Sarlat: Day 2

    Our last day of our little pre-semester trip we went canoeing in the Dordogne! It was so beautiful! The river is very slow and sleepy so it looks like glass, with masses of trees surrounding it, and the sunlight on the water that’s so clear you can see all of the fish swimming on the bottom—heavenly!  We went for 14 km (approx:9 mi) and because we were in no hurry to row--it took about 3 hours. It was so peaceful and nice to have our massive group broken up for a bit…because as much as I like non-stop giggle fests, I was very ready for some peace and quiet. 

    

    After we finished we drove back to Sarlat for some lunch and to relax a bit before heading over to the Chateau de Marqueyssac to see the fantastic jardins (gardens)!

  I was surprised to see that all of the gardens consist of are hedge arrangements. 

In my mind I had pictured the gardens at Versailles, however, it was still wonderful to explore all of the fun wiggly paths! We found some pretty exciting things:

Some disembodied heads

A magical tunnel

...and a couple other great things that I forgot to take a picture of--oops!

   It was great to be perched up above the river and see where we’d canoed earlier. The chateau is on top of a hill and the view from the edge was fantastic! We were all pretty tired out by the end of our visit so we all snoozed on the ride “home” to the hotel St. Albert.

    We had dinner at St. Albert and I think the best way to eat out in this sort of group situation is vegetarian. I don’t usually eat very much meat in my normal, non-traveling life and I was feeling very overwhelmed by how much meat we’d eaten this trip. So when the first course was fois gras, I felt terrible for wanting the mushroom omelet thing the vegetarians in our group were served, because fois gras is supposed to be a delicacy that you should be very excited to be served…but I really don’t enjoy more than a taste of it. It tastes like a very rich butter/fat spread, and that doesn’t really appeal to me. The next course was pork with potatoes and green beans swimming in gravy, meanwhile the vegetarians got a massive amount of green beans with tofu and other veggies. Sad day, huh? That’s not to say the meat and potatoes wasn’t good, because it was, but I would never choose a meat option over a veggie one, and was just really wanting to eat a French specialty that wasn’t solely meat-based. On a more positive note the dessert was walnut ice cream with a raspberry sauce, which was quite nice. I think it will be super nice once we get settled in Paris and have more control over what we get to eat. I cannot wait to have a massive bowl full of just vegetables!

So tomorrow we are headed for Paris—I can’t wait! It sounds a bit scary though, now the real exposure and learning starts! I hope I’ll be able to do well and become a lot more comfortable with my French…or else I’m toast.