Because I can happily blather on about our trip…

I realized I’d been remiss in not providing a link (mostly because WordPress appears to have changed something and I haven’t figured out why the link function doesn’t work anymore).   Until I figure it out, here’s the info, old-school:  www.flipkey.com/marcilhacsurcele-cottage-rentals/p250972/    Or just google “Marcilhac stone gite” and you’ll find it.   I’m a huge convert to renting either apartments or cottages when travelling.  This was a beautiful spot and we really appreciated the excellent book and music collection.   Our contact there was friendly and helpful and we felt very at home.

More shots of the area:

The mill is still grinding flour for sale.  There’s a canoe and kayak rental spot about 5 minutes walk away and we did a two-hour paddle on the last morning.  It was lots of fun – until we went down the glissande and fried my husband’s iphone when we got a tad wet.

There are only two restaurants in town and one was never open.  The guest book said “You have to eat at “Restaurant des Touristes” so we made a reservation (in a town of 200 people, yes, indeed you need to make a reservation) for lunch.  Madame only makes enough food for the committed guests and we saw her turn away a few customers.   It’s the Marcilhac version of a Paris tasting menu – you get whatever Madame has made that day.  The tourists sit beneath the arbour at tables with tablecloths and the locals drink pastis in the bar area on the other side.  The food was excellent (I don’t like cauliflower but her breaded ones were to die for), the service friendly,  and the scene enjoyable (a group of Brits drove in to town for lunch in their vintage Bentleys).  We had such a great time we went back again later in the week.

There was a ruined abbey two minutes from our door.  Every town should have one.