Davy's Dordogne curry house

February 22, 2012

AFTER four days in the Dordogne, we’re off to Spain. From our guidebook, most Spanish roadside aires look pretty unprepossessing so we’re not likely to be hanging about, but heading straight for the sunny south coast.

As usual we’ve had great fun with our old friends Sara and Roger and their very welcoming social circle. Highlights included a curry night complete with commemorative place mats hot off the computer, an initiation into the basics of wine-tasting (rather than guzzling!) and what’s becoming almost a ritual trip to the shopping centre at Trelissac, where Leclerc’s fish counter is a sight to behold.

  

Stuffed to the gills with a colourful array of species you wouldn’t see in a lifetime of British supermarket shopping, and occupying an area even larger than the inexplicable square footage devoted to loo roll at Tesco, it makes you yearn to be a better cook. Plus, there are no screaming kids. How do the French achieve that? And whatever their secret  is, could someone please bottle it and sell it in Salisbury?

Also obligatory for retailers back home ought to be a visit to the wonderful Maisons du Monde, where beautifully designed homeware and gifts are well displayed at prices that don’t make you gasp. I stocked up on girlie pressies to be left with our friends and collected on the way home.

“The last time we were here, I saw Elliott Morley in Riberac market,” recalled my husband. “That was before he was caught fiddling his expenses. I suppose he must be in prison now.”

Finally, I have to mention an extraordinary dog walk. We must have looked like the Magnificent Seven coming over the horizon. There were seven Brits, plus seven independent-minded mutts of assorted shapes and sizes, all except our one constantly haring off into the woods and tending not to come back when called. Glen preferred to try tripping people over with an assortment of sticks.

You could hear us coming a mile away as we toured the landscape around La Tour Blanche, following a local history route. We found a troglodyte cave, an old drove road with rudimentary seats carved into the stone lining the sunken path, and Neolithic grain stores that were holes in the ground just waiting for the unwary. Not much wildlife, sadly - maybe scared away by the racket.