68. Summer in South West France

Continuing our two and a half lazy weeks along the Dordogne river in Ste Foy La Grande.  

It is now August, the height of summer.  Most French towns, especially those in tourist areas like the south-west, have summer festivals both to entertain the tourists and encourage them to spend their money, and to compensate those locals who have to stay at home in summer and can't be tourists themselves.  The most common festival event is called a Producteur Marche - a producers' market and we have seen signs advertising these evening markets all over France.  They are all run the same way ... the Marie (local government) facilitates the events by providing the outdoor setting, tables and chairs, the entertainment and the complete clean-up.  Here in Ste Foye, the Marie also provides tea, coffee, water and the opportunity to take a town tour by lantern or torch light. 

I took these photos at the first market, two weeks ago.  The time was about 8.45 pm - still quite bright, and onstage from 8.00 until 11.00 pm was a Celtic duo.  They were very good and by the time they finished there were a lot of people dancing.  The entertainment at the second market, alas I forgot my camera, was a piano-accordionist from Paris. He was so good I bought Dani his CD - but don't tell her.  For those of you who don't know Dani, she is our hugely talented daughter-in-law who among a plethora of other instruments, plays the accordion.  But back to the market - you can see the stalls of the local producers.  I think there were about 10 or 12 producers at each of the three markets.

It is still quite early in the night and it looks a bit empty of people, but the crowds swelled appreciably after this and extra tables and chairs were liberated from the Marie, just up the road. 

Let me tell you what we had for dinner.  Firstly from the poissionier, a dozen oysters each, au natural, with lemon juice and black pepper, plus a shared serve of mussels.  With this we had a stick of fresh bread from the boulanger, and a bottle of wine from the vigneron.  That was entree.  We had duck breast for mains with potatoes roasted in duck fat (cholesterol - yes, I know!).   Most people would stop there but not us.  The patissiere had two types of cakes, fresh from the oven.  I chose the chocolate walnut tart topped off by surprisingly good coffee from the Marie.  After a second bottle of wine we toddled home - all of 200 metres away.

What did we eat at the second market, the one with the piano-accordionist?    Well, the oysters were once again too good to pass up.  I was looking forward to snails but the snail-man wasn't there so we opted to share a second serve of oysters.  Next was a "to die for" plate of goats cheeses - some with garlic, others baked hot in the oven and served on toast, garnished with salad.  Very yummy.    And for mains .... we shared a plate of beef osso bucco from the bouchier (butcher) which was served with home-made chunky chips.  No wonder I've put on weight.  Yes, we had freshly baked bread and local wine and Paul even purchased a bottle of beer from the local maker of beers and lemonades.  We tasted it a couple of days later and threw it out.  For people just learning to like an occaisional beer, it was terrible!  

So tonight will be our final Producteur Marche in this part of the world.  What will I have?  Home made sausages?  Goats cheese, again?  Oysters, again?  Will the snail man be there?  Maybe steak or even rissoles?  Maybe a salad?  Oh, how hard it is to choose ... !

But in the meantime ...

This lovely building houses the Museum of the River and the Vine.  It was tiny but very, very good.  The building was originally a wine warehouse serviced by the river barges of the Dordogne.

And looking across the Dordogne, under one of the two bridges at Ste Foy.

About 20 km down the road, we found the remains of a canal and its locks.  It once provided a safe passage for boats at a particularly dangerous part of the Dordogne.

Sadly, it went out of use in the mid 1800's when railway transport took over.

But it had a particularly pretty lock house.  This one could almost have won my "Prettiest Lock Keeper's House" competition.

There are lots of hydro-electric power stations along the mighty Dordogne.  This is the one closest to Ste Foy La Grande.  Because it is quite close to the sea, maybe 80 km, the land is quite flat and therefore the dam wall had to be made quite high to facilitate the power generation.  In fact, it had to be 12 metres high.  

12 m is a pretty big jump for a migrating salmon or eel.  You won't believe this, but on the left of the dam is a fish elevator (yes! an elevator) and on the right, there is an eel ladder!  It is too complicated to explain here how it works, but the migrating fish are encouraged to swim into a container, lifted up 12 m, and then released on the high side of the dam to continue their journey upstream.  The eels, on the other hand, are provided with an angled plank on which there are pegs for them to wrap themselves around and "climb" the 12 m to the upper level.  Amazing!

This is the shallow, rocky Dordogne just in front of the power station.  This is the area that was made navigatable by the lock (shown previously).

We stumbled across this colourful ceremony taking place on the steps of the Marie, last Saturday morning during the regular town market.  People appeared to be being inducted into various guilds - like the Hunters' Guild and the Wine Makers' Guild.  At least, that's what we think was happening.  It was very colourful and drew a big crowd.

And last Sunday we went out for lunch.  Other than the three Producteur Marches, I have cooked every night.  It has been so good to have plain old home cooked food after a month of hotels and restaurants every night in Spain. 

This is Helen on the left.  She lives in Fez, Morocco and manages the letting of vacation properties, called riads, in the Fez medina. She is a friend of Sandy McCutcheon, late of the ABC and now a resident of Fez and Bordeaux.  On the right is Graeme, joint owner of the apartment we are staying in with his wife Alex.

More lunch photos coming up