It took us almost three hours to get to this cute little town in the Gironde Department where we will stay for three nights. The weather was beautiful and the drive quite fun as we went on some bigger roads this time.

We stopped at the small village of La Réole and bought some supplies before heading to our apartment. We weren’t sure if the shops would be open by the time we got there, and it was a good thing too. La Réole was quite an interesting medieval town.

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Why are we here at Saint-Foy-La-Grande?

Melinda had suggested we visit Saint-Émilion outside Bordeaux, but the accommodation was very expensive and most had no parking, so we looked close by and found this town and an apartment through AIRBNB for around $AU90 per night. We are the first people to stay here since the Australian owners bought it and renovated it. They live in Bowral for six months each year and the rest over herein this apartment. It is absolutely fabulous.

We decided we’d shout ourselves lunch at a nearby restaurant and ordered a petite pizza each. Look at the size of these!

We explored the town a little including the banks of the Dordogne River where we spotted four large (?) Cod swimming happily. The town is typical of the ones we’ve seen while dog sitting last week. It is a bastide whose plan of the city is one of the most representative of the regular layout of new towns built in the Middle Ages. The river acts as a division of departments; across the river it is the Dordogne Department and we are staying in the Girande. About 25 km away is Duras which is in the Lot and Garonne.

We read a sign about a secondhand book fair for Amnesty International and struck lucky with a couple of English books. Loads of English live in this area apparently.

This is our apartment and Michael acquainting himself with the English TV channels while I work out the washing machine.