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One of Bob and my first stops in Souillac was the tourist office to learn about some of the sights to see in the area.  The employee was very helpful, providing a good map of the Lot region and highlighting areas of interest.  Bob noted later that many were categorized as being among the “most beautiful villages in France.”  Per the website beyond.fr, as of 2013 there were 161 villages with this rating from the Plus Beaux Villages de France Association. The basic requirements for receiving the designation are — population less than 2000, at least 2 village sites or buildings classified as “protected,” and a request from the municipality for consideration.

Although this isn’t the most discerning criteria, we couldn’t let our stay pass without seeing some of these villages.  We were not disappointed.  In reality, the drive alone to these places was gorgeous and worth the trek out.  We visited the Most Beautiful Villages listed below over a couple of days.  These were primarily photo-taking walkabouts, as the villages are very small and there is not a lot open during the off season.  We always had some company (other visitors) on our explorations.

Autoire — This village is set in a valley and surrounded by cliffs. Many of the buildings are from the 16th and 17th century and are made with local honey-colored stone.  The village had posted a handy walking map, so we used that as our guide for our tour.



Loubressac — We stopped at this village after Autoire, as they are very close.  This village is known for its flowers, but it also had lovely views of the surrounding countryside.   

Carennac — This village had a lovely courtyard with a pretty church, castle, and local buildings.

Collognes-la-Rouge — This may have been our favorite village.  We loved the red brick which was so different from the other villages.  It also had the most interesting buildings in a very compact space (or so we thought) including lots of food shops, restaurants, and a distillery.  This village definitely had the most foot traffic as well.

 

Curemonte — This village is long and thin and runs along a hilltop.  We had a lovely picnic lunch on another hilltop overlooking the town.

Bob and I had an awe-inspiring visit to Rocamadour on Tuesday.  Rocamadour is a community southeast of Souillac in the Lot region.  It is built on multiple levels along a cliff and it is known for its Sanctuary to the Blessed Virgin Mary as well as for a local, raw-milk goat’s cheese.  The sign below helps to explain the layout of the community.

 The day started out very foggy, so we sat and had a coffee in one of the cafes after we arrived at 11 to allow some time for the fog to lift.  

The following are different views of the Sanctuary and show how it is built into the cliff.

Photos of the shops, etc. on the street.

From the top level, we got some great views of the surrounding area.

Last Sunday, we followed up our Saturday trip to the Sarlat Market with a hike along the trail that parallels the road into Sarlat.  The trail appeared to be a renovated old railroad line.  We started our hike in Peyrillac et Millac and walked a little over 5k (one way) to a little past Rouffillac.  During our hike, we saw a number of local hikers who were doing a planned hike along a marked route, part of which overlapped with the trail we were on.  Each of those hikers wore a badge, and almost all of them were carrying hiking poles.  One of the highlights of the walk, for us, was hiking through a lighted 480 meter long rail tunnel.

Bob and I have had a number of opportunities to explore our latest home town.  Below are some photos from our meanderings.  We are definitely into fall here with highs recently in the 60s and lows in the high 30s.

 

 

On Saturday, Bob and I headed out for our first out-of-town adventure.  We headed to the town of Sarlat, about a 30 minute drive from Souillac.  Sarlat (full name is Sarlat-La-Caneda, with a tilde over the n) is located west of Souillac in the Dordogne region and is known for its Saturday market.  We had to check it out

We loved the drive there through the gorgeous countryside, walking (and tasting) our way through the market, and enjoying the cute lanes and plazas in which the market was located.  After perusing and shopping in the market, we explored a bit of the old town.  We were charmed by the town and were again impressed by how many languages the store employees could speak.  Bob and I have decided that we need to find jobs in a town that caters to international clientele to help encourage our learning of new languages.

The following are photos of the market as well as some of the specialty food stores that we popped into along the way.

Some non-food photos of Sarlat.

On the drive back to Souillac we saw a number of hikers on an extensive  pathway that paralleled the road.  We decided that hiking on part of this pathway we be a good way to spend some of our Sunday,  so we did.  More on that hike and more photos of Souillac in the next blog.  In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a more active photo of some of the chickens that we are watching.

