By: Elizabeth
We are coming to the end of our adventure! We left Slovenia and flew to the Dordogne region of France (10th country) by way of Portugal (9th country). We picked up a car and spent the night in the tiny the medieval town of Sarlat ready to begin our much-anticipated walking tour of the area along the Dordogne River. Together we’ve done a number of walking tours and thoroughly enjoyed them. This one was a little bit different. Our tour operator provides an app to follow and gives us specific directions and some land marks to follow the 8.5 mile course. But we got off course several times. Thankfully, Michael has a backup map app called Gaia that we used to navigate back to the starting point but it entailed walking on the main road dodging cars, inhaling car exhaust and taking us an extra 2.5 miles. As you might imagine, I was not a happy walker after the first day and the thought of another similar day didn’t thrill me.
This has just been part of our traveling experience, things don’t go as planned and the need to assess, re-group and make new plans to fit individual needs. As I did more research about the area I learned there were other things to do like canoeing, going to village markets, visiting caves and museums. While Michael was happy to hike everyday, I decided to venture out on my own and explore and do shorter walks in nature. Voila, being flexible while traveling goes a long way!
The Dordogne region in France is much sleepier than Paris and its surrounds or Provence, but it does provide lots of natural beauty and plenty of Michelin Star restaurants. One has to ask, “Can you ever get tired of foie gras?” That’s what this region is known for — foie gras. Duck and goose foie gras prepared in many unique ways with hopes you never get tired of eating it. Sprinkle in walnuts, goat cheese, some figs, an occasional chestnut purée and some wine from the region and you’ve got a picnic. It was tough, but we managed to eat at three Michelin Star restaurants! I took pictures of the food, but I don’t think they translate well to being there in person, fork in hand . . .
Michael completed most of the 60+ miles of the trek but did take one afternoon off to go canoeing. Who knew, but in a former life he was a Red Cross certified canoeist, so with him as “captain” we ran a 7+ mile section of the Dordogne River. Truth be told, the river is as calm as most backyard swimming pools, so his superior skills were never tested.
On Monday we made the drive back to the Toulouse airport for our penultimate plane trip, a short hop to Munich where we will fly home on Wednesday. We certainly did not plan it, but we arrived in the middle of Oktoberfest and our hotel is a short walk from this, the world’s original beer and folk festival. Neither of us are beer drinkers but we are heading over there to experience everything except the liter sized mugs of beer. Pics and commentary to follow. Counting our layover at the airport in Portugal and the three days we are spending in Germany we have now visited 11 countries in 79 days. It’s been a great adventure but we are both ready for the comforts, ease and familiarity of home.
I’m going to need to change the name our blog to 11counties90days!
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