Week-end in Perigord Noir
This week-end, we went to see friends and their little boy on vacation near Sarlat in the Black Perigord. We drove there by motorbike, it took us about 3 hours. We went from Toulouse to Cahors on the road N20. We then joined Sarlat through a little departemental road. We crossed the rivers Garonne, Tarn, Lot and finally Dordogne (people were having a bath in the river), driving in semi-mountains roads in perfect weather conditions. Wonderful ride !
The landscape there is beautiful.The houses kept their initial building type with flat yellow rocks, often having a little squared tower on the side and walnut trees around.
A lot of those houses have been restored lately. So the whole thing looks very clean with ancient style. There are also several prehistorical sites but we didn't have time to visit them.
Another specificity of the region is the local food. And that we tasted !
Gesiers, cou farci, magret de canard, foie gras, confit de canard with pommes de terre perigourdines (potatoes fried in goose fat). All those dishes based on ducks and gooses. Yummy !!! Not light but so good.
The lodging our friends were staying in has been restored since 1976. We saw pictures, they really started with a pile of stones invaded with the vegetation. I have always been fascinated with what some people manage to do considering where they start from !!
Last, but not least wonder of the week-end was our friends' 18-month old son.
He's not yet speaking (I should say not with proper words) but he is understanding E-VE-RY-THING ! I'm really amazed on how the learning of the language happens. And how communication happens without the help of proper words... Not only he understands what we are saying but he exactly knows how to express his wills and feelings.
I imagine the explorers who learned the language of some forgotten tribes have had to go through all this again... Our advanced languages (french, english, german, latin even...) are finally quite similar in structure, so, when you learn a new language at school, you already have a reference and that probably make it easier... But when you start learning your first language, you have no such reference... Impressive job for a 18-month-old kid !!
The landscape there is beautiful.The houses kept their initial building type with flat yellow rocks, often having a little squared tower on the side and walnut trees around.
A lot of those houses have been restored lately. So the whole thing looks very clean with ancient style. There are also several prehistorical sites but we didn't have time to visit them.
Another specificity of the region is the local food. And that we tasted !
Gesiers, cou farci, magret de canard, foie gras, confit de canard with pommes de terre perigourdines (potatoes fried in goose fat). All those dishes based on ducks and gooses. Yummy !!! Not light but so good.
The lodging our friends were staying in has been restored since 1976. We saw pictures, they really started with a pile of stones invaded with the vegetation. I have always been fascinated with what some people manage to do considering where they start from !!
Last, but not least wonder of the week-end was our friends' 18-month old son.
He's not yet speaking (I should say not with proper words) but he is understanding E-VE-RY-THING ! I'm really amazed on how the learning of the language happens. And how communication happens without the help of proper words... Not only he understands what we are saying but he exactly knows how to express his wills and feelings.
I imagine the explorers who learned the language of some forgotten tribes have had to go through all this again... Our advanced languages (french, english, german, latin even...) are finally quite similar in structure, so, when you learn a new language at school, you already have a reference and that probably make it easier... But when you start learning your first language, you have no such reference... Impressive job for a 18-month-old kid !!
posted by Sandrine at 2:44 PM
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