Home again!

I got home late Sunday night and am still trying to corral my thoughts so I can make them coherent in a few blog posts. Most importantly, I absolutely loved my trip to the Périgord, but more on that in a bit!

On a very sad note, remember I wrote about the local lady who went missing in early June - Lucienne - well they found her body last week on the forestry road between St. Pierre and St. Laurent wrapped up in a plastic bag! What the hell! My first thought was that she had been found by hunters now that hunting season has started but in fact the police had their eye on a young man who eventually confessed to killing her and told them where to find her body. He was doing work at her home as she was having it adapted to accommodate her disabled brother so I'm guessing he was always going to be a prime suspect. Without knowing the full story it sounds like she caught him stealing, he must have panicked - and that's where everything went sour. He's a 24 year old man from St. Laurent and while I understand panicking, and putting aside that he took the life of a good woman, what in the hell can justify (in his mind) destroying his own life and surely ruining that of his family!!! While I'm glad her children will now be able to give her a decent burial I'm so sad for them that they lost their mother in such a dreadful way!

I finished listening to Entitled and in many ways it just seems to be a listing of how people were finding ways to "donate" money to Prince Andrew who, it would appear, has always been an obnoxious w@nker. What is it with these people always having their snouts in the trough - isn't the trough big enough for them all to get their fill??? At the moment I'm listening to Frank McCourt reading his book Angela's Ashes and absolutely loving it, hearing him telling stories about his poverty-stricken childhood, but with his lilting Irish accent. I can highly recommend it!

Anyway, back to the Périgord! Well apparently there are four Périgords - the black, white, green and reddish-purple, the simple explanation being it refers to the different colours that predominate in those areas. We were in the black Périgord which, apparently, is the area where the most interesting historic attractions are and most of the over 1,000 castles!!! Can you believe that, over 1,000 castles???

The Périgord!

Our accommodation was ok but my studio could have done with a little TLC. That being said, my bed was clean and the shower was hot and since we were out every day it didn't really matter in the end. Our first outing was to the Cabanes du Breuil where the young owner showed us round the different "buildings" all made using the dry stone wall method. The land had apparently been given to his grandmother on her wedding and she and her husband wanted to retain the buildings as intact as possible to preserve them. These cabanes were sometimes used for storage and even lived in by itinerant farm workers, but one of their biggest successes had to have been as a backdrop for (I think) 17 films!

It was too cold to swim unfortunately!

The grandparents stayed true to
their desire to maintain the
authenticity of the cabanes!

The grandparents in later years!

Geese everywhere!

Les cabanes du Breuil!

After that it was back to our hotel/residence for lunch (the food was sublime, but more on that later) and then off to the Château des Milandes which was owned by American vaudeville star Josephine Baker! I get kinda fed up listening to audios or guides on these trips so I wandered off on my own, but I really want to learn more about Josephine as she seems to have been a very impressive woman indeed. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri and married at age 13! I don't know how she ended up in France but I see that there is an autobiography on Audible so I'll be listening to that after I've finished the McCourt book. She had, I believe, 12 children (10 of whom were adopted), had worked in the civil rights movement and was a very risquée star in France, earning what I would guess would have been considerable sums of money. Unfortunately she never kept her eye on her finances, repeatedly double paying bills from unscrupulous traders without checking and eventually was forced out of her castle by her unsustainable debt. As I say, she seems to have been a fascinating woman, so I'll hopefully talk more about her once I've listened to her autobiography. Until then, enjoy Josephine's castle!

Josephine Baker, 1906 - 1975

The Château des Milandes!

A falconry display in the castle
grounds!