A Journey of the Stamps

Our adventures began earlier than usual as we embarked on a journey to Sarlat, France. The scenic countryside drive (a.k.a paved hiking path see photo below) was about 90 minutes. On a personal note--I'm very grateful for Mary Grace's expert manual transmission driving skills on these windy, cliffside, tiny roads. She was amazing!

We first arrived at Moulin de la Tour for a tour of the nut press facilities. They only do these tours on Wednesdays and Fridays and I'm so glad we waited until today. It was really remarkable how they run the whole process using a water mill made of stone. Today, we got to view how walnut oil is made in a three stage process--raking, baking, and pressing. Our tour guide was really great with his English even though he wasn't so sure (he made us promise to come back next year so we could do the tour in French--we'll work on it). :) After the tour we tasted some of their oils and purchased a walnut cake that is made with the dried walnuts after the oil has been removed.

Water Mill and Raking

Baking and Pressing

Next on our tour of the region was the Les Jardins du Manoir d'Eyrignac, a beautiful French garden. Again, remarkable. These pictures hopefully give you some sense of the beauty of this place, but we both really enjoyed our stroll on a lovely, sunny day.

Next up was lunch in the town of Sarlat. It was really fun to explore a different French city that had a completely different vibe than the other cities we've visited. We had yummy croque monsieur and an omelette du fromage. Then, I ordered round two of the Nutella crepe for dessert. We strolled through some local shops before we headed out on our next journey.

We had this great plan of completing a mini-Amazing Race type activity. We were given a tour book at the caves a few days ago and if one collects 4 stamps he/she receives a special gift! SO, we had the caves and the gardens and we decided that each of us would visit one castle in the Sarlat region to complete the list of 4 and receive our one gift. SO, it was my task to take the tour of Chateau de Puymartin. I couldn't take pictures inside, but I hope you enjoy the exterior view. I learned all about the stone roof made from stacking large stones on top of each other and the ghost of the White Lady. Very interesting tour even for someone who isn't into historical stuff.

While in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, MG became enamoured with the paintings of Nerida de Jong, a friend of the owner of our vacation home. She and her husband graciously invited us to join them for a gathering of English speaking travelers that had spent the week in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. We were honored to spend our last night with them, so we wanted to leave Sarlat by 4PM in order to make it back in time for dinner.

Now for the rest of the story: Mary Grace was resting/journaling while I was on my castle tour. The tour took longer than expected and so when I walked up to MG after the tour she began reading from her journal "Alison's going to be super sad. She's been game show pumped about collecting stamps at various tourist attractions. She's at a castle now. One more castle and we get a prize...we have 10 to 15 minutes to see my castle which I really don't care if I see or not." Hence, the journey of the stamps ended. However, I'll be leaving the brochure in our vacation home for the next travelers to complete.

We ended our evening w/ gracious hosts, amazing food, and lovely company from England, Australia, and the US overlooking the Lot river valley. I can't imagine a better way to end our time in this enchanting medieval village.