 

Our current house sit began on October 11 when we brought the train in from Toulouse and were picked up at the station by our home owners. The train ride took about 2 hours and went by some lovely countryside — rolling hills, lots of trees, charming cottages, and some lakes (or rivers).  We arrived in Souillac (pronounced Sue-yak) round mid-day.

The home that we are caring for is a lovely house about 5 minutes by car out of the town center.  It is up a steep, windy road.  We are caring for the home, 2 dogs, and 24 chickens while the owners are on holiday in Spain.  We enjoyed our day with them, and they made us some lovely sandwiches for lunch and a great salmon and veggies dinner before they left a little after 8 am on the 12th.

The dogs are lovely.  They play great together, and they have a nice, large yard to run around in. We take them for a daily walk as well.

Finn is a rescue dog and is a Jack Russell mix.  He is 7 years old and loves to be loved.  He likes to rub against you to have you pet him.

Diesel is a 4 year old American Staffordshire.  While he is not fond of other dogs (except Finn) and is amazingly strong, he is actually a gentle giant who is less fond of bad weather than Finn.  Bob and I have both played tug with him with an old tire, and he is a great strength builder.  Sometimes walking with him on the lead, he can almost pull you off of your feet if he gets a sudden interest in something.

The chickens are new for us.  We collect eggs, feed them, pick up poop, and let them in and out of their coop each day.  They are fun to watch out in the yard, and the dogs let them be.  It does seem appropriate that the Pecks are caring for animals with peck-ability.

We are enjoying the amazing views from our home and are getting to know the charming town and hope to further explore the area, as the homeowners have generously left a car for our use (an automatic!). Souillac is on the border of the Lot and Dordogne regions of France.  Both are popular tourist areas with lots of history.

We will get some good hill work in on our walks to town.  I have run twice since we have arrived, and it’s about a 14 minute run along a residential street (versus the highway) into town.  This almost completely down hill, so the uphill route back has been a challenge.  It may be the longest up hill I’ve ever done, and I’m hoping it feels easier by the time we leave.

Some photos of the hills and countryside around Souillac —

More from Souillac and our travels in the next blog.  Yesterday and today have been rainy, so we’ve been catching up on tasks such as laundry, blogging, and haircuts (Beth this time — set up by our homeowners before they left).

 

On Sunday, we flew from Granada, Spain to Toulouse, France via Barcelona on Vueling Airlines.  The two flights were short — about an hour and 20 minutes from Granada to Barcelona and just an hour from Barcelona to Toulouse — but we had about a 4.5 hour layover in Barcelona.  The flights, check-in, and security processes were easy for both flights.  The only strange thing was that there was no formal boarding announcement.  Everyone just got up at the boarding time and queued in the appropriate line according to seat number.

We arrived in Toulouse a little after 4:00 (or 16:00 as we are getting use to saying) and then to a tram into town and then changed to a metro to get to our hotel.  All very easy with ticket machines in about 5 different languages.   We had a day and a half in Toulouse — not nearly enough time for what proved to be a beautiful city.  Sample photos below.

Some of the great public art that we saw around Toulouse —

The other thing that we really enjoyed were our walks and runs along the canal paths.  Beautiful!

As we do our walkabouts, it is always nice to find public bathrooms — especially free ones.  Toulouse was good about this.  This one was geared just for men, and a bit too public for my tastes, but Bob gave it a go.  Can you see his feet?

We have completed our quick, 2-city visit in the Andalusian region of Spain.  As mentioned in the prior blog, our initial stop was in Seville.  Neither Bob nor I knew much about it, but we both ended up really enjoying the city and hoping to be able to return sometime.  Photo highlights are below.

The Metropol Parasol, or the “mushroom of the incarnation” was one of our favorite things.  It’s the largest wooden structure in the world.  It looks cool when you come upon it in the plaza, but for 3 euros you can go up for a good view of the city and get a free drink.

As per usual, we saw some very ornately adorned churches.  Apparently, God blesses those who spend on decor rather than helping the needy.

