A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
03/04/2024
We leave Tavers and the Loire on a grey, misty morning and head south to to Occitanie and the Lot to stay in La Terrasse, a chateau overlooking the Dordogne river, we're there for Pippa's birthday. The photo here shows Pippa sitting on the terrace overlooking the Dordogne, I think her face suggests we made a good choice.
The Château de Meyronne was first built in the 11th century but destroyed during the Wars of Religion in 1580, the current building reflects a 17th-century reconstruction. It's been a hotel and restaurant since the late 1920s. The hotel itself is very nice but it's the restaurant that is the jewel in the crown, the food was fabulous and the staff and the owners very welcoming and very, very knowledgeable about food and good wine pairings. We ate and drank so well, as some of the slides you'll see will attest (click to see the slides of course).
04/05/2026
Another day in Meyronne in our idyllic chateau except this day is special, it's Pippa's birthday.
However, I spoiled it slightly...
Sam had a dodgy tummy all night. I took him out four times, midnight, 1, 2, an 3am but then, perhaps because Sam was dragging me, perhaps because the stairs on the stone spiral staircase were a bit worn on the edges (after only a few centuries of use) or perhaps because I'd been limping for getting on for two months with a sprain, or tendonitis, in my right achilles tendon.
Whatever the reason I lost my footing, with six feet to go, and slipped, spraining what I'd hitherto called my 'good ankle', and plunged headfirst down the stairs. I had to sit for a moment in a cold sweat - it was more than a little painful - and then hobble out to let Sam be sick and do his thing.
That spoiled things because then Pippa, on her birthday morning, had to take out Sam the next several times; hence the first photos in the slide show that have a time-stamp around 5am. So, for the next 4 days I had two limps 😉