Maggie's Farm

Several of the towns (mostly villages) in southwestern France were charming as hell. We did not spend any time in Bordeaux, which is a city. Our only time in Bordeaux was changing from the bullet train from Paris to the slow local train to Seurlat.

These village people view the EU inspectors as "Gestapo." They want to be left alone, but the ruling institutions will not. They warn eachother about EU officers coming to their farms, their cheeses, their meat, their jams, their weekly village markets, etc.

One of the villages we visited was Saint Leon sur Vezere.  Doesn't feel real. Pop 400.

Our delightful and adaptable guide and driver brought us there for our picnic lunch on the banks of the  Vezere river. Tomatoes from his garden, a little rosemary-flavored pasta, a liqueur his father makes, a local sausage, a farmer's cheese (certainly illegal), and a hunk of chocolate. 

The simple medieval Romanesque village church was lovely. That is bait for Mrs. BD. 

The Verzere River joins the Dordogne near Bordeaux. Yeah, of course the Vikings (mostly Normans from Normandy, I think) went up there causing havoc - rape, theft, murder and other fun things - in the 900s or whenever.