July 2017.
As I may have mentioned in my posts before, I lost my travel
journal and with that many of the details of my earlier travels. But every now
and then, I’m making my own personal trip down the memory lane and trying to
pen them down. Being back from the long break in Italy, my mind drifts to my
long trip last year – Camping in the French valleys.
In the July of 2017, we drove down to Central France, in the
Loire region and then further south to the Dordogne. On an early Saturday
morning, we drove to the Newhaven port and crossed the English Channel on a
ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe. From Dieppe, we drove for another 3-4 hours and
got down to the Loire valley. We had booked a pitch for camping in Cellettes.
The campsite was very pretty. It was just by a river stream and an old stony
bridge that was decorated with flowers crossed the river to make way into the
town. The campsite was a green field full of different trees and flowers and
little wooden bridges. Following the stream, within the campsite, you would get
to a big woody area and little poodles where ducks and swans played.
Loire – Blois –
Cellettes
We pitched our tent in the pre-booked slot and wandered
around for a while. We drove to the local supermarket – Auchen and got some
provisions. Camping and cooking in the little play stoves are quite fun in
itself. The campsite also got us some freshly baked croissants and pain au
chocolat in the mornings for breakfast.
From Celletes, we drove to Blois and walked by the Loire River
and around the castle or the Château de Blois. It had big gardens and there
were many vegetables being farmed on the side. The chateau stands on the river
and people rafted along the river. I remember me and my friend had a tiff in
this big garden, can’t remember why now. I went to have a glass of freshly
squeezed orange juice and refused to speak to him for a bit. We also went to the
cathedral St Louis that had a huge rose garden on the side - Rosaraie de Blois i.e.
the Blois rose garden. I loved the narrow winding streets in this area that
make its way in between the classic French houses and churches up and down the
hills. Making our way around the town, we got to a big square on one side of it
was the Chateau De Blois i.e. the Blois castle and on the opposite side was a magician’s house. There were
few horses idling around in the square. And a few robotic dinosaurs made
appearance through the magician’s house windows much to the excitement of the
kids and adults, all the same.
For two days, we pottered around the many streets and
lanes of this area. The region in whole speaks of old wooden Edwardian houses,
little churches, pretty gardens, narrow streams, laid back cafés and some big Chateaus
and cathedrals. The weather was a bit grey and on the last night on Cellettes,
we got some torrential rain. We cooked inside our tent, tiptoed around to get
to the toilets etc. There were some loud Germans (we think) on the nearby tent
and they got louder and louder by the hour. My friend got so annoyed, he went
over to their tent and asked them to shut up in a heavy angry voice. Lol!
Dordogne
Next morning, we made our way to the Dordogne. On our way,
we saw many sunflower fields. I was very eager to see the sunflower fields of
which I had heard so much. On our way, we made a pit stop at a café and picked
up which looked and tasted a bit of Aloo Paratha! Talk about Surprise and
pleasure! We drove down to Rouffilac.
Years of experience have made my friend
know exactly which campsite to go to. And this one in Rouffilac was absolutely
heavenly. The campsite, called Camping Les Ombrages was positioned between the Dordogne River on one side and the hills
on the other. It sits pretty in the valley of greenery surrounded by mountains.
The pitch we got was also perfect. It was adorned by tall shady trees all
around it and also had a handy tap of water by the corner. There was a little
café cum restaurant on the further edge of the land. The best part of all these
campsites is there is no defined boundary. It’s almost like living on an open field
under the open sky with no one telling you to be in limits.
Chateau de Montfort & Montfort Village -
We drove up the hilly roads to Montfort. It is a small village
with ruined fort walls and impressive views of the Valley. There is a chateau
here called the Chateau de Montfort that stands at the highest point in the
village. If you take the narrow path by the castle and walk down to the river,
you come to big flat slab of rock and water whooshing by the side, apparently
used by the women for washing and bathing in the early 12th century.
Domme -
Speaking of views, the best view of the valley and river was
from Domme. Domme is considered as one of the most beautiful French villages and
sits high on the Dordogne River. The village itself is very pretty with its
little squares, village markets and panoramic view points. Also this village
has a cave system that sits right underneath the main square. From the
viewpoint here, we could see far across the valley and the fields of which
shone a bright yellow field of sunflowers. While returning from the village, we
chanced upon the same field. It was the best sunflower field ever! We sat down
in the field and had our bread and tinned fish with the sunflowers swaying
lightly in the breeze by us.
