrow roads southeast of the Château Montfort, which posted about a few days ago.

Here's Rocamadour from afar.

Below is a closer view.

Better

It's raining again this morning, but not so hard. Tasha the Shelie seems to be over her appetit loss and general lethardy. All that is good news. I've got more photos from Dordogne, but I'm not ready to struggle with posting them yet. Later...

Gloom

It's pouring rain outside this morning. The dog is feeling sick, so she needed to go outdoors at 5ive a.m. She got soaked. I was able to dry her off some when she finally came back inside. She wouldn't eat anything. No pouch food, no bread, no kibble. No dog biscuits. The only thing she would eat was a small portion of her morning croissant that we share every day. She did drink a small amount of water. Then she went back outside and wandered around in the yard for a few more minutes. I'm not sure what the problem is. More later.

There are heavy rains in France, right now, to the south and west of us, with flooding and hail. Charming.

Tasha the collie slept for about five hours this morning. Then she suddenly woke up at around 10 o'clock and ate a small amount of food. She walked around in the house for almost an hour. She has now gone back downstairs, where we have the front and back doors open so that she can go outside when she needs or wants to.

Dordogne châteaux (3): Montfort

Here are a couple of shots of another château on the Loire less than half an hour's drive from Castelnau and Beynac. It's called the château de Monfort, and the first castle on this site was built starting in the 11th or 12th century... and torn down the the 13th. It was torn down and rebuilt st least three times during the Hundred Year's war between the English and the French in the 1300s and 1400s, if I can believe what I read. Here's a link to the Montfort web site, in English and with photos of many other châteaux.

Dordogne châteaux (2): Beynac

A mile or so north of the Château de Castelnaud and also on the Dordogne river, is the Château de Beynac, also built in the 12th century. The owners of Beynac and the owners of Castelnau were at war with each other for centuries, during the Hundred Years' War between England and France in the 1300s and 1400s.

Below is a close-up of the main tower at Beynac.

Dordogne châteaux ( 1): Castelnau

This was one of our first stops as we rode into the Dorgogne province 20 years ago. It's called Castelnau (meaning "New Castle"). A first castle was built on this site in the 12th century, but it was torn down a century later. Then, for several  centuries, Castelnau was often more of a construction site or ruin than it was a functioning château, from what I've read.

It was re-built a few more times over the centuries and has looked as it does now for more than century. In the first photo here, you can see how a village has grown up around the base of the castle.