Day Eleven – No Soup For You – May 30, 2011

The forecasted thunder and lighting storms were nowhere to be seen this morning, although evidently it had rained a bit overnight. I was actually a bit disappointed; I enjoy a really good lighting storm.

Our mission for the day was to explore the southern Charente. We’d loved the Dordogne so much the previous two visits, we thought the south of the Charente would be as charming. We were wrong, it seemed.

One of the things I love about being in France is the fact that we’re no longer in England. I love living in London, and think that it’s a fantastic place and the people in Britain generally are amazing. However, when I’m in rural France, I want to be surrounded by French people doing French things. We found a cute village in the southern Charente, and found a restaurant that had a large outdoor seating area under the trees in the central square in the middle of the town, and didn’t hear a French voice the entire time. Even the waitress was English. We might as well have been in Eastbourne (which I’m sure is a lovely place, but it clearly isn’t in the southwest of France).

Somewhat disappointed, we got back into the car and programmed the next village on our tour of the south Charente. Actually, we set the sat nav for a town called “Montbrun”, which seemed a good distance in the direction we were generally looking to travel. The plan was to start driving and to stop in any likely looking villages that we passed along the way. It turns out there isn’t much between Aubterre Sur Dronne and Montbrun actually. The drive was pretty quick.

By the time we got to Montbrun, I was ready for an ice cream. This is easier conceived than achieved in Montbrun on a late Monday afternoon, when absolutely everything is closed. Except the Intermarche, which had lines the size of, well, lines in an Intermarche in Montbrun on a late Monday afternoon.

Again disappointed and this time ice cream free, we got back into the car and started driving back to Confolens. While the storm hadn’t arrived in the morning, it was certainly looking like it was trying to make up for lost time, with thick black clouds massing over the Dordogne. We made it back to the B&B just in time, as the thunder and rain started just as we got back.

We spent a few hours reading before getting ready for dinner. The plan was to drive back to Rochechouart for dinner at Le Roc du Boeuf, the other recommended restaurant in Rochechouart. We’d checked the opening times carefully, and as it was a Monday didn’t think reservations were essential. It probably would have been better, in retrospect, to have called.

Had we done that, we would have found, prior to the 35 minute drive that they were closed for no apparent reason on this particular Monday. Bugger. For reasons that remain unclear to us now, we decided not to drive back into the main part of the village to have dinner at the same excellent restaurant we’d eaten at a few nights ago, no, we decided to spend the rest of the evening driving frantically around rural France looking for somewhere to eat.

The only thing we could find that was open was the “Relais d’Etegnac,” which turned out to be a hideous truck stop with no restaurant that we could see. We eventually ended up at the Mere Michelet hotel and restaurant, with attached pub “Le Twickenham.” It was not good, although it made up for this by being very cheap. To be fair, for €11.50 we had reasonably passable steak au poivre with chips and a €6.50 demi bottle of Cotes de Rhone red. It’s hard to argue with the price.

After dinner we stopped in at the little bistro across the road from the B&B, and found that despite appearances, we love it. The Chez Eric bistro is run by Eric, who seems to keep it open as something to do in the evenings, and a place for his friends to spend time. It’s not posh, it’s not scenic, however it is friendly and fun. We spent a good two hours chatting with Eric, who told us about the new residents in town, the way the festival and Bastille day keep him going for the rest of the year, and other general chatter. I’m impressed with us – while we can’t necessarily speak French as well as we’d like, our comprehension is getting miles better, as we spent the entire two hours conversing almost entirely in French.

Tomorrow is set to be one of my favourite days I think – Cognac tours and tasting in Cognac itself. Hopefully the weather clears up and we get some sun. On the other hand, dark and stormy seem appropriate for Cognac, so I can’t really complain either way.