The Duck Farm is open again. Yee Haa! They hadn’t closed, they were just taking a week’s holiday! Sunday lunch, here we come! We took Angelique and Ingrid with us. They are too busy with their lovely new house to be looking for dining possibilities. They are happy to let us do the research! Absolutely superb! We were joined by 16 motorcyclists from Brive on a Sunday outing. The place was full (as usual) and we spent a happy four hours on the five course set lunch.
That included an aperitif, soup, fois gras, magret of duck, huge cheeses, pudding, wine and coffee. The wine kept coming. Finish one bottle and another appears on the table as if by magic! But the thing that sold it for me was the dessert. I chose the crème caramel…
They gave us a WHOLE tray full. To be fair, three of us chose that sweet, and we were the last customers eating. I guess they didn’t want to store half a slab till Tuesday! So it was whacked on a plate and placed neatly in front of me! RESULT!
To round off the event, we discovered that the restaurant is “cash-only”. No credit cards! Excellent! Except, as you have probably guessed, Angelique had no readies on her and I was €36 short of the full amount. Well, that was last Sunday. As I write this, it’s Wednesday and we’ve just got home after two days locked in doing the washing up!
It’s hot here and for the last few days the thunder storms have built up in the late afternoon. The skies go dark…
.. and the electrical fireworks begin. This is often, but not always, followed by wind, rain and/or hail. Last night there was a massive storm, over to the East, in the direction of Cahors. But here in Anglars-Juillac, we largely escaped the rain. This pattern of weather has brought out some unwanted, flying critters which seem intent on draining half of Glenda’s blood supplies. Perishing moustiques! A trip to the local pharmacy is required. As we walk in to the shop, right in front of us, there is an entire wall of anti-mozzie stuff facing us.
Pills, lotions, sprays, pumps, aerosols, anti-histamines, citronella products – you name it, they sell it! Clearly, there is a problem locally! Personally, I just stick close to Glenda. She’s a mozzie magnet! They ignore me – more or less!
I mentioned last night’s storm over to the East of us. Well, today we went East to Luzech for lunch and a walk. Calories in, calories out (theoretically). There is a lovely looping road through quiet garden properties and vineyards. This follows one of the meanders in the river. In past years we have done this on bikes but this time we are on foot. It takes longer to walk than cycle and you don’t get the self-generated breeze. It was uncomfortably hot. But the reason I started on this subject was two-fold. First the ground was absolutely saturated. Massive puddles everywhere. This must have been the centre of last night’s tempête violente!
The second point relates to the geography of the area. This map shows our “circular” walking route:
It was about 5 km around. Luzech “high street” is about 200 m long between the bridges at A and B. It is known locally as La Place du Canal. And that is because, many years ago, some bright spark decided to make an aquatic short cut from A to B thereby saving 5 or 6 kms of difficult sailing. The canal (Canal d’Olt) was still in use up to 1929, but it was eventually filled in in 1950.
An old painting of the Canal…
And as it looks today from a similar position…
Our lunch stop location is marked (approximately) on both views with a red spot.
There are so many things I want to say about this place, I don’t know where to begin.
Back to the hot walk for a moment. The red line in the map above traces our walk. Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed a tiny deviation about half way round. That is at the church of St-Vincent-Rive-d’Olt.
A tiny oasis of shade where we sat for a while contemplating life, the universe and how to get back to the car (the green spot on the map)!
The name of the church and of the Canal give away another secret. The River Lot used to be called the River Olt. Clearly some government employee spelt the name incorrectly on some official document many years ago and “OLT” became “LOT”! An easy mistake, especially after a morning in the local café-bar!
The other way the geography of this area has been “harnessed” is by a barrage and a tunnel from the upstream side of the loop under the hill taking water to the hydroelectric station a couple of hundred metres away on the downstream side. This tunnel is more or less parallel to the old canal system but a little to the north.
Barrages, weirs and hydroelectric schemes, (of which there are a lot on the Lot, even on relatively small dams) impede navigation. A scheme was proposed by the Association Aménagement Vallée du Lot in 1973 to renovate, upgrade or rebuild the system of locks on the river. A total of 57 locks, when all functional, will allow boats to navigate from upstream of Cahors to the Garonne – a distance of over 260 kms. But these things take time. Half a century so far! Of course the first 20 years were spent getting approval and a budget from the French government!
The “improvements” here at Luzech will prove the most challenging. Re-opening the full loop to navigation has been vetoed on environmental grounds. Digging up and restoring the original canal would cause absolute chaos in town. The only remaining option would appear to be the construction of a 11.3 m deep lock giving access to a new 200 m tunnel. However, I bet this will cost more than the originally approved budget of 120 million Euros which was to cover the upgrade of the entire length.
Before I stop this episode, I have some advice for wannabe authentic, rustic French locals near here – Chabrot!
In France, Faire Chabrot consist of pouring some red wine in your soup bowl as you are about to finish. No spoons, no stirring. Two hands on the bowl. Swirl a few times – then drink directly from the bowl! I’ve done it three times on this trip. Basically raising eyebrows all round, with the more alert onlookers phoning for the men in white coats!
But it’s GOT to be done!
To balance your calorie intake you’ll have to walk miles, sorry kilometres.