Bergerac, France (Part 2)Continuing on from my last post, on Thursday we had a lazy day outside, and for lunch we made an incredible salad with chicken, pine nuts, homemade croutons and honey-mustard dressing, so lovely to eat fresh tasty dishes in gorgeous sunshine!
That evening we drove to Pierre's for a barbecue with a few other people, he lives about 40 minutes away, but it was nice to drive through all the vineyards whilst the sun set. He made potatoes and ratatouille, and on the barbecue we had steak, beef kebabs and some delicious sausages that were really well seasoned and flavoursome. Two of the other guests brought a cake with them that was from a patisserie, and was similar to a cheesecake, but with very light sponge on the base, and more custard to the topping. We drove back at midnight as we didn't want too late a night after our last couple!
On Friday Claire and I got up fairly early and went for a run in the country around her house which was lovely, although we got chased by dogs at one point! After we had showered and had breakfast we drove into Bergerac for a wander around the shops and town. It is really pretty, so I took lots of pictures of the buildings, and bought a cool black scuba-type skirt for only 15 euro. We had coffee and huge paninis at a little side street cafe, and then I bought some Easter chocolates for my parents and sister from a cute chocolatier called Jeff de Bruges (not French, but oh well).
Afterwards we went to Chateau de Monbazillac, which is beautiful, set among acres of vineyards up on a hill. We took a tour around the castle which was amazing, and then did a tasting of their signature wine - which is very sweet but strangely good, I normally hate sweet wine! It is made as a drinkable one, so is not meant as a dessert wine which is unusual, but I could definitely sink a bottle! We also stopped at a patisserie on the way home so that I could buy some cakes for Claire's family as a thank you present for that evening's meal.
We enjoyed the last of the sun, before getting ready and having a champagne aperitif and nibbles followed by a meal of pan fried duck with potato balls and celeriac puree. It was nice to eat with the whole family, I love the French relaxed way of life and felt very welcome in their house. Afterwards Claire and I went into Bergerac to meet with some of the boys for a few drinks in a bar known as PQP (Au Plus-Que-Parfait) which had a salsa class on when we arrived. We didn't get involved though, and stuck instead to shots and glasses of 3 euro wine - can't be bad. Despite me having an early flight to catch the next morning, we ended up getting very drunk again and slept at 4am, for a grand total of four hours before I had to be up and ready to go - not ideal!
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