Sunday June 2 WOW!!!!

What a magnificent day!!  It started with the 4 of us having had a great night's sleep. We met in the lobby of Hotel Chatelet and walked up to the Cathedral of Notre dame de Chartres for 9:15 mass in Gregorian chant. It was spectacular in a most spectacular cathedral. The stained glass windows and rose window are unbelievable; they are non-descript from the outside but full of color inside. Our only regret was the chill!

Outside the weather was perfect-mid 60s. Also outside we took time to gaze at the spires. In the 12th century fire, one of the Romanesque spires (fairly plain) burned and was replaced by a higher, more ornate gothic spire. The other Romanesque spire remains so the look is unusual and a little unbalanced. 

We hustled back to the hotel because checkout was at 11. After checkout and packing the car, we ambled back to the town center looking for coffee and something to eat. Le Serpente again seemed our best bet. We had a German waiter who was a little pompous!  I ordered "cafe au lait" and was corrected. "Cafe au lait," I was told is served at home while "cafe creme" is what one orders in a restaurant. We had a mixture of omelettes and pancakes and, of course, coffee. 

We walked back to the hotel, figured out how to leave Chartres (thanks to Winnie, our GPS with a British accent) and began our 5 hour drive to the Dordogne area to the medieval town of Beynac. 

We traveled mostly along autoroutes and stopped once for water, coffee and a bathroom break at a very nice service area.  When we got to the Sarlat exit, we began to drive along the beautiful , winding back roads of Dordogne.  For the most part these roads follow the Dordogne River through quaint medieval towns and by majestic manor homes. One in particular in Vitrac looked like a castle but seemed to be privately owned. 

We found Beynac fairly easily and wound our way up a tiny road toward the chateau to La Petite Versailles where we had reservations for 2 nights. Jean-Claude met us in the driveway, helped us into the Chambre d'hote, explained the details of our exceptional rooms and gave us a recommendation for dinner. He and I spoke successfully in French-Je me felicite!!  We left almost immediately for the village of Beynac and La Petite Tonnelle because it was already 7:30 and we were quite hungry!

We had a little trouble finding the restaurant. It was actually up the main avenue of the medieval village.   We ate outside on the patio of the medieval building cut into the rock. Dinner started with local wine and beer. In perusing the menu, we were having a few problems and were helped by the man sitting next to us. Peter Lecornic is from Montreal, traveling in France, his father's native land, by car and bike. Among the 4 of us, We ended up having fish soup, duck pâté stuffed with foie gras, fish with chorizo, mushroom omelette and a local lamb dish. Dinner was delicious and very interesting!  We got back to  our accommodations and crashed about 10 PM.