Jeannine & Roger's French Cheese Odyssey

Cahors - 20th June

After three days travelling we took time out this morning to rest and update the website.

On our first excursion from the house we visited a lot of the places we had seen in 2018. All the Halles markets were operational which is pretty good for a Tuesday, but still they couldn’t tempt me to part with my money, not even for sheep’s tongues.

Cahors is a city of Secret Gardens and every June they have a garden festival. In 2018 we profiled one of the Secret Gardens everyday on our webpage. Today we went back to the Benedictine garden which has a book exchange for me to offloaded a heavy book.

As we walked around town we noticed that not all of the gardens had been lovingly cared for. For example, below is the 2018 Medieval Herb garden and the unloved 2023 version.

In June 2018 we attended a music festival, one of the music events was in a small playground garden; we noticed today that it has had a lot of time and money spent on it. The header photo of the goat and family is now a feature of the park, in the background you can see how well kept it is.

We visited our old apartment which was next to the witches’ garden; it never attracted many visitors because the communal rubbish bins were nearby and the local cats used the garden as a litter tray. Today the house looks onto a renewed garden, the rubbish bins have gone and they have installed a water tap and seating.

We crossed over the Valentre Bridge for lunch (I’m not sure why the café has pink inflatable flamingos) and visited the water source.

The photo below is a clock made of 400 various mechanisms including ball bearings; the significance of the paper is a geocaching thing.

Since 2018 the area has improved greatly with the restoration of a lot of the buildings, paved alleyways, flower pots and planters, removal of bin collection areas; even the dog shit was basically nonexistent. It's a shame a few Secret Gardens have been neglected and the intoxicated people lying in the street has worsened.

Cheese Experience No.60 - Two perfect cheese meals We took a punt on the pink flamingo café for lunch and ordered two croque monsieurs; they were perfect, not too much béchamel sauce, right temperature and you could taste the ‘grilled to perfection’ cheese. Lunch requires two photos because a rabbit wanted salad.

Our second great cheese experience was tea. We didn’t leave the house until 8.00pm and thunder had already started so our choice of venue was limited to the pizza café 50 metres from our door. Instead of a tomato paste layer the guy pre-cooks the base and then places a layer of crème fraîche on it. The photo below looks a little washed out because the topping of ham, olives and mushrooms is covered in emmental cheese.

In the 30 minutes from when we left home we had checked the car, dined and raced home between torrential downpours. That’s a first for us; normally we spend 45 minutes choosing a cafe and then get thoroughly drenched on the way home.

Essence of France Photo Challenge No.23 - The Family House Whether it be a chateau, medieval home or an apartment, the French have a lot of pride in their family home. Unlike NZers they tend to settle in the one place and stay there. A lot of the time it can be the French inheritance laws that determine where and how long they live there for. Homes are loving restored and often have beautiful gardens even when there is no land. Those that have land ensure that there is always a place to have outdoor meals and to relax and enjoy life.