Brive-la-Gaillarde Tuesday

 

 

 

It’s very easy to get distracted.  Fortunately we had no particular plans today because, at one stage, we chose not to go the way “she” told us to. We saw a sign to a medieval village and followed that. On the way into St Leonard de Noblat we passed a very long viaduct. Had to make a few funny turns to get back to a good vantage point, upsetting one driver when we pulled over (to let him pass and to allow us the time and space to turn).

 

 

 

The French drivers seem to be getting worse and more impatient the further south we get. There have been a number of times when, while sitting on the 90kph speed limit, we haven’t even been able to see the grill of the car behind us.

 

 

 

Back to our detour, we wound our way ‘round to just near the centre of town and parked the car. We wandered over to a tent that was offering local produce tastings, meat, pate, almond biscuits, cake etc and felt that we should support the local cause and try some. The “man” was surprised and pleased that he could add Australian visitors to his list.

 

 

 

 

We explored the village and watched people go by while  having coffee at one of the cafes. Very worthwhile stop. St Leonard de Noblat is mentioned in a book we picked up, of the “100 most beautiful detours in France”.

1. We set off again, towards the village we were heading to originally, Meymac. Not sure if “she” cracked it, but she found some more very narrow, winding roads to send us along, even trying to send us up even narrower private roads. We were too smart to fall for that one. As we were not sure where we were heading for, or where to park in Meymac, we just followed our noses. We just managed to fit and get up one very narrow steep road, first gear. Any steeper and the car wouldn’t have made it. Found a good parking spot at the top and had a look around. Maymac happens to be in the book mentioned above. It was a village we saw on the internet that looked interesting, so we chose well.

We spent some exciting time at the “lavagerie” on the outskirts of Brive on our way to the B&B Hotel, but at least we have all clean clothes again.