Seven years ago, Roy’s sister Lyndsay and her husband John – two energetic, optimistic and successful entrepreneurs – bought an old house in Saint-Geniès, near Sarlat in the Dordogne. Transforming it into their dream home has been a labour of love, and for three days last week we were invited to share the dream with them.

If you plan to visit Saint-Geniès, you’d better make sure you know which one you’re aiming for! There are several; this is the one that’s 15km from Sarlat.

From Moissac, it’s a two-hour journey by car. Our first hour of driving was along pretty rural and often windy country roads; after we’d joined the A20, we made better time.

“The Dordogne” describes both the 483km-long river and its valley. It’s also the name of a departement in north Aquitaine that corresponds roughly with the former province of Périgord. It’s  famous for its rivers, castles and prehistoric caves, as well as for its agricultural bounty and distinctive cuisine featuring ducks, geese, walnuts and strawberries.

Saint-Geniès

What a gorgeous village Saint-Geniès is! – and as we’re about to find out, you could say the same of almost every one of the towns and villages in this spectacularly picturesque area. It’s the tail end of summer, but still the tourists trail down cobbled centre villes and along château ramparts, making memories through the lenses of their cameras.

The House

When I say an old house, I mean really, really old. The oldest part dates back at least to the early 14th century, according to the year “1302” that appears in one of the fireplaces.

Their renovation/restoration has been a while in the making – Lyn and John have a litany of stories involving planning authorities, French contractors good, bad and indifferent, border issues and other legal minefields – but now the house is tantalisingly close to completion. Even the pool is installed and heated, waiting to be cemented in and landscaped.

Lyn and John have the best of all worlds: they’re a two-minute walk from the centre ville supermarket, bars and restaurants, yet from the terrace at the back of the house they look on to natural greenery.

Why Here?

What brings a couple like this to invest so much time, energy and hard-earned money in a particular corner of a particular foreign country? It’s easy to see why you’d want to be in France – but how did they come to settle on the Dordogne, beautiful as it is?

The answer is that John had been visiting this part of France since he was a teenager; the mother of one of his good school friends – who now has his own house nearby – was from this area. So, Lyn and John have been visiting the Dordogne together regularly since they were a young couple in their teens, and later with their twin, now grown-up daughters. They say it took them 23 years to find this property.

They had me at AD 1302

Out and About: Day One – Sarlat-le-Canéda (or just Sarlat)

Our first excursion to the beautiful medieval town of Sarlat was after lunch that first afternoon, once we’d slept off some of the rosé that washed down our lunchtime baguettes, cheese and charcuterie.

The town’s local stone buildings have been impeccably restored, and much of the centre is pedestrianised.

After stopping at Sarlat’s enormous E. Leclerc hypermarché for oysters, we came back to the house to enjoy them, freshly shucked, as our first course for dinner. Then followed a coq au vin that John had cooked the day before, washed down by plenty of vin sans coq.

In the Dordogne, foie gras is unapologetically everywhere you look. Other specialties include confit de canard, magret de canard, pommes de terre à la sarladaise – the last-mentioned being a Sarlat dish of potatoes fried with onion, and sometimes also with garlic, lardons or mushrooms. That’s right: instead of olive oil, they cook in duck or goose fat here. There’s also the local cabécou, or goat’s cheese, and a delicious, creamy garlic soup that I’ve got to try.

Day Two – Domme, La Roque-Gageac, Beynac, Les Eyzies

With the four of us comfortably ensconced in John’s Viano and him at the wheel, we headed first for Domme. Officially one of les plus beaux villages de France, it’s perched at the very top of a steep and lofty cliff that soars skyward from the exquisite valley of the Dordogne.

And here’s a photograph specially for my mother, who remembers noticing how neat the farms were in France:

Lunch was alfresco at Le Belvedere, overlooking the valley: an assiette (plate) Périgourdine for Roy and John, salade du Périgord and a side of those duck-fat-fried Sarladaise potatoes for me, and salade Provençale for Lyndsay – plus a bottle of the local Domme rosé for the three non-drivers. (Around €100 for four.)

 

From Domme, we descended to the valley and to the fortress town La Roque-Gageac, built into a cliff and located right next to the river. (It, too, has been declared one of France’s most beautiful villages.)

Beynac’s magnificent castle offers more stunning views across the valley.

The village of Les Eyzies de Tayac, where a fossil of a Cro-Magnon (also known as “early European modern human”) was first discovered in a rock shelter in 1868, is the village that Lyn and John started visiting regularly about 26 years ago with their then-five-year-old twin girls.

There’s a lot of pork in France, and it’s generally excellent. This wild boar, or sanglier, was outside a food shop in Les Eyzies, begging to be photographed.

Sarlat Dinner Date

On Day Three, after a lie-in and gentle day at home, we took a taxi into Sarlat for the evening. First up was a drink and some people-watching on one of the big squares, then dinner at L’Entrepôte.

 

I did the €18 set menu, starting with the traditional tourrain à l’ail (creamy garlic soup) – great stuff, and it’s essential that you both have it if you plan on sharing a bed. Then confit de canard (duck confit) for me (neither of us can remember Roy’s), and, to finish, some wonderful Rocmadour cheese drizzled with honey and served atop fresh, vinaigrettey leaves with chopped walnuts and tiny strawberries.

And because it would be rude not to have a post-prandial drink, we stopped at the mightily cool Invictus bar before our taxi arrived to bear us safely home again to Saint-Geniés.

Saturday is Market Day in Sarlat

And it was fabulous. Much of the centre ville is lined with stalls on market day: interesting local food, handicrafts, leather bags, dresses and the table-cloth man I recognised from Domme.

I found a silversmith who made the interesting ear accessory you see below – a vine leaf at one end and a bunch of grapes at the other, fittingly named Bacchus. Being in a Bacchanalian mood, I treated myself to one. (Now I must remember to wear it…)

More food…

Having tried these figs stuffed with foie gras at Lyn and John’s, we bought a vacuum pack (€14) of them to take to South Africa.

It was over €12 for a slice of the herby, Cheddar-like cheese – the colourful array was just too beautiful to resist. Fortunately, it tasted outstanding.

If you’ve got some olives and some yummy dried sausage in the fridge, you’re ready for your apéro guests.

To end on a sweet note, take a look at this scrumptious confectionery from Maison Massoulier (depuis 1933), the best cake shop in town.