La Roque-Gageac -
As much as I loved Domme, La Roque-Gageac, another French
village seemed to be even more beautiful. It is a picture perfect village with
on the north bank of the River Dordogne and backed by steep cliffs. It is said,
this village has looked pretty much the same for over 300 years. You can walk through
the golden yellow houses with their traditional perigord rooves and as you walk
up the hill, you find exotic gardens that run along the river. The houses spreads
over the cliffs, almost becoming one with the cliff rocks. The sight of the
troglodyte fort is fascinating. Troglodytes are the people who used to lives in
the caves in pre-historic times. It is just mesmerizing to think about those
times at the backdrop of this pretty scenic village. 
We sat by the river and
watched many people canoeing along the river. I really wanted to canoe along
the Dordogne but still being a beginner in swimming, had to stay away from this
activity, much to my disappointment. There were many banana trees here much to
my surprise. I was telling my friend all about the different parts of banana
tree that we use in our Bengali cuisine. It was fun!
Sarlat -
Sarlat is around 8KM away from La Roque Gageac. And we
visited this town the next day. It is a medieval town with a main church in the
centre and glass elevator in the bell tower offers city views. It also hosts an
indoor food market. We walked around the town, my foody sense examining every
item they had on display in the food market. The primary delicacies of this whole
south central region of France is foie gras (duck) and cheese. Every restaurant
or café had foie gras on menu and I did have a full plate of it on our campsite
café. It was weird as I was eating the cooked foie gras on plate while the
living ducks were pottering around the café whilst I was sat there. Few people
in our campsite mentioned Sarlat looks beautiful in the evening with the lights lit up and dining there would be a good experience, though we didn’t really
fancy doing that, somehow.
Rocamadour -
One early morning, we went to Rocamadour, a small clifftop
village in this south-central part of France. It sits in a gorge above the
River tributary and is known for its complex religious buildings and you can
climb up the Grand Escalier staircase to access the same. Traditionally this
was a pilgrimage site but now a very popular tourist spot. The town looks
unique with its cliff hugging build. We marvelled at the grand build and the
views, wandered around the narrow up and down streets lined with many grape
vines and little touristy shops. 
We had been talking about the Gouffre de Padirac i.e. Padirac
cave for a while now and that morning we set out for the cave adventure. Upon
arrival, we realised this was not an adventure but a very popular tourist spot.
There was a huge queue and when we got the tickets, we found out, our entry
slot is after 4hours the same day. Ah! Chaos! Anyway, we wandered around the
gardens and fields and came back to the caves at our allotted time. It is considered
as a very interesting geological site in France. After a vertiginous descent of
103 meters by stairs, we followed our guide through the slippery rocks and dodging
and marvelling at the stalactites and stalagmites bulging out from the cave
walls. You then go on to a boat trip along the subterranean river with
spectacular views on the galleries. It gives you a spooky feel as you go
through the various rock formations along the dark water ways.
Cycling in Carsac -
We woke up in the morning and decided to potter around Rouffilac where we were camping. We had seen a bike hire place nearby and got ourselves a
bike. My friend had got his own bike and so we set off on our wheels. We cycled
on pan flat road through the stretched fields and foothills to the west and then back to our site. And after a quick lunch break,
we set off on our bikes again, this time to the east through some hilly roads, for about 50 KM in total. There were few hilly bits where I struggled a lot. I
have never used a gear bike before and getting used to it invited some trouble.
I wish I could cycle better and would have loved to go up on all the hills. But
apart from that, it was really fun!
Loire – Chateau De
Chambord
Our trip was approaching towards an end now. We packed all our
camping stuff and headed back home. On our drive back, we stopped at the Chateau
De Chambord in Loire. This is one of the most well-known Chateaus in France for
its French Renaissance architecture which blends the traditional medieval forms
with the classical Renaissance style.
It is the largest chateau in the Loire
valley and looked grand with its distinctive build, huge frontier, vast
gardens, lined up cafes and touristy atmosphere. We wandered around its
gardens, got ourselves a classic baguette sandwich, rested under the shade of a
tree. There were many heritage carts and carriages and at one corner, they had
few birds of prey on display. I remember this one particular owl that had its
eyes set on my friend. If my friend takes even one step to the right, the
piercing eyes followed. Uncanny!
Bidding goodbye to the French valleys on our last stop in
Loire, we drove back to Dieppe and then took the ferry back to Newhaven and
then back home. It was a long trip, a very different trip from my usual ones
and I loved every bit of it. The scenery and the feel of the place was unique;
camping amongst the striking green valleys, surrounded by mountains and distinctive
chateaus, getting provisions for camping, driving in circles for hours in search of cooking gas for our camping oven, cycling in the green stretches of land, having a
little picnic by the sunflower field, feeding ourselves a lot of foie gras,
marvelling at the troglodytes and just idling around the streets made the trip
ever so memorable. 
