The Garonne and the Dordogne

Monday May 29th - Memorial Day in the States.

We left the hotel in Cognac and journeyed down into the Perigord region and the town of Perigueux. Our hotel is right on the river and, as we face the back of the establishment, our window opens up to the Cathedral Saint-Front.

The original cathedral was destroyed in a fire in 1120 (yes, it's that old) and it was rebuilt in the form of a Greek cross, like St Mark's in Venice. It is half Byzantine and half Roman, and the form of the domes gave the architect, Paul Abadie, a good grounding for when he designed the Scare-Coeur in Paris.



As we drove into Perigueux we thought, what an unattractive town. After we checked in and

decided to rest up a while, from the heat of the last few days, I did a walk-about the Centre-Ville area around the cathedral. What a different place it is to the unattractive town environs, teeming with life and cute narrow winding pedestrian streets and many, many interesting restaurants. It seems that this is the area of the city's university and young people are all around, sitting in the open air restaurants while they consume an enviable variety of beer and wine selections.


I drop into Watson's Pub (www.watsons-pub.fr) which apparently was established in the middle ages, that's 2015 to you and me!. Now if you check that website and scroll down, I can assure you that is not me in a red and white rugby jersey - could be my younger brother?

Checking in at the bar, I order one of my favorite beers, Grimbergen. The only difference is that this variety is the rouge version and we cannot get that in the States. Rouge is a Iambic-style, highly acceptable in small quantities, and when one is craving liquid of the golden or red variety.



I then explored the Cathedral and was amazed at the size of the building for such a small-ish town, only 30,000 for the metropolitan area. The peasants must have had to contribute a great deal of their income in the early days to afford such splendor.


We came back later and ate at Watson's Pub in the evening, probably preferring Hercule's but that establishment only opened much later and who knows if they had Grimbergen? I consumed a 50 cl glass of Grimbergen La Ambree, a superior brown Abbey beer, and that we can get in Kansas, but this was Grimbergen on tap. Heaven!