The Bastides of Guyenne

"The bastide towns were founded in the 13th century in south-west France... The towns were built as medieval new towns, and had various functions, including improving security and safety of the residents and promoting trade. They were usually built to a strict grid layout, with equal space allocated to each house. The grid centred on a square, which often contained a market hall and sheltered arcades around the edges. There was usually a church, often fortified, built adjacent to the main square. Although not primarily fortified towns, the bastides often acquired fortifications later, especially during the Hundred Years War that raged in the region between the English and the French." www.francethisway.com

You may wish to stop reading here, but if you'd like to hear the next sorry chapter of my trip, read on...

After an early morning shopping trip to buy some breakfast supplies, we headed out for the day with our host to tour the Bastides of Guyenne. We drove through some beautiful scenery, past more vineyards than I could count, and through picturesque medieval towns and villages. (My additional pictures show the vineyards around St Emilion.)

After three very brief stops en route, we finally arrived three hours later at the beautiful medieval town of Eymet in the Dordogne department (main picture). It was 2 o'clock by now but luckily we managed to find a Creperie that was still prepared to serve us (though we had to ask our host if we could stop to eat as he said he wasn't hungry!). It was lovely to sit under the arches of the arcade that ran around the town square, but straight after lunch it was back in the car!

Our next destination was Bordeaux to have aperitifs with our hosts daughter. We were told it was only an hour's drive, but as Bordeaux was 75 miles away, and we hit the city at rush hour, the drive took us a further two and a half hours! Finally arriving in Bordeaux, feeling very weary after spending five hours in the car, we were looking forward to a rejuvenating aperitif, which turned out to be a cup of green tea or a glass of water! Never mind, we had a lovely time catching up on all the news with our friends.

As we were about to leave, our host's daughter asked her father what he was going to serve us for supper. When he told her he didn't have anything prepared, or any food in the house, she was horrified and directed us to a nearby supermarket where we bought some food (and wine!). It was already late, and with another hour's drive ahead of us before our return, we bought some simple salad ingredients and a jar of sauce to go with the spaghetti that our host had at home, for a quick and easy meal. Arriving home at 9pm, guess what? There was no spaghetti in the cupboard! But at least there was some cheese to go with our salad. And this time there was a bottle of wine!!

Having said all the above, our host really did do his best to look after us. He was just rather over ambitious in his planning of what we could fit in to the day. We spent six hours in the car, far longer than we were out of the car, but we did see some beautiful countryside. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, it was just that each day was like a new comedy of errors! You just had to laugh!!