November 3, 2012 - Saturday
Sharon here, We are on the road to our next destination, Girard, France.  We traveled mostly on secondary highways and passed through some very interesting medieval towns and through the beautiful Lot Valley.  There were many orchards with fruit trees and the vineyards were starting to be seen.  We are staying in a 'Gite' at a B&B called La Maison Bleue.  This home was built in 1900 and considered to be new by French standards.  The couple that own the B&B, Phil and Pauline had arranged a wine tasting tour even though all the wineries are closed at this time of the year.  We met with a gentleman, Cameron, who manages the Chateau de Touzeau a small family owned vineyard of approximately 4 acres.  Cameron has won several awards for his wines and he was more than happy to share some with us.  For those of you who love red wine, this winery is in the Cahors region where the Malbec grapes are grown.  Excellent wine!  We also stopped at a shop and purchased some walnut oil - between the red wine and the walnut oil, we think we'll be healthy and live a long happy life!  Phil cooked us a typical North Americian dinner, roast chicken, roasted potatoes and broccoli and cauliflower and apple pie and ice cream for dessert and of course all the red wine we could enjoy.
November 4, 2012 - Sunday
We drove to the Padirac Chasm today.  This is a very large chasm - 103m deep and dates back to the 14th century.  We walked down the steps until we reached the river at the bottom, got in a boat and floated down the river until we reached the end of the river and were then taken on a guided tour of the caves.  Unfortunately it was all in French so we didn't understand much of what our guide was saying, but it was really very interesting to see the formations.  We then got back in the boat and floated back up the river.  We had to climb stairs until we came to a landing where we could either continue our climb on the stairs or take an elevator to the top - we chose the elevator - actually we had to take three different ones to get to the top.  We then drove back to Rocamourdor which is an ancient city craved out of the side of a very high mountain.  We had hoped to have a nice lunch there, but discovered that the restaurants closed at 2:30pm and it was just after that so we were lucky
enough to find a cafe that served buckwheat crepes and they hit the spot.
November 5, 2012 - Monday
We were up early to travel to our next destination which is near Geneva, France.  Phil cooked us a very nice breakfast and we were on our way.  We were prepared for a long day of travel and so combined the secondary highways with the freeways and we still managed to make a 7 hour trip into a 12 hour one.  We once again wound through some beautiful old villages and through a valley that was dotted with estate type homes and gardens.  The south of France is very beautiful!  We stopped in Lyon, France and walked around the city to stretch our legs. We went into an Irish pub and enjoyed some beverages and also stopped at a cafe for some take away before heading back to the car.  The city was totally chaotic - it seemed everyone was leaving at exactly the same time to go home.  With the help of Beulah we were able to get onto the correct freeway system heading to Switzerland.  We thought we had given Beulah the correct address, but it seems she needed more than just a street name.....!  We actually only had a picture of the house where we were going to be staying - it was dark and we were up a mountain and out in the country!  We stopped at a house that
looked like the picture we had and were told that the one we wanted was just down the road.  We had
to let ourselves in because the owners were just getting back from England so we made ourselves at
home and were drinking wine and playing cards when they finally arrived home just after 10:00pm