Duo Does Dordogne

June 15 we saw Rebecca and Penelope off to the Gare du Nord and the Eurostar to London, finished packing and cleaning the apartment, then took the RER to CDG to pick up our rental car. The plan, for the next 3 weeks, was to tour the Dordgone and Lot valleys, in southwestern France, staying in Sarlat-le-Canéda, then Cahors, and then Toulouse, but spending most of our time visiting the many beaux villages in the countryside. It was a good plan, and we stuck to it mostly. But...

Vicki began having symptoms at CDG, then tested positive for COVID that afternoon. We were crushed, having been the most vaccinated, masked, and distanced people in France, and England too, nearly always eating outside, masked inside, etc. We continued on to Sarlat, where we extended our apartment reservation to more than a week to accommodate a self-quarantine. Her symptoms never got worse than a very sore throat and bad cough. No temperature and O2 normal. I didn't have any symptoms for another couple days, allowing me to visit the nearby Carrefours for a week's worth of groceries and other necessities. And my symptoms were very mild, the worst mainly waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. It never did. But I tested positive too eventually. We hunkered down, and, other than being sick, and concerned, enjoyed several days completely off. The main disappointment was that Rebecca and Penelope also tested positive and lost their Harry Potter visit reservations; but they recovered quickly enough to make the rest of their London visit worthwhile. And Jeremy never was infected. 

Eventually, we altered our outings accordingly, some days staying in, avoiding people, some days going out to the villages that most interested us but still staying outside, masked, etc. Masked even at the outdoor markets we got to. In any case, I'll be blogging about all the visits, and beaux villages, and Sarlat and Cahors, in due course. 

I never, ever, in my entire life, thought I'd be driving a Citroen;
but I did; it was fine; and French roads, compared with the ones
across the Channel, were a joy

For a pit stop before Sarlat, we stopped in pretty
Salignac--not officially one of the beaux villages,
but beau enough for me--and had a nosy; most
everything I saw 14th century

Inside the parish church

Hall near the abbey

Looking up toward the chateau

Thus; we proceeded on