We were really impressed with the Plaza de Espana which was originally built for a world expo and is the entrance to the large and lovely Maria Luisa Park which runs partly along the Guadalquivir River.  Below are photos of the Plaza —

Below are photos of the park and the river —

Our second stop in Spain was to Granada.  I had wanted to visit this city to see the Alhambra when I studied in Spain for a semester in college but never got there.  A group of us even had bought train tickets for an overnight trip to Granada, but something happened with the train (can’t remember if it was a strike or other issue).  The departure was cancelled, and the trip never got rescheduled. So, this was my chance to complete the mission.  Granada was lovely, though not exactly what I was expecting, and I never really bonded with the city.   Lots and lots of tourists and touristy restaurants, etc.  (I think I do better when I go in with fewer expectations.)  But still some lovely photo ops –click on the smaller photos for the captions.

Snippets from La Alhambra —

Bob and I left Olhao, Portugal for Seville, Spain on Wednesday Oct 5 on a 4:00 pm bus from Faro. It was a quick and lovely approximately 2 hour trip on a nice new bus with no stops.  We lost an hour en route and arrived at 7:00 pm Seville time.

We began the day at the Sea View Guest House so that our home owner could sleep in her own bed on her first night back after having traveled from Los Angeles to London Heathrow and then London Gatwick to Faro and then a train to Olhao. Whew! The Sea View Guest House provided a lovely end to our whole Portugal experience with a large room, including our own balcony where we ate our dinner while taking in the neighborhood sounds (which included the neighing of horses along with the usual dogs and residential people noise).

A couple of views from the top of our guest house —

Our last few days in Olhao were taken up with long walks and prepping for our departure. On Sunday, we walked approximately 2 hours to the town of Moncarapacho, a small community a bit northeast of Olhao. I was really just wanting a long walk, but we happily stumbled on a very large market which we enjoyed poking around. It had everything from produce to crafts to clothing to household goods as well as prepared foods. TMI Alert — I even bought 4 new pair of underwear for 5 euro!  This was great for me, as I have always felt that life should just come with underwear as it isn’t something I ever get thrilled about spending money on.

Scenes from walk to and in Moncarapacho —

Scenes from the market —

On Monday, we walked to the community of Estoi, also about 2 hours one-way, but this time a bit northwest of Olhao. On both walks we passed various orchards, although the walk to Estoi was along more rural roads. The goal for this walk was to see a former palace that has been converted into a pousada (usually a building of historic significance that has been converted into a government-owned inn). As with the pousada we visited in Tavira, we were able to walk through the lovely main rooms of the building and enjoy the view out back (although we couldn’t get down by the pool). It was another lovely outing.

The outside of the palace (now pousada) —

Some of the main rooms that anyone can tour -–

The lovely gardens and pool —

On Wednesday, after our free breakfast at the Sea View Guest House (for a $45 a night room), we had a great post-house sit transition with our home owner. We learned a lot about her visit to the States and realize, yet again, that the world is so big and there is much we have left to explore — even in our own backyard. She made the house sit very easy with her detailed instructions, and we feel like we have gained another friend through our house sitting adventures.

One of our main resources for our travels in Portugal has been Rick Steves’ Portugal book (Eighth edition). In this book, he describes the Algarve section of Portugal as stretching for some 100 miles along Portugal’s southern coast with beaches along the water’s edge and rolling green hills with orchards farther inland.  The actual coastline varies from lagoon estuaries in the east (like Olhao and Tavira) to sandy beach resorts in the center (Faro to Lagos) to rugged cliffs in the west (Sagres).  Based on this, he provides a map of the Algarve which divides and categorizes it into three areas — Worst (central section from Portimao, which is just west of Lagos to Faro), Better (Faro west to the Spanish border, including Olhao and Tavira), and Best (from Lagos to the western edge of Portugal).  We are not sure we would agree with this rating system, and haven’t had enough exposure throughout the area to say, but it made us curious to visit at least one town in his Best section.

With Lagos (LAH-goosh) being the town in the Best section that is closest to Olhao, we decided to head out for a visit.  This would be a quick visit, as travel time one-way is about 2 hours by train (actually 1.5 hours by train with about a 30 min layover in Faro).  It was worth the trip, as Lagos was a fun, active town to stroll around and we got a glimpse of some of the craggier coastline that marks the western shores.  The train trip itself was fun, as we got to glimpse other lovely  towns along the way (such as Portimao with its beautiful bridge) as well as a number of attractive golf courses.

See the photos below for some highlights of our quick 4 hours in Lagos.