Day 7: The Black Duck

We had lunch at the Black Duck, a pub and restaurant.  It's probably been the best overall dining experience I've had so far.  We were on our way to Salignac, but this place advertised wifi and so we turned around and went there.  It's a few km outside of Carcalet, or something like that. When we pulled up, it was full of lorries, so we figured it had to be good.  The guy spoke English there, when he saw us.  He said they get a bunch of English tourists in the summer, so he has to know it. Chips later told us that the owner is British. 

There was a bar when you first walk in, then some steps down to the restaurant area, with a TV in the corner.  We got one of those tables in the corner, where one side is like a booth, which is where the dog liked to sleep, so she came over and napped under the booth seat near mom.

The food was 13 euros for the lunch plate, so we got that.  There was already a bottle of chilled tap water on the table. 

Our first course was soup.  It was a kind pea-ish looking soup, with onion, and some meat in it.  It also had lots of bread torn up and soaking in it.  It was good.

The second course was pasta salad.  It was really long macaroni noodles, I mean, about 2 inches long, in a little whitish sauce.  There were also bits of egg, hot dog, tiny pickle, fake crab, and something else we couldn't figure out.  Maybe it was egg yolk.  It was quite good.

The third course was our main course.  It was described as pork ribs, but it was a pork chop, well done and dark on the outside, like there was a skin.  Maybe it was floured?  It was accompanied by fresh mashed potatoes and a light brown gravy.  Light in color and flavor.  Also quite good.

The fourth course was a cheese dish, which we politely declined.

The fifth course was described as a cherry cake.  It was in a low, round dish, like you might keep a washing scrubby in at your sink.  It tasted like there was a small cake there, and cherries were baked on top and the juices allowed to run through the cake and make it wet.  Also quite good.

Finally, we were offered coffee.  Again, politely declined.  I'd like to remind you at this point that this whole thing cost 13 euros each, and there was free wifi and a dog.  What more could you ask for!!!  We thoroughly enjoyed the ambiance and stayed for over an hour.  They even had a toilet with a seat, and soap, and a hand towel.  Definitely our best dining experience!

Day 7 (Tuesday)

Today was really fun.  We ran around a lot but didn't really stop anywhere.  We just kept driving around the little towns and chateaus.  We drove to Montignac and took pictures of the chateau.  There was simply too much climbing involved for us to want to do that again, after yesterday.  We drove around the Nut Museum too.  At some point we drove through a beautiful village with an old church, but everything is on a hill.  I can really feel my quads after all the climbing yesterday!

Then we headed back and found a sign for a chateau, so we followed it.  We had a great scenic drive, over a one-lane stone bridge, but the chateau didn't open until 2pm.  We followed another sign, another scenic drive - including a Scenic View official stop - but this chateau turned out to be a hotel.  Frank - it's in the middle of nowhere and very scenic.  Might be fun to stay there.  I think it said 3 stars.

We kept driving these little roads.  Several times we were almost run over by tractors.  We went towards another chateau in Salignac, but got distracted by the gardens.  Les Jardins du Manoir d'Eyrignac are gorgeous.  We didn't go in, because it cost 12.50 euros, although the parking was free.  There's over 10 hectares of sculpted gardens and 200 hectares of private woods.  There's 2.5 km and 4.5 km walking trails.  We decided not to walk, so I bought postcards instead.

We kept driving, but heading back towards Salignac.  We decided to hit the chateau there, but it was under construction!  At that point it was getting towards late afternoon, so we headed back to Sarlat.  We took Chips shopping at the new big Leclerc supermarket and then had supper.

Supper was ham, mushroom, and olive pizza.  The olives still had pits!  We also had a great salad with some dressing that was really good. Almost like a creamy Italian, but lighter and not Italian.  Which probably maked no sense. But it was really good.