{"id":13958,"date":"2024-09-24T16:02:27","date_gmt":"2024-09-24T20:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/?p=13958"},"modified":"2024-09-24T16:13:26","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T20:13:26","slug":"monday-september-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/?p=13958","title":{"rendered":"Monday, September 23"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


Balcons de L’Ocean at Biscarrosse
\/\/\/unhurt.washy.stuttering
44\u00b026’55.3128″N, 1\u00b015’14.3460″W

to

Saint Emilion Clock Tower
\/\/\/reservations.partner.gravitation
44\u00b053’36.1212″N, 0\u00b09’22.5360″W

to

Jardin du Sarlat
\/\/\/choppy.ranges.rock
44\u00b053’40.1964″N, 1\u00b013’5.0016″E<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we were up early for our drive from Biscarrosse to Sarlat – a distance of about 290 kilometres & approximately 3 1\/2 hours according to our GPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We planned to stop at a Bouygues Phone office to try to get our phone service sorted out but when we arrived at the GPS location advertised by Bouygues there was only an electronics shop & it was not open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My phone was working intermittently so I called the help number & finally got through to someone who could speak English. When I explained our problem she simply said to ignore the text messages. I told her our phones stopped working yesterday & she said turn the phones on & off & it will be ok. So, we powered our phones on & off & voila – they were working fine. This is a very confusing system. Hopefully we will not have any more service interruptions before we go home. Fingers crossed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway,  back to our travel adventures…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back on the road again, about 1 hour into our trip we drove past Bordeaux on a ring road & then carried on to Saint Emilion. This is a medieval town built on a hillside & completely surrounded by spectacular chateaus & vineyards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The place was so busy it was a challenge to find a parking spot.  We were just about ready to give up & keep driving to Sarlat when we came across a few empty spaces so we snagged one & went exploring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – our first stop was a small cafe to get some coffee & a snack. This photo was taken through the window beside our table. Outside the window it  was straight down about 100 feet to the street below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – after lunch we walked through the church that was across the street from the cafe. It was built in the early 12th century & is partially subterranean. The church & all of the town of Saint Emilion was recognized as by UNESCO as a world heritage site in 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – the exterior design of the church is very basic but it is massive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – the clock tower dominates the town square. It chimed several times while we were exploring the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above  – most of the streets in the town are cobblestone, very steep & no vehicles are allowed except ones associated the businesses in the town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above  –  bakery & cake shop in Saint Emilion. Places like this in France are almost impossible to walk past. Time to get back on the road again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – grapes ready for harvest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we left Saint Emilion we drove through many vineyards & saw that their harvest was already underway. This reminded Catherine of her time in the Loire Valley in 1980 with her dear friend Jan when they spent 6 weeks picking grapes at a vineyard. No automated harvest then – all picked by hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – arched railway bridge passing over our road on the way to Sarlat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We continued our drive cross country to Sarlat. It seemed like there was a spectacular view around every corner & at the crest of every hill. This drive took us over an hour longer than if we would have taken the freeway but it was worth every extra minute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above  – le Jardin du Sarlat – our b&b for the next 4 nights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This b&b has been operated by an ex-pat British couple for the past 16 years. Wonderful hosts in a very comfortable 230 year old home with lots of interesting stories about their life in France & a wealth of knowledge about the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above  – some of the buildings in the historic center of the town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was only about a 10 minute walk from our b&b to the center of the town & main restaurant area. We had a very nice meal at a place recommended by our hosts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – more of the town center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarlat has the highest density of listed historical buildings in France dating back to the Middle Ages. It is truly stunning.  We can’t wait to spend a lot more time exploring this area over the next few days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Balcons de L’Ocean at Biscarrosse\/\/\/unhurt.washy.stuttering44\u00b026’55.3128″N, 1\u00b015’14.3460″W to Saint Emilion Clock Tower\/\/\/reservations.partner.gravitation44\u00b053’36.1212″N, 0\u00b09’22.5360″W to Jardin du Sarlat\/\/\/choppy.ranges.rock44\u00b053’40.1964″N, 1\u00b013’5.0016″E Today we were up early for our drive from Biscarrosse to Sarlat – a distance of about 290 kilometres & approximately 3 1\/2 hours according to our GPS. We planned to stop at a Bouygues Phone office to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2024-france"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8ppZJ-3D8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13958"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13969,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13958\/revisions\/13969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}