Although I have the computer here, it is taking me around 1 - 1.5 hours a day, to research options, book it and confrirm it, a total waste of time. In the future we will do all the research and book our whole trip before we leave, but we did book the trip at the last moment.
I've now given up trying to book any bed and breakfasts> some of them look really nice, but when I email them, they either don't answer or they are already booked. Isabelle helped me find a better website than the Government run gites-de-france, but they are still all booked up.
I have spent hours looking for a villa for us for the next week, or a gite. The rural gites are quite small, and quite expensive for last minute bookings, so i have given up on them too (and the dont answer their emails).
So, we are back to hotels and I am finding that booking.com is the best place. We have been using 2 star hotels (but unlike the one that Isabelle works in in St Emilion),most of them are poky, with worn carpet, gard beds, hot hot rooms and terrible showers>
After much experimentation, (and talking to Isabelle), we are now looking at 3 and 4 star hotels. The interesting thing is that the are only about 5 - 10 euros a night more, usually have free internet access (the last 2 star hotel we stayed in, we had to pay 5 euros for a 3 hour card, we could only use the computer in reception, and then it wasnt a secure link, so i couldn't look at bank accounts or book any accommodation, with a credit card.)
We are staying at a lovely old farm house at the moment, in the country, 2km from a town called Viuex-Mareuil. It is about 1/2 - 3/4's an hour north of Periguex. Not country that would ride through, lots of farms and hills. This property is called Hostellerie de'Auberge de L'Etang Bleu. The hotel, which has about 25 rooms is on 10 hectares, with a lovely lake.
The owners are lovely and she was very concerned about my arm and me> We have lovely soft twin beds, its not stinking hot, great TV that the man came up voluntarily and put it on BBC for us, terrific internet access and even a bidet!
I got lots of extra pillows so I could make a nest to sleep in, and had a great sleep. We will take some photos this morning and I will add them to the blog later. Cost is only 68 euros (3 stars), but the catch is there is nowhere for dinner except here. But the meal was fantastic. 28euros each for a three course meal and 26 euros for a nice bottle of wine. I had asparagus, fried duck liver pate with crayfish tails for a starter (after a trout tartare (raw trout) amuse bouche, main of duck leg slow cooked in duck fat (yummy), then a huge plate of cheese that I couldnt eat. Peter had smoked salmon and beans and sliced duck, and chestnut icecream with walnut liquor (which was fantastic).
Today, we are heading down to Periguex and we are going to do some tourist things. This is the home of truffles, and old dead people (cro-magnan man). We are staying in a 3 star hotel - Hotel Bristol (75 euros a night)in the middle of the city, then to the Sarlat for 2 nights (4 star hotel), then Cahors for 2 nights, then a very expensive castle outside Cahors that we booked last week as a treat (200 euros). Dont know where from there.
We will be doing the pre-history tourist bit by car, because when I get back on the bike in 10 days, we dont want to do hills. We are working out how to get rid of our cold weather gear, so that I dont have to carry panniers (less weight on my arm). We are going to drop it all off at our hotel in Toulouse - our last 2 nights, hopefully they will cope.
On Weds night we went over to Arcachon on the Atlantic Coast, Absolutely beautiful, but our hotel experience was very unsatisfactory. We plan to go back there another time, on our bikes, but with pre-booked accommodation, for 3 nights, there is so much to see and do there. We can ride easily in one day from Bordeaux airport - if we fly in from London.
I'm going to stop drinking for a couple of days, the last couple of nights I've had breathing problems after dinner and we think it might be the wine and the medication inter-acting>
Must go and have a shower and go exploring in the lovely rental car (another saga, they told me there were no cars available when we turned up at the Bordeaux airpot - so I burst in to tears and went out to where Peter was getting the bikes and gaear out of the taxi we had to get from Pauillac to Bordeaux - 90 euros, so Peter went in, was a male and a lot more firm and eventually, we got a brand new big Opel - 2km on the clock, which was perfect, hopefully the insurance company will pay for all of it.)
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